Jul 2008
A Noteable Passing
July/05/2008 Random
Thoughts
Last week I
received word that Chinese General Shoa Hua had died
at the age of 69. Three years ago, during my tenure
as president of PPA, I was privleged to meet with her
on a visit to China. The meeting was arranged by the
Chinese Photographers Association, of which General
Shoa was president. In reading her biography as
preparation for the meeting, I was astonished to
learn that she was, in fact, the daughter-in-law of
the the late Chairman Mao Zedong. So I had no idea
what to expect from our meeting, which turned out to
be among of the most memorable moments of my life in
photography.
This is the photograph that accompanied Shoa Hua's biography.
She is pictured overlooking Tiananmen Square, pursuing her life-long passion of photography. The Shoa Hua that I met in a formal hotel suite was far less imposing than her official photograph, in spite of the fact that the reaction of hotel staff clearly indicated that it was a very special honor to be in the presence a dignitary of the stature of "Chairman Shoa."
She was a gracious and genial host, and with the help of a skilled interpreter, the language barrier quickly melted away. Soon we began exchanging stories about our lives in photography and laughing about the similarities of our early experiences, such as learning to process film in a bathroom, not a darkroom; how we both encouraged women to become active in photographic associations; and I was especially pleased to learn about her desire to help Chinese photographers exploit the entrepreneurial opportunities now emerging in her country.
She cheerfully recounted the story of how she got her first camera after coming to live in Mao's household upon the marriage of her elder sister to Mao's first son. When she was 14 she asked Chairman Mao if it would be possible to have a camera, because she was intrigued by all the photographers who accompanied those who visited with him. He promptly provided her with a Russain-made camera. After her marriage to Chairman Mao's second son, she went on to become an accomplished scenic photographer and pursued a special interest in chronicling Chinese ballet performers and other dance events. Before we left, she gave each of her American visitors a copy of her elegantly bound, richly illustrated book entitled General Shao Hua's Photographic Art of Dancing. In the introduction she spoke passionately about the art of dance, which she described as embodying "the feeling of music, the passion of poetry, the thinking of philosophy, the depth of drama, the solid touch of sculpture, the inspiration of drawing and painting, the illusion and mystery of religion, and the true, the good, the beauty of the sympathy and love for the people . . . photographic art of dancing has really become an integral and inseparable part of my life.”
Unexpectedly, she invited her American visitors to stay for a sumptuous luncheon in a private hotel dining room.
During lunch I asked if she had published any of her photographs of Chairman Mao from the time she lived in his household. "No, no, she chuckled, "my photographs of him would not be considered professional." Then she immediately made a cell phone call to arrange for us to meet with 77-year-old Mr. Lu Houmin, who became Chairman Mao's personal photographer at age 21. The next day, we visited Mr. Lu's aparetment where he graciously showed us image-after-iconic-image of Mao that still appear in history books.
He was kind enough to pose with many of them, but my favorite was the portrait below, which shows Shoa Hua (second from the right) with Chairman Mao and the rest of the family.
We invited both Mr. Lu and Shao Hua be special guests at the upcoming 2007 Imaging USA convention in San Antonio. Both were eager to attend, but Shoa Hua's failing health prevented her from doing so. Mr. Lu, however, made the trip and stood proudly in front of his country's flag during the introduction of international guests at the IUSA Awards Ceremony. This "first' was a truly electrifying moment.
I was disappointed that I didn't have the privilege of hosting Shao Hua in America. It would have been fascinating to see her reaction to the state of professional photography in America, as during our Beijing meeting she revealed herself to be a strong advocate of the power and importance of photography. Here's a direct quote that I recorded after the meeting: "As an adult, I observed that it was considered rude to take pictures at a public event. But I saw that people had no hesitancy about writing down details about an event in public; so I just decided to start bringing my camera to record the details.” She went on to explain how important photography is in facilitating and documenting change. She showed us a DVD made of a stream polluted with silt before it was cleaned up and made “harmonious;” then she showed her photographs of the beautiful flower gardens developed after the reclamation. “Before, people would write pages and pages about the problems of such a site and then more pages about what it became," she said. "Now you show the pictures, and everyone REALLY understands.”
As I continue to observe the delicately evolving economic and political relationship between China and America, I often have reflected on the strong currents of change and the unusual happenstance that allowed me to meet with Shao Hua on the other side of the world, where we discovered the things we have in common. Before I left that meeting, she gave me a photograph that she had made of her then three-year-old great-grandson, knowing that I had a young grandson. It was a lovely gesture that is now even more touching. I am truly grateful to have experienced this remarkable meeting.
This is the photograph that accompanied Shoa Hua's biography.
She is pictured overlooking Tiananmen Square, pursuing her life-long passion of photography. The Shoa Hua that I met in a formal hotel suite was far less imposing than her official photograph, in spite of the fact that the reaction of hotel staff clearly indicated that it was a very special honor to be in the presence a dignitary of the stature of "Chairman Shoa."
She was a gracious and genial host, and with the help of a skilled interpreter, the language barrier quickly melted away. Soon we began exchanging stories about our lives in photography and laughing about the similarities of our early experiences, such as learning to process film in a bathroom, not a darkroom; how we both encouraged women to become active in photographic associations; and I was especially pleased to learn about her desire to help Chinese photographers exploit the entrepreneurial opportunities now emerging in her country.
She cheerfully recounted the story of how she got her first camera after coming to live in Mao's household upon the marriage of her elder sister to Mao's first son. When she was 14 she asked Chairman Mao if it would be possible to have a camera, because she was intrigued by all the photographers who accompanied those who visited with him. He promptly provided her with a Russain-made camera. After her marriage to Chairman Mao's second son, she went on to become an accomplished scenic photographer and pursued a special interest in chronicling Chinese ballet performers and other dance events. Before we left, she gave each of her American visitors a copy of her elegantly bound, richly illustrated book entitled General Shao Hua's Photographic Art of Dancing. In the introduction she spoke passionately about the art of dance, which she described as embodying "the feeling of music, the passion of poetry, the thinking of philosophy, the depth of drama, the solid touch of sculpture, the inspiration of drawing and painting, the illusion and mystery of religion, and the true, the good, the beauty of the sympathy and love for the people . . . photographic art of dancing has really become an integral and inseparable part of my life.”
Unexpectedly, she invited her American visitors to stay for a sumptuous luncheon in a private hotel dining room.
During lunch I asked if she had published any of her photographs of Chairman Mao from the time she lived in his household. "No, no, she chuckled, "my photographs of him would not be considered professional." Then she immediately made a cell phone call to arrange for us to meet with 77-year-old Mr. Lu Houmin, who became Chairman Mao's personal photographer at age 21. The next day, we visited Mr. Lu's aparetment where he graciously showed us image-after-iconic-image of Mao that still appear in history books.
He was kind enough to pose with many of them, but my favorite was the portrait below, which shows Shoa Hua (second from the right) with Chairman Mao and the rest of the family.
We invited both Mr. Lu and Shao Hua be special guests at the upcoming 2007 Imaging USA convention in San Antonio. Both were eager to attend, but Shoa Hua's failing health prevented her from doing so. Mr. Lu, however, made the trip and stood proudly in front of his country's flag during the introduction of international guests at the IUSA Awards Ceremony. This "first' was a truly electrifying moment.
I was disappointed that I didn't have the privilege of hosting Shao Hua in America. It would have been fascinating to see her reaction to the state of professional photography in America, as during our Beijing meeting she revealed herself to be a strong advocate of the power and importance of photography. Here's a direct quote that I recorded after the meeting: "As an adult, I observed that it was considered rude to take pictures at a public event. But I saw that people had no hesitancy about writing down details about an event in public; so I just decided to start bringing my camera to record the details.” She went on to explain how important photography is in facilitating and documenting change. She showed us a DVD made of a stream polluted with silt before it was cleaned up and made “harmonious;” then she showed her photographs of the beautiful flower gardens developed after the reclamation. “Before, people would write pages and pages about the problems of such a site and then more pages about what it became," she said. "Now you show the pictures, and everyone REALLY understands.”
As I continue to observe the delicately evolving economic and political relationship between China and America, I often have reflected on the strong currents of change and the unusual happenstance that allowed me to meet with Shao Hua on the other side of the world, where we discovered the things we have in common. Before I left that meeting, she gave me a photograph that she had made of her then three-year-old great-grandson, knowing that I had a young grandson. It was a lovely gesture that is now even more touching. I am truly grateful to have experienced this remarkable meeting.
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Don't Miss This Great ProSelect Tutorial
July/02/2008 ProSelect
I want to
thank Ron Nichols for sending me a link to his
website where you can review an excellent ProSelect
sales tutorial in which he takes you through the
entire sales process using ProSelect, the incredible
application that so many photographers recognize to
be an indispensible sales tool. Ron really knows what
he's talking about when it comes to maximizing sales
and how to use ProSelect efficiently for both sales
and workflow. Even if you're already using ProSelect,
you'll benefit from seeing Ron's approach to sales
and the organization of his salesroom environment,
and you'll probably learn some ProSelect shortcuts
and features that you might not know exist. Just
click on this link to view the tutorial.
In it you'll see two of the great new features of ProSelect version 4.0, the ability to place frames around images, and the new "Room View" capability that allows you to show the client's framed image choice within a photograph of the room in which clients plan to display it. Or you can project it within your choice of a room setting such as above a fireplace or couch. These features add even more tools to help your clients make appropriate selections of their portrait images, as they can compare the impact of a properly sized image, such as the 30x40 portrait shown below at right, compared to the same image shown in 11x14 size at left.
While you're on Ron's site, take a look at his outstanding palette tools that increase your workflow speed and artistic ability. They have been absolutely instrumental to the improvement of my digital skills.
In it you'll see two of the great new features of ProSelect version 4.0, the ability to place frames around images, and the new "Room View" capability that allows you to show the client's framed image choice within a photograph of the room in which clients plan to display it. Or you can project it within your choice of a room setting such as above a fireplace or couch. These features add even more tools to help your clients make appropriate selections of their portrait images, as they can compare the impact of a properly sized image, such as the 30x40 portrait shown below at right, compared to the same image shown in 11x14 size at left.
While you're on Ron's site, take a look at his outstanding palette tools that increase your workflow speed and artistic ability. They have been absolutely instrumental to the improvement of my digital skills.