Fragments and Phantasmagoria: Landscape Photography of Lang Jingshan (1895-1998)

Location: Walters YouTube channel

This talk examines the body of work of Chinese-Taiwanese photographer Lang Jingshan (1895-1998). Appearing as “seamless” landscapes in the tradition of Chinese literati ink painting, Lang’s works are crafted with multiple fragments of negatives in the darkroom with labor-intensive dodging, burning, and multiple exposure. While his photo prints emulate elegant landscape paintings, each fragment also presents its own context of war assignments, personal memories and collective trauma. Lang’s landscape is a “phantasmagoria” whose enchantment derives from the violence immanent in the alchemy process to conjure up the lived experience of an artist caught in the ruins of iconoclasms and uncompleted visions of twentieth century China.

This talk will be live on our YouTube channel. If you are unable to join us live, the recording will be available on our YouTube channel following the program.

This talk is generously supported by the Walters Art Museum’s Friends of Asian Art group.