Books:
3030: New
PhoTograPhy
IN ChINa
Edited by John Millichap
3030 Press, $35 (flexicover)
Another survey of Chinese Art Now? While
unapologetically jumping on the bandwagon,
3030: New Photography in China, a selection of
30 photographers under the age of 30, is a little
advertising. Indeed, the spread of photography
more modest and thoughtful than the usual
among young, urbanite Chinese has largely been
coffee-table book for collectors or self-
driven by a self-generated wave of Internet blogs
congratulatory trophy for globetrotting curators.
and, from the more liberal south, particularly
The front cover, by Lin Zhi Peng, sets the
Guangzhou, by market-driven Sunday
edgy, youthful tone of this collection, published
supplements and lifestyle magazines. 3030 – with
by an enthusiastic new Hong Kong publisher.
its high-visual content, cursory CVs and miniscule
It’s a vulgar close-up of a girl’s lower body as she
font – clearly reflects a generation more versed
squats in the street, wearing the international
in magazine culture than academic catalogues.
emblems of the sexy-cute girl on the town: ripped
Work by this 1980s-born generation is,
white fishnets over pink tights, and gold Minnie
we’re told, known collectively as ‘personal
Mouse heels. An unidentifiable white liquid dribbles
photography’, a provocative nod to the spirit of
down onto the concrete. She is vomiting: charming.
individualism that sets them apart from their
Several other photographers self-
parents, and that suggests a prestigious
consciously display the highjinks of kooky twenty-
international lineage from Nan Goldin to
somethings: Jin Shan’s man doing a headstand
Wolfgang Tillmans. Zheng, however, is not
into a toilet; Su Han Guang’s girl performing a
entirely uncritical of this unchecked devotion to
flying kick off her bed, martial arts movie-style;
self-expression, which he fears is weighted too
and Chi Peng’s disturbing doppelgänger series
heavily against the need for an engaged
that includes I Fuck Me – Public Toilet (2005).
relationship to society.
Other photographers rehearse the ennui of
So while 3030 is hardly a manifesto for
alienated youth against the cinematic backdrop
capitalism, Zheng nonetheless argues, following
of China’s high-tech cities: Chen Wei’s lone
Roland Barthes, that the birth of widespread
figures on rooftops; the Birdhead duo messing
photography in China could only have emerged
about in the rubble of an empty building site;
at a time when private life began to be consumed
Yang Chang Hong’s melancholic travelogue,
in the public arena. Photography, for Zheng, is a
Leaving (undated). The brand names and icons
key phase in China’s cultural development.
of global youth punctuate the collection, from
On an international scale these images
Calvin Klein and Dior, to Hello Kitty and Spiderman.
are certainly a welcome antidote to the Becher-
The sentiments, if not the environments,
like sobriety that’s been dominating the scene
may seem familiar outside China, and it’s hardly
for far too long. Whether ‘personal photography’
surprising. As Gu Zheng notes in his essay, 3030
will simply be a transitional phase in Chinese art,
represents China’s first generation of international
as the writers cautiously suggest, to be replaced
consumers of mass media and trend-driven
with more socially conscious work – which some
of the 3030 generation are beginning to explore
– remains to be seen. Jennifer Thatcher
Artreview 138
September_books.indd 2 7/8/07 16:54:13
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