When Painting Encounters Photography

Painting has been bearing a peculiar and vital function of recording images since an age of underdevelopment science and technology.It has not only been a delivery of the realistic life and idea of human beings, but also a perfection of soul and spiritual world of the people. In 1839, the difference between oriental and occidental cultures, the marching of time and the development of science and technology co-produced photography in the Western world. From that time on, photography, with the characteristic of re-visualizing the object precisely, gradually took the place of the recoding function of painting, thus painting redirecting itself to probing and practicing its ontological language. Painting, stylistically speaking from Realism, Romanticism, and Impressionism to Modernism, Post-modernism and Idea art drastically, broke the boundaries between art and life and even arrived the state of "inaction". Therefore, the development of science and technology guides and stimulates the lust for consuming of the people and bring unprecedented changes to the realistic world, including the philosophy and the expression of art, and painting and photography has become one of the visual consuming approach in society in which a fantastic " A TIME OF IMAGE " has generated.China was involved into the globalization since 19th century. From that time on, the pioneers in fields of thought, science and art began to systematically investigate and study the system of the western politics, science and technology, culture and art, including painting and photography, and initiated a progress of "Learning from the Western" in order to save the country and survive in the world. At present, most domestic theories and practices in the realm of painting and photography are all based on the concept of adopting all the theories from the western art theories, which include the innovation of art language and the change of visual aesthetic approach, as well as the systematization, classification and criticism of various art groups. At the threshold of 21th century, in the context of globalization, it becomes increasingly urgent for us to perfect and construct our traditional cultures and values with the assistance of the ancient oriental wisdom. The unexpected encounter between painting and photography is a significant historical event in art history, which has not only changed human traditional method of inspecting the whole world, but had considerable influence on development of the world and human life, leaving us to probe into the root of the phenomenon. Therefore, with this essay, I intend to discuss and throw light on the following topic within human history:the inherent source of human existence and development, and the external action of science and technology on human civilization evolvement.