Documentation And Concept

It has been thirty years since Chinese contemporary photography began to develop in 1976. During the period Chinese contemporary photography has undergone an extensive reform, particularly for documentary photography and conceptual photography. A large number of outstanding photographers and productions emerge, which have attracted the attention of domestic and foreign theorists, collectors and the personnel planning photo shows.As documentary and conceptual photography develop in two different areas of photography and fine arts respectively in China, their research and study are also totally separated. However, as far as their development in the late 1990's is concerned, it has been indicated that documentary photography and conceptual photography had began to get integrated into each other.Therefore, the thesis aims at integrating the documentary and conceptual photography, sorting out their thirty years of development systematically. It also points out their main characters and problems in revealing the themes when they are introduced into China. The thesis is divided into four parts: the first part mainly focuses on the various phenomena occurred in the process of Chinese photography development from 1976 to 1989 and traces back the origin of documentary and conceptual photography in China. The second partfeatures the analysis of China's documentary photography since the 1990's with the aim of making a summary of its characters. The third part explores the reasons behind the development of conceptual photography and reflects on how it reveals the themes. The fourth part is the conclusion.