Ruptured Shanshui: landscape composite photography from Lang Jingshan to Yang Yongliang

Shanshui (mountains and waters) has been an important form of artistic expression in Chinese art since ancient times. With the introduction of photography in the early twentieth century, it has undergone several phases of changes. From the works of photographic artists Lang Jingshan, Yao Lu and Yang Yongliang, this article explores how shanshui aesthetics has been re-appropriated from classical ink-and-water paintings to modern photography over the past century. It is argued that modern and contemporary shanshui, being reinvented in the form of pictorial photo collage/composite photography, structures and shapes our perceptions through new perspectives. In the process, it has made some of the ideological ruptures visible, pushing shanshui to become socially, politically and environmentally reflexive in China’s times of transitions and crises. Unlike literati painters in the ancient times who deliberately avoided politics and instead immersed themselves in creating nature paintings as a form of escapism, Lang Jingshan’s composite photography subtly and intricately reflects the political ruptures experienced in China in the mid-twentieth century. Entering the twenty-first century, the emerging Anthropocene discourse is quickly reshaping our perceptions and the way art represents human-nature relationships. Contemporary artists like Yao Lu and Yang Yongliang create photographic shanshui collages that represent the excessively urbanized environments and observe the environmentally challenged social reality from both personal perspectives and beyond. From the political tensions we see in Lang Jingshan’s works since the 1950s, to the ecological crises in the Anthropocene epoch as reflected in Yao Lu and Yang Yongliang’s works, this paper reveals the ruptures hidden within modern and contemporary shanshui. It also shows how shanshui evolves under the camera lens and continues to be redefined according to ideologies of the time.