DSLR Photography Forum

Hey all,

I had to do an assignment as part of an application for a program in photography. They had us
do a visual interpretation of one word,
"Wendepunkte" in German.
the closest translation is probably "turning point",
turning points can occur in history, or in an individual's live. Mechanically the term can
also be used to refer to any point of rotation etc.

after some thinking and considering feasability in the time frame given,
I decided to do a collage on the communist revolution in China. I used some of the pictures I shot on my
recent trip to some historic villages. Nobody seems to have thought of cleaning the walls of communist
propaganda slogans there, even when over time the popularity of the Party has fluctuated.

the other thing I am alluding to is the "page of history turning".

I know that for a non Chinese it is pretty cryptic, but the references for Chinese are as obvious
as say a swastika to a German, or Uncle Sam to a US American (of course all with different meaning).
I will not go into all the detail here (unless you want me to?)

Anyway, I have to send it off today, and aside from minor changes I will leave it alone now.
As it is my assignment I did not want to ask for
suggestions and criticism before it was done.

Now you can just enjoy it,
any comments will as always be very welcome!

Uli



Dong Fang Hong (Red Orient)

I really like the way that it's put together and structured. Having done a much simpler job with my "spadina" layout, I can really appreciate just how well done and how much work this is. It's a really strong presentation and an excellent answer to the challenge of the assignment.

As you say, the symbols themselves aren't something I understand (the book metaphor excepted ) but I'm curious about the reaction from the people you have submitted it to as well as the thoughts of your students. Is this something you would show them?

I like very much your work in this one Uli. I was just wondering about the format you used for this collage. Is this common in Chinese art?

Hey Mat, Irma,

To answer you question, Mat, I don't feel like I will show this to my students. I don't tend to make friends with them but keep our relationship a "clean" teacher-student one.... Personally, I feel I would make myself very vulnerable by giving away something so privat as my pictures, especially ones like the "going to work" series.

Irma, I thought of a script or painting roll when I was making this, and I would have liked to actually mount it on two dowels, left and right, but rolled work is not accepted in the application. So I printed it on 30x45 cm.
For better understanding I added extracts from a Chinese folk song of the time.

here is the version I submitted:



The English translation of those lines is

"The sun rises over the red [communist] Orient,
Mao Ze Dong has emerged.
The Communist party, like a sun,
shines bright over the whole country"

I wonder if that helps to understand?

Greetings!

Uli

Now it makes more sense Uli....
Well, not because I understand Chinese... but because the whole arrangement with text and image gives the idea.
Very clean layout I would say.

btw, When I saw your picture first time, I thought about a paper kind of parchment rolled in two dowels, that is why my question.
The format works well.

Good Luck!
and keep us informed about the result...