For the second year running, Leica Camera AG is the partner of PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai, which will be held from 9 to 11 September 2016 at the Shanghai Exhibition Center (SEC). With 50 international galleries from 15 countries represented this year, the art fair in the Chinese mega-city is one of the most prominent and prestigious fairs dedicated to photography in Asia. Under the exhibition title ‘Visual Stories on China: Leica photography from 1933 until now’, the Leica Gallery will be showing impressive photographs by Marc Riboud, Wulf-Diether Count of Castell-Rüdenhausen, Ian Teh and Liu Jiangling.
Marc Riboud, who passed away on August 30th, was one of the first photographers from the Western World to visit China after the Cultural Revolution. Since his first visit in 1957, he has repeatedly travelled through the vast country – Riboud knew a greater diversity of regions and places in China than virtually any other Western photographer. On his numerous travels with his Leica cameras, he witnessed and documented not only the upheavals of the nineteen-sixties, but also the economic revolution of the past few decades. The exhibition, ‘China’, Riboud’s photographic travelogue documenting five decades of his travels, can be seen at PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai in a collection of works that impressively illustrates the rapid changes that have transformed the country.Marc Riboud and Leica Camera AG have had a close friendship for many years. With its exhibition at PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai, Leica Camera AG honours the work of this exceptional photographer.
Around 80 years ago, German aviation pioneer Wulf-Diether Count of Castell-Rüdenhausen (1905–1980), documented a China that few Europeans had ever seen – not only in black-and-white, but also in colour. The pilot gathered magnificent impressions of the country from his plane and during his numerous excursions. Castell was fascinated by the latest technological advances, not only as a pilot, but also as an avid photographer, and was one of the first photographers to use Agar colour film, which was still in development stage at the time. His works are among the earliest 35 mm photographs of China shot in colour.
Under the title ‘Merging Boundaries’, the Leica Gallery will also be showing the impressive people and landscape photography of the young British photographer Ian Teh. Teh composes the unique atmosphere in his photographs using colour and light. Visually inspired by the massive energy of economic and social progress in China, Teh was one of the first foreign photographers to capture the colourful diversity of the country. ‘Merging Boundaries’ relives a 1,000-kilometre road trip along the border between China, Russia and North Korea that the photographer embarked on in various stages between the years 2000 and 2007.
The black-and-white photographs of Jiangling Liu are suffused with peaceful remoteness. The collection entitled ‘Wind and River’ depicts open landscapes with distant horizons. Figures appear as if at random in the desolate landscapes, persons whose purposes or destinations remain hidden to the viewer. Since 2013, Liu has frequently set out alone with his camera to explore the vastness of the land. His travels took him above all to the North of China on a quest to become one with the wonders and mysteries of nature. The photographer invites viewers to explore the wide open spaces in his images and make their own interpretation of what they see.
Biographies
Marc Riboud (1923 – 2016) was born in the French city of Lyon. He took his first photographs at the young age of fourteen. After studying engineering and working in the field for three years, Riboud decided to dedicate his time exclusively to photography. He moved to Paris in 1952, where his connection to Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa brought him to Magnum, the agency he would later become the Vice President (1959-1973) and President (1975-1976) of. From 1955 onwards, Riboud travelled extensively and took on reportage assignments for numerous magazines. This was followed by numerous publications and awards. For a long time now, the photographer has been considered one of the most highly respected photojournalists of the 20th century.
Wulf-Diether Count of Castell-Rüdenhausen (1905-1980) was born in Berlin; he spent his childhood at the Seeläsgen Castle on Lake Nieschlitz (today: Przełazy, Poland) in Mark Brandenburg. He qualified for his pilot’s licence at the age of 21 and gave flying lessons at the commercial flying school in Schleissheim while studying law in Munich. In 1931, he started working for the airline Deutsche Lufthansa and, from 1933 to 1936, was entrusted with the task of establishing an efficient commercial airline network in China with the Lufthansa subsidiary Eurasia. This pioneering work gave rise to the unique aerial photographs that were published in the book ‘Chinaflug’ (China flight) in 1938. Castell initially flew a single-engine Junkers W 33 transport aircraft and later also piloted the legendary three-engined Junkers Ju 52. He held the position of Managing Director of the airport in Munich-Riem from 1949 to 1972.
Ian Teh, born in 1971 in Malaysia, Teh currently lives in London. His photography has been featured in many exhibitions and several international publications such as Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker and The Independent Magazine. In 2011, he was awarded a prize by the Magnum Foundation. In addition to this, he was nominated for the Prix Pictet 2009. Together with friends, he founded the online publication Deep Sleep Magazine and the publishing house Deep Sleep Editions to enable him to have greater control over the publishing process. He has published three monographs, ‘Undercurrents’ (2008), ‘Traces’ (2011) and ‘Confluence’ (2014).
Jiangling Liu was born in Nanjing, China, in 1985. He learned to paint at a young age. In 2004, he started studying Industrial Design at the China Academy of Art. After completion of his studies, he began working as a designer for Internet companies. He began to seriously investigate the potentials of photography as a creative medium in 2009, and started taking photographs, mostly around the place where he lived. He has been travelling extensively since 2013, especially throughout Northern China. Today, Liu lives in Hangzhou. In 2016, his series entitled ‘River & Mountain’ was shortlisted for the Leica J Photography Masters.
The Leica Gallery’s exhibition at PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai came to life thanks to the support of Memorieslab. Memorieslab is a high-end online photo lab that offers professional photographic printmaking services worldwide. For more information, visit www.memorieslab.com.