The Photo Network: Visual Communication in the Media of the People's Republic of China, 1942—1981

Abstract

The object of this study is the Chinese photo network and the news photography (xinwen sheying) distributed through it during the time from 1942 to 1981. In this study, the photo network is understood to be the agglomeration of institutions which undertook production and distribution of photographs, such as illustrated magazines on a national and regional scale, Xinhua News Agency’s department of photography, different exhibition formats, etc. and also institutions of education and political guidance like the Photography Association, journalism institutes at universities etc., as well as the photographers, editors and other personnel employed in these institutions. News photography – a definition of photography under the control of the CCP – was nominally the only form of photography allowed to be circulated in the photo network, and served as the CCP’s visual communication of its policies to the population of China and the world at large. In order to retrace the production and circulation of photos within the network, as well as to connect the forms of photographs with the organizational and institutional (as well as biographical) background of their creation, a large number of sources providing photographs, such as the People’s Illustrated (Renmin huabao), People’s Liberation Army Illustrated (Jiefangjun huabao) and Xinhua News Agency’s catalogue News Photos (Xinwen zhaopian) were surveyed and connected with textual information prescribing the “correct” creation of photographs. This information was found in a large number of vocational magazines published in China during the period under scrutiny, including the People’s Liberation Army’s Photo Network (Sheying wang), Xinhua’s News Photography (Xinwen sheying), as well as the Photography Association’s Chinese Photography (Zhongguo sheying).