汪雪涯是一位日渐成熟的摄影家，近两年创作成果颇丰。去年在三影堂的个展《我非我》曾给观众留下深刻的印象，同时，她也在一些有影响的展事和赛事上多有斩获，个人的艺术辨识度正在逐步提高。去年夏天，她报名了滨江“创+新”摄影工作坊，想继续尝试艺术委托项目——宣传摄影的挑战。
就目前国内的摄影的现状而言，其实各种摄影门类存在着严重的割裂现象。艺术家不屑于报道和纪实，记者整天嘲笑沙龙爱好者，“当代”成了新的时尚名词，“工作坊”成了各类摄影群体新的画地为牢的平台，相互间的藩篱很难被打破，这让很多决心从事艺术创作的摄影人很难择善而从。在我看来，不管各路精英如何争夺话语权，如何尝试着建立新的权威，对从事摄影创作的人而言，真正重要的只有两点：一个是关于个人创作的；一个是关于如何完成委托项目的。
关于个人创作的，就是对自己要有意义，给自己一个真正的自己！在摄影里真正地认识自己，所需要和所依靠是个人的自觉。觉悟的关键在于自觉和自悟，而不是“觉”他人和“悟”他人。换句话说，回归自己的内心才是个人创作真正的根本所在。而另一方面是关于委托项目的摄影，它需要作者具有很强的学习能力和理解能力，同时熟练掌握语言工具，还要具有综合的创意能力。在个人创作方面，考验的是作者坚强的意志，这也是个人创作的难度所在，如何不被外部事缘左右，放弃对外部世界的执着。而委托项目的难度在于解决社会交往中的具体问题，包括学习、理解、领会和与人沟通、组织调度以及资源利用，从组织行动的角度而言，委托项目的难度应该远大于个人创作，这也是委托项目往往以有偿服务的形式出现的原因所在。滨江“创+新”工作坊给学员布置的作业，就出发点而言，其实都属于委托项目，它的方向是单一的、明确的：宣传滨江！对学员而言，愿意接受挑战的，可以设立一个新的项目，按照宣传滨江的思路去制定拍摄计划，这就是典型的委托项目，或者也可称之为“领受了一项摄影工作”。这个难度很大，可以确定的是它的难度远大于个人的创作。当然，有的学员可能是因为缺乏这种能力，或者说不想耗费更多的精力，他们可能会采用一种更具“性价比”的方式，在个人以往的创作积累中，选择能够跟委托主题贴上边的原有项目，这个就属于拓展型创作了。严格意义上讲，这个并不是真正的委托项目。而汪雪涯不仅选择了委托项目，一个全新的完全按照宣传思维去定制的摄影，而且选择了难度相对较大、需要调动更多资源才能完成的关于探寻居住在滨江的留学生和外国高端人才生活现状的项目。从她明确这一项目的选题开始，我就清楚的意识到，对她真正的挑战来了。
挑战一：人像摄影是一个自有摄影史以来就一直存在的古老的摄影门类，今天的人像摄影该如何拍？尤其出于宣传摄影的考虑，该如何完成创意，使其更具新意？
挑战二：纪实人像与人工布光如何结合？瞬间与编导如何把控？道具与场景如何建立有效关系？这些具体的技术问题其实是一连串的困难清单。
挑战三：短期内如何拍摄一个语言不通的特殊群体？如何获取对象的信任？如何有效的建立沟通机制？在时间与效率以及艺术品质上如何做到平衡？
在短短三个月的时间内，汪雪涯有效地完成了这一项目的拍摄，应该算是交了一份让两位导师满意的答卷。这份答卷对她个人意义非凡。这意味着她未来有可能成为一名真正的委托项目摄影师。在我看来，一个摄影家真正成熟的标志就是他在有效完成个人创作的同时，也能够成为受人尊敬的和让人信任的委托项目摄影师。
在中国快速崛起的今天，在中国平视世界的今天，在中国城市化加速推进的今天，宣传摄影正在全面覆盖各个领域。它不仅将会成为未来中国摄影的主流，更重要的是它已经具备了多元发展的形态。如何打破传统的固化思维，以创新的意识，结合近200年来各类摄影的极大成果，为宣传摄影探索一些新的路径，这是摆在当代摄影师面前新的课题，值得摄影师去探索, 而汪雪涯已经迈开了脚步。
是为序。
沈珂
2021年6月于杭州
——沈珂（浙江大学艺术与考古学院兼职硕导、评论家）
Preface
Wang Xueya is an ever-maturing photographer. Her creative work has been very fruitful in the past two years. Last year, her solo exhibition I’m Not Myself at Three Shadows Photography Art Center left a deep impression on the audience. At the same time, she has also won a great number of awards in some influential exhibitions and competitions, and her artistic identity is gradually establishing. Last summer, she signed up for the ” Creation + Innovation” photography workshop in Binjiang, attempting to continue the challenge of commissioning art – promotional photography.
In terms of the current situation of photography in China, there is in fact a serious disintegration of various photography disciplines. Artists don’t care about reporting and documenting. Journalists laugh at salon lovers. “Contemporary” has become the new trend. “Workshop” has become the new prison for all kinds of photographers. The barriers among each other are hard to be torn down, which makes it difficult for many photographers who are determined to devote themselves to the art world to follow the right path. In my opinion, no matter how the elites compete for the right to speak and try to establish a new authority, there are only two things that really matter to those who are working with photography: one is about personal expression, and the other is about how to carry out the commissioned project.
In terms of personal expression, it’s important to be true to yourself. To see your true self with your own eyes! All that is needed and relied upon to truly know oneself in photography is self-awareness. The key to enlightenment is self-awareness and self-understanding, not the “awareness” or “understanding” of the other. In other words, returning to one’s own self is the essence of personal expression. Photography for commissioned projects, on the other hand, requires a strong ability to learn and understand, as well as a good command of language tools and comprehensive creativity. Working for personal expression is a test of the strength of the author’s will. This is where the difficulty of personal expression lies. Authors must learn how not to be swayed by external matters and to give up their attachment to the external world. The difficulty of commissioned projects, on the other hand, lies in solving specific problems in social interaction, including learning, understanding, comprehending, and communicating with people, arranging affairs, and using resources. From the aspect of execution, commissioned projects should be much more difficult than personal expression, which is why the former often take the form of paid services. The assignments given to the participants of the ” Creation + Innovation” workshop are, in fact, commissioned projects from a single and clear direction: to promote Binjiang! The assignments given to the participants of the ” Creation + Innovation” workshop are, in fact, commissioned projects from a single and clear direction: to promote Binjiang! For those who are willing to accept the challenge, they can set up a new project and make a shooting plan according to the idea of promoting Binjiang, which is a typical commissioned project, or to say they ” take on a photography job”. This is a difficult mission, and it is certainly much more difficult than personal expression. Of course, some may lack the ability to carry out such a project or do not want to devote more effort to it, so they may take a more “efficient” approach and choose an existing project that is compatible with the theme of the commission from their previous works and turn it into an extended project. Strictly speaking, this is not a commissioned project. Wang Xueya, however, not only took the challenge of the commissioned project and designed a brand-new shooting plan according to the promotional mindset, but also chose a relatively complicated task that required a lot of effort in coordinating resources in order to present a full picture of expatriates and talents who return from abroad. From the moment she chose her topic, it became clear to me that it won’t be an easy path for her.
Challenge 1: Portrait photography has a long history since the birth of photography, how should portrait photography be treated today? How to be both creative and original under the setting of promotional photography?
Challenge 2: How to combine documentary portraits with artificial lighting? How to capture the decisive moment while maintaining control to a certain extent? How to establish an effective relationship between props and scenes? These specific technical problems are the difficulties she must overcome.
Challenge 3: How to shoot a special group of people who do not speak the same language in a short period of time? How to gain the trust of the subject? How to communicate effectively and efficiently? How to strike a balance between efficiency and artistic quality?
Within a short period of three months, Wang Xueya effectively completed the project and presented a satisfying result to both of her two mentors. This is a meaningful project for her. It means that she has the potential to become a professional commissioned project photographer in the future. In my opinion, the maturity of a photographer comes in when he or she is regarded as a respected and trusted commission photographer while still being effective in his or her personal work.
Nowadays, China is emerging at a rapid pace on the international stage while the urbanization in China is speeding up, promotional photography is covering all fields. It will not only become the mainstream of Chinese photography in the future, but more importantly, it is ready to take on various forms for its own development. It is a real challenge for contemporary photographers to ponder on how to break the traditional and fixed mindset and learn from the great achievements of various forms of photography in the past 200 years with a sense of innovation and finally to explore a new path for promotional photography. It is a challenge worth pursuing, and Wang Xueya has already taken a step forward.
Written as preface.
Shen Ke
Hangzhou, June 2021