On Personal Narrative Styles Of Photography About Rural Migrant Workers In China

Thirty years after China’s opening up and reform, great economic, political and cultural transformationshave taken place in every corner of the society. With the fast advancement of urbanization, industrialization,and modernization, more and more farmers leave for cities from their country homes and become apowerful force for modernization. As a special social group, rural migrant workers have gradually beenbrought into the attention of different social classes and fields. And photography taking rural immigrantworkers as subject is emerging as a new phenomenon in the field of contemporary artistic creation.Photography is a type of visual arts, and imagery is its major narrative means. Its narrative style takes onpersonal and multiple characteristics as photography is influenced by the photographer’s ideas, thoughts,aims of creation, or the distinctive features of subjects. This article deals with rural migrant workers inChina as well as studies on photography about migrant workers. It analyzes the relationship betweennarrative style and photography, the representation of narrative functions in photography about migrantworkers, and the current social context for the narrative style. Then factors that may have impactednarrative style of photography are explored, and the significance and implication are reexamined. Thisstudy contributes to researches into narrative styles of photography about rural migrant workers in China.