Images by a Legendary Photographer

by Yi Mei

One of Chinas first photojour- nalists as well as one of the nations most influential photographers of the 20th Century， Lang Jingshan was born into a family of waning feudal officials. Influenced by his father， he began studying drawing and photography at a young age. In 1912， Lang was hired as a photographer for Shun Pao （Shanghai News）. In 1927， Lang and some peers launched the “Photographic Society of China，” the largest photography group in the country at the time. In 1930， he introduced photography classes to Songjiang Girls Middle School in Shanghai， becoming the first person in China to promote photography education. When his “composite picture” Spring Trees and Grotesque Peaks was displayed at a British photography salon in 1934， Langs name became known in international photography circles. Consequently， thousands of his pictures began being displayed at numerous exhibitions， and he was deemed one of the worlds top ten photographers by the Photographic Society of America in 1980.

Developed by Lang， “composite pictures” require print skills in the darkroom to combine images according to the photographers aesthetic taste. Lang blended traditional Chinese painting and Western photography techniques to establish his own artistic style. Though famed for his composite pictures， Lang consistently excelled as a news photographer， and his body of work fuses Oriental philosophy with Western aesthetics.