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Lang Jingshan 郎靜山
Majestic Solitude 春樹奇峰
1934
Lang Jingshan worked commercially as a photojournalist and was known as the
‘father of Asian photography’ for his prolific output and pioneering explorations
in the darkroom. He made the fantastical worlds of Chinese literati landscape
painting ‘real’ through his camera lens. Majestic Solitude is remarkable as the
first experimental work Lang created using composite photography techniques.
It is perhaps no surprise that he chose to depict the Huangshan mountain range,
the muse for so many classical painters as well as for his contemporaries. All
the compositional principles of traditional hanging scrolls — most notably
the shifting perspective — are present here: Shixin Peak occupies the high
distance, a midsection of clouds provides empty space, and brushy trees with
detailed textures in the foreground give the viewer a foothold in the landscape.
Completed in 1934, this imagined landscape echoed the effort of guohua
(national painting) artists who advocated for the nationalistic and modern
qualities of landscape paintings against the strong wave of Westernisation in art
at that time.
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