Ethnographic Photography And The Image Of The Frontier

In early 21st century, as one of important policies in boosting the development of west China, tourism has been fully carried out. Meanwhile, old pictures have been re-made onto the fashionable stage with the revival of humanism and the coming of the era of picture. Thus, there widely spreads a large number of pictures which on the history, geography, people and culture of west China, including the pictures taken by Zhuang Xueben. Through the efforts of photographers and publishers, Zhuang Xueben and his old pictures gradually emerge from the dust of history.This paper first shows the process of rediscovering Zhuang Xueben and his pictures, and provides the current condition of correlative studies and materials. After that, according to some materials before 1949 and some first-hand materials provided by his descendants, this paper further expounds Zhuang Xueben's whereabouts and works in the 20th century 30-40 ages. Then, on the consideration of Chinese frontier crisis and development of the western region in early 20th Century, through analyzing Zhuang's fieldwork and pictures, this paper tries to provide a way for understanding his Ethnographic photos. Finally, with comparing different photographers' view of west China, this paper discusses the subjective and objective issue of Ethnographic photography and the photographic usage on building the image of frontier.