Among the many interpretations, aura is considered by the German Georg School to be the "breath of life", a kind of emotion and atmosphere that connects various opportunities in artworks, making you halt and be moved. To put it simply, aura - in Eastern classical aesthetics, is a kind of induction between the heart and the object. In the spiritual world of Chinese people, everything is related to the intersection and induction of the inner heart and the outer world.
Opening the first page of A Ballad, there is a mirror in a shabby alley, as if it is a bright lens, focusing on the feelings and scenes of this community. This is the opening chapter of this collection. In another picture next to the mirror, a cat is looking down, with its eyes tightly fixed on the every move of this stranger. Wu Jianbin puts the two pictures together with interesting implication, making the two pictures have a strange echo, bringing huge surprise to the audience.
American photography theorist John Szarkowski metaphorically compares photography to window and mirror. He pointed out that window is the channel for the photographer to explore the existence of the external world and the real world, and mirror is the projection of the photographer's inner consciousness.
Curator Chun Wai pointed out: "Wu Jianbin's A Ballad focuses on the mottled years of Shanghai's old districts. The whole book was born out of inspiration. This inspiration comes from those long and dull years, revealing the thickness and warmth of ordinary people's lives, those people and things that are ignored. The image processing method is implicit and generous, broad but delicate, and the content is arranged like long and short sentences. Listening to these silent whispers is more than just a visual journey."
Figures, landscapes, and still life are the three major types of paintings in traditional Western paintings. Wu Jianbin's image world has taken a different approach but has a good grasp of it. Some scenes and characters in A Ballad are gentle and subtle, and ordinary objects are also the focus of his photos. Even some ordinary cups and tiles, a shirt, ordinary plastic basins, and even a pinch of afternoon light, are also grasped accurately, which is also where his aura lies. Here, it is worth noticing that the observation emphasized in Western visual art is the observation of the eyes, while Wu Jianbin adheres to the observation of the mind, which is a way of quiet observation.
In Wu Jianbin's language of lens, time can be folded and gently kneaded into a mass. In this kneaded time, the poet can travel through it and still bid farewell to the lost days. This dreamlike private talk is located on the real and vivid life, but it does not appear empty.
A Ballad is an urban ballad written in a visual form. Wu uses photographic elements such as color, shape, light and atmosphere throughout the album. The juxtaposition of blue and scarlet - the interweaving of cold and warm tones, like the duality of traditional poetics, is his personal attempt and breakthrough in creation, which starts into another level of visual relationship and imagination.
With the consent of Mr. Wu Jianbin, this photography exhibition will also display black and white series of pictures outside the album. Please do not miss this feast of images.
Exhibition Scene
About the Artist
Wu Jianbin
Born in 1962, from Weinan, Shaanxi
Live in Hong Kong for 30 years
Doctor of Business Administration, Senior Accountant
Well-known financial expert, adjunct professor of Xi'an Jiaotong University
Novelist, freelance photographer, documentary photographer
Has nearly 30 years of photography experience
Member of China Photographers Association
Executive Chairman of Entrepreneurs Photography Association (Shenzhen)
Vice Chairman of China Entrepreneurs Photography Society
Vice Chairman of Shanghai Art Photography Association
Director of China Art Photography Society
The photography albums published include Hong Kong Chronicles, Hong Kong, Millennium Pastoral Road, and Walking in the Old Alley.
The literary works published include Son of the Sea, Dragon of the Sea, Soul of the Sea, Boss Confusion, The Game, and If the Heart Keeps Quiet, the Wind Can Do Nothing.
The management works published include Financial Wisdom, My 1000 Days in Country Garden, and The Essence of Financial Management.
Many works were selected into the book Contemporary China published by La Martiniere Publishing House in France.
Many works were selected into the book Shanghai: Portrait of a World City published by Hong Kong famous photographer Liu Xiangcheng.
In 2010, he won the Outstanding Photographer Award in the Social Life Documentary Category of the 10th Pingyao International Photography Festival.
In 2012, he won the Outstanding Photographer Award at the Taipei International Photography Festival.
In 2021, he won the China Photography Golden Road Photographer Award.
In 2021, his works were selected into the Collection of 100 Works of 100 Chinese Photography Masters.
