Everyone who sees Jiaye Shao's photos would say they are beautiful and unique. The beauty includes the beauty of the form, the beauty of the imagery and the beauty of the content, while the uniqueness lies in local style, national features and individual artistic style. It's a pity that I could not see more of Mr. Shao's works, so I unfortunately could not delve as deep as I would've liked into his aesthetic ideal, artistic tendency, thoughts of creation and techniques of expression. Instead, I will share my impressions of them based on the photos that I have on hand.
Firstly, Jiaye Shao is an expert at finding beauty. He has one key belief about landscape photography: it is not necessary for a photographer to visit famous mountains and rivers in order to produce a masterpiece, as each place is unique and has its own beauty. As a result, the majority of his works were taken around his hometown of Wenzhou, and in this album, more than 20 pieces were taken at a relatively little-known river at the time called the Nanxi River. What is rare is that all these works taken from the same river rarely repeat the same scenery or manner of expression. Similarly, the more than 10 photos that he took of the Ou River each are very distinct as well. This ability to adhere to the point of "no repetition of others and no repetition of yourself" within one's artistic creations is very rare to find indeed.
He has one key belief about landscape photography: it is not necessary for a photographer to visit famous mountains and rivers in order to produce a masterpiece, as each place is unique and has its own beauty.
I commonly hear people say that after living in one place and seeing the same surroundings for a long time, there is a lack of novelty that makes it difficult to find beauty there. In contrast, Jiaye Shao once said: "Every time I see the scenery around me, I find them different." Thus it's obvious that the problem lies in what Rodin Auguste, a famous French sculptor, has said: "Beauty is everywhere. To our human eyes, it's not about the lack of beauty, but instead the lack of ability to find it." With his sharp eyes, Jiaye Shao is always able to find the beauty in his everyday surroundings, even where other people only see monotony that they have gotten used to. It's true that discovering beauty does not only rely on the eyes, but chiefly the spirit. However, as "eyes are the window to the soul," in the end, sight is the main sense through which we discover and appreciate beauty, and without this discovery and appreciation, we would not be able to properly express and capture beauty.
Secondly, Jiaye Shao is an expert at expressing beauty. For a landscape photographer, it is of course extremely important to find beauty, but it is also essential to be able to express the beauty they have found artistically and to be able to elevate the beauty of nature to that of art. Generally, the beauty of nature as seen by the eyes is only superficial since it still is unprocessed and remains a pure sensation. Only through a combination of concrete thinking and abstract thinking as well as the delicate process of choosing, accepting and refining the objects can we form a perception of beauty in our mind. It is only then that the photographer can synthesize the beauty of the content and their own artistic conception to create a final product: the picture.
It is evident that Jiaye Shao is very familiar with the rules regarding the creation of photographic art. He starts from the unique characteristic of landscape photography and first stresses the beauty of form in his pictures. In his photos, elements such as light, shadow, color and lines are actively arranged according to the principles of symmetry, contrast, and rhythm to construct a harmonious and beautiful picture. These can be seen in works such as "Silver Line on Golden Sands," which makes beautiful use of lines; "Clouds on Yandang Mountain," which plays with light and shadow; "Autumn Beauty Stealing into the Frame," which captures splendid colors; "White Sails on Green Waters," which uses stunning contrast, etc. Furthermore, Shao is skilled at making use of natural phenomena to enhance the beauty of the landscapes, as seen with the dreamy beauty of "Warm Mist on Mountain During Spring," the misty beauty of "Spring River in Drizzle," the delicate beauty of "Summer Sunset After Rain," etc. Moreover, Jiaye Shao treats color film and black and white film equally. For example, he used color film in "Rising Sun Shining upon Splendid Peaks" and used black and white film in "Mist-Blurred Mountains." The purpose is to take full advantage of the strengths of both color film and black and white film to heighten the power and artistic appeal of the picture.
In his photos, elements such as light, shadow, color and lines are actively arranged according to the principles of symmetry, contrast, and rhythm to construct a harmonious and beautiful picture.
Jiaye Shao attaches great importance to beauty of form, mostly because it actively influences the expression of other forms of beauty within the picture. For example, when he took pictures of the Ou River, he typically used smoke, rain, clouds, and wind to achieve a sort of dreamy beauty removed from reality, creating artistic images that lived in the realm of imagination. Similarly, when taking pictures of the Nanxi River, he chose to capture winding rivers and overlapping emerald mountains to utilize the beauty of lines and colors present in the scenery, evoking a sense of both peace and vitality through the images.
Thirdly, Jiaye Shao pays close attention to the emotional experience of his photos. Maybe it is because those beautiful mountains and rivers in his hometown have endowed him with wisdom, exerted a favorable influence on his personality and given enlightenment to his heart that he has endless love for every mountain and every river, every blade of grass and every tree around him. He is not only a mere observer of the magnificent splendor of nature. Through observation and experience, he has not only found its form but reached its spirit, which is to say, through his own imagination and interpretation of the scenery, he has brought to life the vaious objects of nature and given them their own emotions and spirit. It is because of Jiaye Shao's deep affection for nature that his pictures are neither geographical maps showing towns, cities, mountains and rivers, nor tourist maps highlighting certain scenic spots, but instead works with specific artistic conception to present the ever-changing aspects of nature's beauty: mist-blurred mountains, or shimmering water, or smoke wreathing around mountain peaks, or sprouting willows, or ancient trees, or misty morning, or golden dusk.... Jiaye Shao conveys his deep love for the landscapes around his hometown in these personified images of nature.
Fourthly, Jiaye Shao put emphasis on carrying on the national artistic tradition. Since photography was introduced from foreign countries into China, it has a relatively short history, so some people mistakenly think that Chinese photographic art has no relation with the national artistic tradition. Yet Mr. Jiaye Shao says, "I like Chinese classic poems, which have exerted great influence on my photographic creation.... They have given me inspiration on how to use concrete thinking and photographic techniques to express an artistic idea." His artistic practice has strongly refuted those mistaken ideas presented above. It's a fact that photography was introduced from foreign countries and all photographers in China live in contemporary times, yet to a certain extent, as Chinese people, they are still influenced by thousands of years of national culture and artistic tradition. As a result, traces of these factors can be clearly found in Mr. Shao's work. For example, with respect to artistic expression, he combines western photographic techniques with traditional Chinese techniques. On one hand, he takes pictures that capture reality according to western tradition, but on the other hand, he also expresses his feelings through pictures by using traditional Chinese techniques, filling his pictures with feeling and implicit meaning. Moreover, with respect to composition, Shao builds on western composition rules like the golden ratio and skillfully makes use of methods of traditional Chinese painting with contrast between imagination and reality, thick and thin, movement and stillness, all completely presented with the charm of monochrome film. I believe that his success in creating a new era of artistic conception speaks to his success in taking what was foreign and turning it into something Chinese, and taking the past and incorporating it into his present creations. Through his pictures one can see the beauty of nature, understand how nature and man affect one another, and feel the Chinese people's deep affection for and appreciation of their country.
I like Chinese classic poems, which have exerted great influence on my photographic creation.... They have given me inspiration on how to use concrete thinking and photographic techniques to express an artistic idea.
Jiaye Shao
So what exactly is Jiaye Shao's photographic style? I believe that an art style is a mark of whether or not someone has become mature in their artistic creation yet. In photographic works, it is expressed in the photographer's ideas, artistic form, and other factors that altogether make up a distinctive, individual style. At the same time, it is also a general reflection of a photographer's mindset, life experiences, personality, aesthetic tastes, and artistry. If we use this definition, we can regard nature, freshness, elegance, earnest affection and deep meaning as characteristics of Jiaye Shao's art style, which, to a certain extent, reflects his personality and personal views that nature and man affect one another and that the world and man are in harmony.
June 1993 in Beijing