"A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words." The quote from the well-known American landscape photographer Ansel Adams (1902-84) may best express the magnificent magic that is photography and that is, indeed, beyond words.

And if every photograph tells a story, visitors to an ongoing exhibition at the China Art Museum Shanghai will be embraced by hundreds of tales, most of them about Shanghai.

This is the second annual Photo Shanghai, and the show has selected some 300 photographs to display from more than 4,000 submissions. The subjects range from news events and cultural stories, to landscapes and urban street scenes.

Different perspectives

Three distinctive exhibition spaces - the 11th, 12th and 13th exhibition halls - at the venue quietly unfold stories from different periods of the city's history.

Chen Chunxuan, famous for publishing the first book of comic strip-style photographs after the foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, has contributed several of his signature works to the exhibition. Miss Red recalls the prevalence of the "eight model operas," the only artworks that were allowed to be staged in China during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76).

Meanwhile, Distant Footsteps by Chen Gangyi illuminates to visitors what life was once like in Shanghai's shikumen-style homes, once a familiar sight to city residents but now passing into memory as they gradually disappear because of the city's development. Over the past two decades Chen has dedicated himself to recording the changing life of the city, and several of his works were collected by the former Shanghai Art Museum (now part of the China Art Museum).

Also on view are a series of photos taken in 1998 of Bill and Hillary Clinton in Shanghai, shots depicting veteran scientists, a series revealing the lives of blind people, and photos of workers at a centuries-old kiln near Shanghai.

The show also features art-photography works by well-known artists such as Song Bo, a three-time winner at the China Advertising Photography Exhibition, Geng Yi, who works with Chinese National Geography magazine, and Zheng Xianzhang, a winner of both domestic and international awards.

Artistic values

"Zheng's series of works entitled Chasing Clouds in Shanghai are very eye-catching and are of high artistic value," said Gao Feng, a coordinator of the exhibition. The four works in Zheng's series creatively represent the urban landscape of Shanghai in the shape of a round planet with the help of picture-editing software.

"We hope in the future that we can invite more influential artists and photography institutions to join with us, in order to step up the professional level of the exhibition, thus presenting more extraordinary photography to audiences both in Shanghai and around the world," Gao told the Global Times.

Photo Shanghai was initiated back in October 2011, by the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture Radio Film and TV, the Wenhui Xinmin United Press Group and the Institute of Journalism of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

 

Date: Until March 24, 9 pm to 5 pm (no admission after 4 pm and closed on Mondays)

Venue: China Art Museum Shanghai

中华艺术宫

Address: 161 Shangnan Road

上南路161号

Admission: Free but online reservation with one week in advance is required (http://www.artmuseumonline.org/eng/index.jhtml)

Call 400-921-9021 for details