EXTRAIT: Double Rhapsody
– On the two Chinas most widely disseminated across the world
Two statements: two stories of China. One is about Chinese manufacturing, the other about China’s cultural landscape. The photos in the first statement were taken at the Yiwu Small Products Market, a major logistics and trading centreer for consumer goods in China. I wanted to photograph the material fantasy of the production and trade of consumer goods. The photos of the second statement were taken in Hangzhou and Huangshan. I wanted to photograph the storied past of these two places, cutting across the natural and human legends of the ages. How did I do that? How do you capture great wisdom in minutia, or look upon the ancient through the contemporary? I thought about it for nine months before finally finding the “three- shot” method. Ancient China had this idea of the triple screen, and in the West, they had the triptych. Lao Tzu said: the Dao begets one, one begets two, two begets three, and three begets the myriad things. In ancient Chinese philosophy, three was infinity, the greatest number, so by taking three independent yet related photographs, I am able to engage in a penetration of space and time into history. I think that this is a breakthrough, an expansion of the boundaries of photographic vision.
Chen Jiagang, March 17 2012
二言三拍
——关于在世界上传播最广的两个中国
二言：就是讲两个中国故事，一言是讲关于中国制造，二言是讲人文风月。一言这组照片就是在中国小商品的集散批发地义乌小商品城拍摄的。我想拍出小商品的制造和交易的物质幻象。二言这组照片是在杭州和黄山拍摄的。我想拍出历史上和这两个地方有关的风花雪月的往事。穿越人文与自然的千年传奇。那怎么拍呢？怎样拍小而知大，怎样拍今而怀古。我想了九个月，终于我找到三拍的方式，古代讲三屏，欧美讲三联。老子曰：道生一，一生二，二生三，三生万物。故在中国古代的哲学概念中，三是无数，就是最大，故拍三张既独立又关联的三张照片就能实现空间的穿越和时间的历史。我想：这就是摄影视觉的边际增长与突破吧。
2012-3-17 陈家刚
