Capturing Culture: Lishui’s Photographic Vision
Nestled in the southwest of Zhejiang province, the city of Lishui is seeing a cultural renaissance that has been helped by the emergence of a pioneering photography festival. The bi-annual celebration is helping to solidify the small (in Chinese standards) city’s identity as a thriving hub for visual storytelling with each iteration of the festival helping to cement it’s reputation as a captivating haven for international visitors, drawing art enthusiasts and professionals alike.
Awarded the prestigious title of ‘Chinese City of Photography’ in 1999, courtesy of the China Photographers Association, Lishui has emerged as a pivotal and inclusive hub for photographic artistry. This accolade is helping to catalyse it’s evolution into a vibrant centre of visual creativity, fostered by the forward-thinking initiatives of the Lishui City Council.
This vibrant convergence provides a singular platform for global photographers to convene, exhibit, and engage in dialogues about their craft. The highly anticipated Lishui Photography Festival 2023 took place in November and captured the attention of photography enthusiasts from around the world.
Stephen Shore
One of the highlights of the festival was the presence of world-renowned photographer and Warhol Factory stalwart Stephen Shore, who received something close to a rockstar welcome for his keynote talk.
Shore’s retrospective exhibition: ‘The Enduring Present’ attracted crowds of photography fans. It was refreshing and surprising to witness so much love for a photographer, with crowds displaying levels of admiration normally reserved for A-lister celebrities.
One of the most significant photographers of our era, Stephen Shore (American, b. 1947), rose to prominence in the 1970s by capturing the everyday, mundane aspects of American life. His work exposed the ordinary facets of American popular culture through simple, unembellished images. However, Shore’s journey in photography has been diverse; during a sold-out, engaging talk, he shared his transition from using inexpensive automatic cameras to adopting large-format ones in the 1970s, pioneering the utilisation of colour. Later, he reverted to black-and-white photography in the 1990s. By the 2000s, he embraced the potential presented by digital photography, digital printing, and social media. Currently, his focus is on aerial drone photography and the technology involved in sharing a birdseye view of the American landscape.
The exhibition in Lishui represents Shore’s comprehensive showcase, encompassing his entire career. It aims to provide a rounded understanding of Shore’s body and breadth of work. Moreover, it aims to highlight his unique perspective – marked by a fascination with everyday life, a penchant for sequential and often systematic approaches, a robust intellectual foundation, a restrained style, subtle humour, and a visually laid-back yet unwavering pursuit of photography’s potential.
Exhibitions
This bi-annual event showcased a broad range of contemporary photography and provided a platform for both established and emerging photographers to display their artistic talents over a whopping 917 exhibitions selected from 5,117 entries. 45,865 works were submitted by 10,391 photographers and curators from 63 countries and regions. The festival is huge!
Exhibition halls, museums, parks, warehouses, and outdoor spaces are all utilised for the event with photography images displayed across the city. Spanning 15 exhibition sites, this festival orchestrates an immersive experience – a fusion of exhibitions and multimedia showcases and is a testament to the commitment to bridging cultural divides and historical narratives through the medium of photography.
The diverse program featured exhibitions by renowned photographers, highlighting their unique perspectives and creative vision, while also giving a platform to students and fresh talent to showcase their works in a dizzying array of great spaces.
In keeping up with the ever-evolving technology, the festival introduced its first AI-driven photography exhibition; ‘Creation from Nothingness’, pushing the boundaries of the medium. This innovative addition offered a unique perspective on the intersection of art and technology, providing a glimpse into the future of photography and sharing different approaches and uses as an additional creative technique exploring thought-provoking themes and narratives.
The festival also has its own International Photography Awards, which was initiated by the city and hosts several international judges from the UK, Europe and the US alongside expertise from across China. The awards recognise outstanding photographers and their remarkable works across a number of themes. As prizes; some of the awardees are invited to visit and present their works at other festivals (including Format in the UK) while others receive a monetary prize for their submissions.
The 5th International Photography Symposium was also held in conjunction with the festival, adding an intellectual dimension to the event. This symposium included experts, scholars, and artists from the global photography community, fostering meaningful discussions and sharing valuable insights into the evolving landscape of photography. It served as a valuable platform for networking and exchanging ideas, enriching the overall experience of the festival including the developments, influence and, for some, controversy of Artificial Intelligence on the art form.
The seamless integration of traditional and contemporary photographic practices enhanced the depth and richness of the festival supporting its growing showcase of visual storytelling. Along with exceptional curation, a diverse range of exhibitions and a commitment to nurturing emerging talent, the festival is firmly cementing its position as a leading platform in the world of photography.
Lishui Photography Festival 2023 is a must-visit for anyone seeking inspiration, innovation, and a truly unforgettable visual experience within a beautiful city. We can’t recommend it enough.
ABOUT LISHUI
Lishui is situated in Southwestern Zhejiang Province and has a population of 2.57 million. Lishui is a national ecological demonstration zone with fantastic natural scenery of green mountains and waterways making it a stunning landscape for photography.
HOW TO GET TO LISHUI
You can travel directly to Lishui from Shanghai (around 3 hours) and Hangzhou (around 2 hours) via the fast bullet trains or by bus (around 6.5 hours).
The next Lishui Photography Festival will take place in November 2025. You can follow the festival on Instagram where news, callouts for submissions and up-to-date information is shared @lishuiphotographyfestival
