Street photography—how the value of image changes ...
Many young photojournalists complain that there is nothing to shoot.In my view，life is the simple thing you have to face every day.There is no need to have high-level theme to shoot，the charm of photojournalism lies in the fact that there are things to shoot every day.Nowadays，Chinese society is in an era of great changes in the human history：the city we live in runs in an extremely high speed and changes happen in every minute.Millions of population bring a large number of realistic contradictions，which let the news photograph exist everywhere—even there is no major event，or you don't have access to the scene of the historic event，you can also take wonderful photos if you want.In other words，as long as life continues，the subject for shooting will never be lacked.
Then what can we specifically shoot？According to my experience，I recommend to shoot something that has the characteristics of the times.With careful observation，the common things like street trees，billboards，electric cars and even logos on clothes are inadvertently conveying some slight sentiment and complex moods.All of the things that people placed in the corners intentionally or unintentionally have their own words.They have the possibility of reinterpretation，just like a set of codes of the city，which can give the readers enough imagination and a sense of ritual.This kind of news photography may not have direct photographs，clear information or strict timeliness，which may easily be ignored because they are too common.But as time goes by，they will be more and more valuable.Zheng Gu，a famous photography theorist and curator，said that he believes in people who shoot more.I am inspired by it.No matter you are intentional or not，the most basic property of photography is recording.Although you may not be aware of the meaning or the information contained in the photo，the property of photography has recorded for you.That's why you have to take more photos，no matter you understand it or not.There are many things we don't know how it will develop or what it means.If you try to understand all of them first，you will definitely miss a lot of things.In a word，the things that look meaningless today might have a great value in the future.If you put it aside and look back later，it is the history.Just as Susan Sontag said，“Time will eventually position most photos—even those at amateur level，at the level of art.”
In the 1980s，I stood on the top of a tall building which was still in construction at the Dongmenkou in Ningbo.I took a picture of the city center by splicing.It was just for fun at that time，but today，I am moved by it.Some scenes are too familiar to us because we live there.We pay no attention because of the familiarity.When we look back，that era was gone.However，what was hidden in these photos make you hear the footsteps of China's progress with the changes in city.The electric motorcycle series which won the China News Award in 2015 was originally a series of photos of street photography.At first，I just shot these pictures out of interest，but only a few years later I realized that the safety problem of electric motorcycle has become a big social problem.I did not take this group of photos intentionally，because I found that I can observe and record our daily life on the road，the story and fate of the characters carried by various types of vehicles as bystanders.I tried to show the progress of the city and people's attitudes towards life by recording the state on the road.Therefore，there is an image of“electric motorcycle”.Furthermore，if I get some new understandings in the future，those photos can also be formed to other topics.