Realm of Spirit

For a long time I have been thinking about two puzzling questions: What is the ultimate realm of the art of photography? How can an image transcend its visual reality to achieve spiritual expression? Since early last century there have been many photographers claiming that photographs should reveal the inner world of self.But photography is a form of silent art.Images can only be perceived visually,pictures do not speak.I always have doubts about how photographs can truly reveal the spiritual mind as I believe literate or vocal expressions can.

Several years ago I read a book by a well-known American landscape photographer that recapitulates his decades-long career as a photojournalist and later a converted environmentalist.On the front page of the book is a peculiar photograph of a lonely small tree withering and slanting in a desert canyon.This image looks starkly uncharacteristic in comparison with the other landscapes shown in the book.Only when I read a few fine lines of small text below the photograph did I understand that the author used this image as a metaphor to express his deep gratitude toward his aging wife for all the difficult years they spent together.If the author had not provided the statement,I never would have understood what the image was intended to show.This is a clear example showing that an emotional or spiritual state cannot be reliably and accurately conveyed solely through the visual expression of a photograph.This case is by no means unique.Unlike most great photographers in history,Edward Weston did not elaborate in writing on his own work,although his writings on the art of photography were prolific and insightful,even sometimes extremely incisive.During his life time,however,when facing the constant misinterpretations of his photographs by the media and the general public,this eloquent and brilliant master had turned unusually tolerant and even amiable at times.If “a picture is worth a thousand words,”photographers and viewers may likely have interpretations that do not necessarily converge.I believe,there are no exceptions even for the works of masters.

Since the dawn of humanity,all arts have been created for spiritual expression.With the rich history of the arts and of literature in Chinese culture,the expression of spiritual realm has been particularly captivating since ancient time.Spiritual implication through visual depiction or euphemistic textual description makes up the core of aesthetic connotation in Chinese arts.In essence,such aesthetic consciousness and significance have been revisited in the art of the modern photography originated from the west.The concepts of Alfred Stieglitz’s “equivalency”in the early 1920s and the metaphorical representation of one’s inner world by Minor White in 1950-60s remarkably share the same ancient aesthetic ideologies of the Chinese arts.There are no national boundaries in terms of the aesthetics for artistic expression,especially in photography.Transcending visual reality for spiritual expression is a common pursuit for all photographers.The mission of photography is to discover and present beauty through visual expression.The value of visual expression is to provide the sense of joy for beauty.

艺术的境界

多年来我一直在思考这样两个问题：什么才是摄影的最高境界？影像如何才能超越视觉的写真这一根本属性来表达精神与思想？自20世纪以来，已有不少摄影师曾经指出作品要展现创作者的内心世界。然而，摄影是无声的艺术。影像只包含视觉信息，照片不会讲话。影像作品如何能像文字或口述语言那样来传达高度抽象化的精神世界，我对此始终持有怀疑态度。

几年前看了一部美国某知名风光摄影师出版的回顾自己艺术人生的画册。书中扉页上的照片是峡谷间一棵干枯弯折的小树，看上去与书中的其他作品有些格格不入，令人费解。而当读到写在下面的几行小字时方知，作者以这棵风雨飘摇的小树来象征他与爱妻相依为命、共度岁月的感念情怀。倘若作者没有如此说明，我无论如何也想象不到这幅作品所蕴藏的真正含义。由此可见，视觉语言并不能完全替代文字描述来表达精神世界。另一个例子是爱德华·韦斯顿。韦斯顿是摄影史上为数不多的不讲述自己作品的大师。在其有生之年里，面对评论界及观者对他的作品和创作意图的种种曲解，这位能言善辩、著述颇丰的摄影家也只能无可奈何，敷衍以对。如果说“一图值千字”的话，那么创作者和每个观者都有各自的版本。摄影师可以通过作品来展现其所见，却不能单纯依靠影像来准确地传达其所思与所感，即使是大师之作也不例外。

自人类有史以来，任何艺术作品都是以美的形式来表达精神境界。在中国艺术文化中常用“意境”一词来评价作品的美学内涵。据一些学者的考证表明，意境作为美学用语起源于中国。千余年前，意境一词首先出现于一些论诗词的著述中。“意”是指作者在作品中要表达的思想、观念或情感等，代表着精神世界；“境”原指对艺术的修学、习练所达到的水平和境界，后来引申为与“意”相烘托的思想空间。在漫长的历史发展中，意境一词已经广为用于文学和视觉艺术等许多领域。虽然现代美学对意境有着多种解释，但多限于措辞以及分析的角度和层次上的不同，而对于意境的根本含义的看法还是很一致的。概括地讲，意境是指艺术作品中情景交融的韵味空间，表达的是触景生情、寄情于景的感怀。作为美学的经典词语，意境在摄影艺术论著中的出现无疑要远远迟于诗歌文学和古典绘画等领域，也代表着对中国特有的美学观念的借鉴和传承。

意境一词的中国起源和其独特的美学内涵令摄影界不少知名学者认为，中西摄影作品在表现形式上的根本区别在于是对意境的追求，还是纯粹地对被摄物的直接展现。在很大程度上，这个观点受到了自20世纪早期在美国掀起的所谓“直接摄影”运动的影响。而在对中西摄影艺术文化的比较研究中不难发现，20世纪20年代由阿尔弗雷德·斯蒂格里茨（Alfred Stieglitz）提出的“对等”的艺术思想，以至后来在此基础上于五十~六十年代由迈纳·怀特（Minor White）传承和发展演化出的“隐喻”的表现手法，无论在本质上还是在美学意义上都是与“意境”几近异曲同工的视觉表达意识。纵然西方艺术文化中没有意境一词，但我们很难否认西方摄影大师的许多作品中所蕴含的寓意深刻和韵味丰富的美学内涵，而且其持久的魅力也远远超越了影像本身。在视觉作品中力求超越实物的构成来表达精神境界始终是所有摄影师共同的追求。

在摄影艺术中，意境一方面代表着摄影师的精神空间，另一方面由影像作品唤起观者在思想、感情上的共鸣，这一视觉艺术表达的功效是没有国界的。而观者的感触又是游移多变的，受到文化背景、审美品位和生活经历，甚至一时的心境等诸多因素的影响；也往往是与作者的创作原意和情怀相互独立的。一幅作品无论出自何人之手，在某位观者看来也许在此时平淡无奇，而在彼刻却意寓深远。摄影是寻美的艺术；艺术的使命是发现和展现美，艺术的价值在于给人以美的享受。艺术没有“终极”，也不存在“顶点”，而是不断地受到新的创作思想的推动来得以发展和前进。