【展讯】你好！小朋友——秋山亮二作品展｜北京

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文/张寺旸

三影堂摄影艺术中心联合青艸堂共同呈现的艺术家秋山亮二的经典摄影作品展《你好小朋友》将于2023年7月15日开幕，展期持续至10月6日。艺术家秋山亮二于1981年至1982年间，先后五次来到中国。去到了北京、上海、广州、成都、哈尔滨、桂林、呼和浩特、乌鲁木齐等城市，甚至还在中国摄影家协会的帮助下前往了当时不对外国人开放的海南岛。期间共拍摄了约700卷，8000多张彩色照片，并从其中挑选了127张，于1983年首次出版《你好小朋友》摄影集。本次展览中的照片，即是来自于这本摄影集和近年整理出版的另外两册：《光景宛如昨》、《往事成追憶》。

人民会堂的儿童节活动，50x50cm，艺术微喷，1981-1982

在艺术史中，最初儿童的形象往往被描述为成人的缩影或纯真的象征。观看以儿童为主体的作品时，观者自然地加入自我的投射和对儿童身份的美好想像，与已不在场的时光产生连接。于是，时间似乎被压缩了，仿佛上世纪80年代的空间与我们当下的空间合并，这些穿越了几十年光景来到我们面前的照片，在“邀请”我们窥看当时儿童学习、生活和玩耍的场景，以及属于那个时代的童年，从而使得我们通过观看照片完成一次重新体验童年的经历。而这种体验并非止步于想象和单向观看他者的人生，而是将属于童年的天真烂漫时光作为嫁接的桥梁，连接着我们和秋山镜头下的小朋友。

兔子的游戏，50x50cm，艺术微喷，1981-1982

再次挖掘这批照片档案，能找到其中秘而未宣之处。正如瓦尔特·本雅明在《摄影小史》中提出的相机无意识观点，他认为，无论摄影师如何精致地布景以及指导他的拍摄对象，无论如何最大化接近他所拍摄的主题，欣赏者都会有一种不可抗拒的冲动，要在这样的画面中寻找偶然性的微小火花，那个早已被遗忘的瞬间，在未来回首时，我们得以重新发现它。就像展出作品中在北京巷口相互对望的两个小朋友。多年后，秋山才发现那个当下他们之间或有的隐秘联系。

北京，50x50cm，艺术微喷，1981-1982

直到傍晚还在人行道上学习的少年，50x50cm，艺术微喷，1981-1982

以及坐在板凳上在街头学习的男孩，身穿有破洞和补丁的女孩，跟随母亲一起在市集卖水果的小朋友，固定在父亲自行车后座的男孩，帮助父母减轻负担而参与农活的小朋友。可知在那个并不富裕的时代，童年并非只代表着纯粹的快乐和自得，小朋友也需承担着生活的风霜。这些画面之外的世界，我们只能通过猜测和联想获得。

呼和浩特，50x50cm，艺术微喷，1981-1982

秋山亮二拍摄的《你好小朋友》- Dear Old Days系列在中国能引起一股怀旧潮，和它们是80年代难得留下的彩色影像也有关系。艺术家也曾自述：“比起说我拍得有多好，我认为更多的原因在于中国的朋友对我所记录的那个时代有着特殊的感情，还有一个原因可能是因为那个年代的彩色照片非常稀有。”

在昆明湖捕鱼，50x50cm，艺术微喷，1981-1982

在1980年代，中国摄影其中一个发展便是向“纪实转向”（documentary turn），这一时期的中国的纪实摄影作品与中国的社会政治转变密切相关，内容表现了艺术家为推动开放性社会和尊重人性所做的努力。 呈现的是严肃的社会性议题。同一时期到中国拍摄的北井一夫、安东尼奥尼和刘香成等国外艺术家，也把镜头对准了那个时代下中国人的生存状态，以及人与人之间的关系。对比之下，秋山从一种更为童真趣味的角度去观看社会景观，对观众而言，也许是更有吸引力的，对作为历史文献而言，其独特的视角丰富了当时的时代样貌。

学校的午餐，50x50cm，艺术微喷，1981-1982

因此，展览由两条线索展开，一条围绕着被拍摄的主体——小朋友，保留展厅原有的格局，通过不同场域的构建，连接特定校园环境的同时，亦让展览空间与作品空间进行对话。第二条线索即为被拍摄的80年代环境，也是对该系列的第三部，《往事成追憶》的回应，围绕在孩子身边的人事物进行日常状态补白，描绘出40年前人们的生产生活方式、着装风格和休闲方式等。

休息时间，50x50cm，艺术微喷，1981-1982

秋山亮二带着禄莱相机和樱花牌胶片拍摄下的80年代的中国小朋友，画面中看似草率偶发的刺点，里面隐藏的是艺术家在偶然性捕捉和精心设计的构图两者间取得的动态平衡。与其说这是一个关于那个年代记忆的展览，我们更期待这是一个关于体验和更新记忆的展览，观者通过再次观看，延展出人与人、人与环境关系的新连接。

秋山亮二

1942年生于东京。父亲秋山青磁（1905-1978）也是一位摄影师。毕业于早稻田大学文学部，入职AP通信、朝日新闻社，后成为自由摄影师。作为纪实摄影师，拍摄并发表印度的大饥荒、人口稀少的孤岛等。之后与深濑昌久、森山大道等一起参加纽约现代博物馆的“New Japanese Photography”等国际摄影展。在美国休斯敦的莱斯大学举办个展“Ryoji Akiyama Photography”。擅长使用６×６禄莱抓拍人们的生活照。在纽约、印尼、中国等造访之地以“旅行者的视点”捕捉对象而发表作品，构筑了独特的世界观。作品被纽约现代博物馆、东京都写真美术馆、宫城县立美术馆、吴市立美术馆、川崎市市民美术馆、青森县立美术馆等收藏。作品集有《津轻·聊尔先生行状记》(津轻书房)、《纽约通信》(牧水社)、《楢川村》(朝日新闻社)、《奈良》(游人工房)等。翻译书有《美国之世纪 1900-1910：20世纪的黎明》(西武 time)、随笔集有《扇子之烟》(法曹会)。

Text/Zhang Siyang

Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, in collaboration with Seisodo, will be presenting Ryoji Akiyama's classic photograph collection “Dear Old Days”. The exhibition will run from July 15 to October 6, 2023. Between 1981 and 1982, Ryoji Akiyama visited China five times, setting foot in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Harbin, Guilin, Hohhot, Urumqi, and even Hainan Island, which was closed to foreigners at the time, with the help of the Chinese Photographers Association. He took about 8,000 colour photos with about 700 rolls, from which 127 were selected and published as the album Hello Kids, the first volume met the public in 1983. The works of the upcoming exhibition are from the first volume, as well as the other two volumes compiled and published in recent years under the name Dear Old Days.

Shanghai, 50x50cm, Giclee Print, 1981-1982

In art history, children is often depicted as the epitome of the grown-ups or the symbol of innocence. When viewing works that focus on children, we naturally identify ourselves with the group and the beautiful imagination related to them, and connect ourselves to another time period other than the present. As a result, time seems to be compressed. Within the exhibition space, and the 1980s and the present seem to coexist at the same time. The photographs, traveling from the 1980s to the present, “invite” us to peek into the daily life of those kids, as well as what childhood looked like four decades ago. Thus we are able to not only re-experience our own good old days, but also explore others’. Moreover, there is not only the one-way imagination and observation towards the frame, but also the mutual dialogue, as the universal innocence of the childhood connects the viewers and the characters in the photographer's works.

Re-researching this series also help us discover things hidden in plain sight. In A Short History of Photography, Walter Benjamin puts forward the concept of optical unconscious. He argues that “however skillful the photographer, however carefully he pose his model, the spectator feels an irresistible compulsion to look for the tiny spark of chance, of the here and now, with which reality has, as it were, seared the character in the picture; to find that imperceptible point at which, in the immediacy of that long-past moment, the future so persuasively inserts itself that, looking back, we may rediscover it.” For instance, Ryoji Akiyama took a photo of two kids looking at each other at the entrance of an alley in Beijing, yet it is only years later that the photographer learnt about there might have the hidden connection between the two.

Long jump, 50x50cm, Giclee Print, 1981-1982

The same can be said to the boy sitting on a bench and studying in the street, the girl in clothes with holes and patches, the one selling fruits at the wet market with his mother, the one tied to the back of a bicycle by his father with a rope, and those helping their parents in the field. Apparently, before the age of abundance, childhood was not necessarily the synonym of happiness and carefreeness, but sometimes hardship and poverty. The world beyond these images can only be grasped through our own speculation and association.

The series has evoked a wave of nostalgia in China, also because of the rarity of colour photos in the 80s. Ryoji Akiyama himself once said that, “Rather than saying my works are great, I think the main reason behind their popularity is that many Chinese have a special affection for the 80s, and the colour photos from that time are very rare.”

 A small traffic policeman signing to direct vehicles, 50x50cm, Giclee Print, 1981-1982

One of the trends in Chinese photography in the 1980s was the “documentary turn”. For this period, documentary photography in China was closely related to the country’s socio-political transformation. Most contents reflect the artists' advocate for openness and respect for humanity, discussing serious social issues. Foreign artists such as Kazuo Kitai, Michelangelo Antonioni and Liu Heung Shing, who came to China during the same period, also focused their lenses on the state of life of the general public, and the relationship between people. Ryoji Akiyama, on the contrary, approached the social landscape with a more playful perspective. This is perhaps more relatable and appealing to ordinary spectators, and in the historical sense, it also offers a new narrative of that time with its unique angle.

Chengdu, 50x50cm, Giclee Print, 1981-1982

The exhibition is curated with two sub-themes. The first is the subjects being photographed, i.e. the children themselves. While the original arrangement of the museum space is maintained, different fields are created, connecting the specific campus environment, and producing an echo between the exhibition space and the space in the photos. The second is the social environment of the 1980s, which mainly includes works from “Dear Old Days”, the third album of the series. How people worked and lived, what they wore, and what they did for fun 40 years ago are depicted in these works, complementing the background for the first volume. 

The girl with red scarf, 50x50cm, Giclee Print, 1981-1982

With his Rolleiflex and Sakura films, Ryoji Akiyama captured the innocence of Chinese kids back in the 1980s, and behind the seemingly random and spontaneous punctum is the dynamic balance between serendipitous shot and calculated composition. Rather than a pure throwback to that era, we hope the exhibition is an opportunity to refresh our memories, and each spectator can obtain new experiences in life, new connections with others, and new feelings towards the surroundings from it.

Ryoji Akiyama

Born in Tokyo in 1942. His father Seiji Akiyama is also a photographer. After graduating from the Department of Literature at Waseda University, he worked for the Associated Press and the Asahi Shimbun Photography Department before becoming a freelance photographer. He has been actively reporting on issues such as famine in India and depopulation on remote islands from the perspective of a photojournalist. Later, he participated in an international exhibition 「New Japanese Photography」 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York with Masahisa Fukase and Daido Moriyama, among others. He photographed people's lives with a 6 x 6 dual-lens Rollei reflex camera. He has created a unique worldview by presenting works that unflinchingly capture his subjects from the “perspective of a traveler” in places such as New York, Indonesia and China. His works have been collected by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Miyagi Museum of Art, Kure Municipal Museum of Art, Kawasaki City Museum, and Aomori Museum of Art. Photo books:《Tsugaru: Ryōji-sensei gyōjōki 》(TSUGARU Shobou),《New York tsūshin》(Bokusuisha),《Narakawa-mura》(Asahi-shinbunsha),《Nara》(Yujin Kobou) and so on. Translation of a book《American Century 1900-1910》(Seibu Time), Essay:《Sensu no kemuri》(Housoukai).

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