Yan Wang Preston

OCA organised an excellent artist talk (over zoom) for Preston to talk about her series Mother River. Preston photographed the entire length of the Yantze River (6211 km) at 100km intervals she called Y points – so 63 Y points, using a Linhof Master Technika 5 x 4 large format camera. She described how the camera never gave problems despite the temperature ranging from -30C to +40C. By contrast the battery on her digital camera failed at the low temperatures.

Preston first visited the Three Gorges area of the river, the most iconic and most photographed. Her intention had been to make a visual record to match the impression she had of this majestic symbol of China, which traverses the entire width of the country and so can be thought as a route to knowledge of the whole country.

However when she arrived she found a polluted, stinking environment much more like the photographs of Burtynsky and Kander than the iconic imagery of old paintings or the photographs of John Thomson from 1871, in which views of the three gorges layered with moisture have become representative of the river as a whole.

Preston discussed how a river is seen differently by various cultures, contrasting the Western attitude that you can never stand in the same river twice with the old Chinese approach that it is ever flowing and eternal, and with the modern Chinese (1949-) where damming and industrial development is rampant.

Preston was interested in whether the old imagery ever did represent the real river – her research showed that in fact during the period of the Western Industrial Revolution, China’s economic record was far worse. Hence she concluded that the concept of Mother River was in fact a myth.

Upon making other test visits Preston decided to record the whole river. At this point I note that she is not, of course, recording the whole river. Nor did she visit the whole river. She was unable to reach two of her Y points (represented by blank pages explaining this) and for two of the images the film was loaded backwards – leading to a heavy red colour cast (which could on one reading be said to be representative of China/communism/red flag) and underdevelopment. However Preston makes the very good point that the images represent not what the landscape is but what the landscape is to the photographer. By including the mistakes the journey and some of its emotion are revealed to the reader, making the work more real, more accessible and more powerful. A story more than a project.

Preston followed several rule. Firstly she did not photograph pollution or ruins – she said that she did not want to make a negative representation of the place, although I was unsure if other factors such as the attitude of the Chinese government may have influenced this approach? The project coincided with a UK/China cultural exchange, which helped, and Preston felt that the authorities respected the fact that she was the first person to try and capture the whole river – that it was an honest attempt to do so.

Beyond this she had 3 guiding principles to help her frame the view when she arrived at the location:

• Intellectual interest
• Emotional engagement
• Visual structure/aesthetic

Preston very honestly revealed that often on reaching a location she was disappointed and rarely managed to satisfy all 3 requirements. At these times she tried to stay calm and connect with the place, making the point that documentary is a contested concept and that her project became one of landscape and identity.

In addition to these constraints certain areas are only accessible at certain times of the year – for example the source, which is very remote and was only discovered in 1976 at 5,400m, can only be reached in November at the very beginning of winter. Obviously this gives a certain aesthetic to an area that may look very different at other times.

So, lots of decisions, although honestly presented and taken with good reason. To some extent this also makes the viewer aware of what is not represented – what is outside the frame either in space or time. This is not necessarily a bad thing.

Yan also made other work – for example videos, an artist book of postcard images of all the bedrooms she stayed in, and a red circle made by hand at the source which she then photographed (noting that the presence of sheep in the far distance shows the difficulty in finding the truly pristine). I was interested in these different approaches, since a single perspective rarely gives the whole pictures. As always, however, I was also aware that any diversification also dilutes the work or message and so can be very difficult to work with successfully.

Preston discussed financing for her project, which was construed as a practice-based PhD. This was an excellent idea, and while the text for the work used some of the usual academic buzzwords it was very refreshing to see research by doing that led to a stimulating series of images with a story behind them. The PhD, along with some success in exhibiting the work, gave the project a formal approval. Preston used other sources to finance small parts of the project (such as grants, offers of accommodation, etc.). She noted that it is rare to receive a single big grant to finance an entire project (although she did achieve this for her second project Forest). She suggested residencies as good ways to focus on work in a particular area, or working locally since travel is a large part of the cost. Her book Mother Earth was financed on Kickstarter.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. 1 https://www.yanwangpreston.com/ (Accessed 19.7.2022)