別具一格的中國風景:她用三十年拍攝中國山水
Lois Conner calls herself a collector of landscapes. The fascination started in childhood, when she was mesmerized by the panoramas she glimpsed on family road trips. But it turned into an artistic mission over the last three decades as she traveled through China with her view camera in search of images layered with detail and history.
洛伊絲·康納(Lois Conner)自稱是風景收藏者。這種迷戀始於童年，一家人駕車旅遊的時候，沿路瞥見的景色讓她陶醉不已。在過去30年裏，這種迷戀變成了藝術項目：她帶着自己的大畫幅相機，在中國走南闖北，尋找承載着歷史與細節的影像。
And to think, her life's work started almost by accident.
想想看，她的終生事業幾乎始於意外。She was a graduate student in photography at Yale, from 1979 to 1981, when she had to take several electives outside of her medium. She chose a course on Ming dynasty landscape painting, where she was struck by the "Dr. Seuss-like" scenes of the Li River, in what is now Guilin.
1979年到1981年間，康納在耶魯讀研究生，學習攝影，但必須選修幾門自己藝術手法之外的課程。她選擇了明朝山水畫，課上被灕江“蘇斯博士式的”景色打動。這條江位於今天的桂林地區。
"I asked my professor, why did they make up that kind of landscape?" she recalled. "And he said, 'That place really exists.' "
“我問課上的教授，他們爲什麼要想象出那種風景？”她回憶道。“結果他說，'這地方真的存在。”That's when she knew she had to go to China. A 1984 Guggenheim Fellowship got her there. Her insatiable curiosity has kept her returning ever since. Her new book and solo exhibition, "Beijing: Contemporary and Imperial," on view at the Cleveland Museum through June 29, offers up cinematic scenes of tangled trees and imperial gardens juxtaposed against stark, modern architecture.
就在那個時刻，她知道自己必須去中國。1984年的古根海姆獎學金(Guggenheim Fellowship)讓她得償所願。打那以後，無窮的好奇心讓她一次又一次地重返中國。在她的新書《北京：當代與帝國》(Beijing: Contemporary and Imperial)及同名展覽中，呈現了種種電影般的場景：藤蔓交纏的樹木、皇家的園林，卻混搭着冷峻的現代建築。展覽將在克利夫蘭美術館(Cleveland Museum)舉辦，至6月29日閉幕。
"In a way it's unknowable," Ms. Conner said. "I started on something and I just feel like it's never going to be finished."Serendipity played a role in her becoming a photographer. Raised in southern Pennsylvania, Ms. Conner knew from an early age she wanted to be an artist. In her teens, she apprenticed herself to a painter who lived next door. She set off for New York intent on studying fashion design. She took a job as a secretary at the United Nations to pay the rent. She took courses in tap dancing, art and photography out of curiosity. Philippe Halsman, her photography teacher at the New School, asked her why she was studying fashion.
“某種程度上，這是不可知的，”康納說，“我開始做某件事情，然後感覺永遠不會結束。”在她成爲攝影師的過程中，緣分起到了不小的作用。在賓夕法尼亞州長大的康納從小就明確自己想成爲藝術家。十幾歲的時候，她在畫家鄰居那裏當學徒。後來，她來到紐約，準備學習時裝設計，還在聯合國找了份祕書的工作來付房租。出於好奇，她學習了踢踏舞、藝術及攝影。新學院大學(The New School)的攝影老師菲利普·哈爾斯曼(Philippe Halsman)問她，爲何要念時尚？
"I could not answer the question," she said.
“我答不上來，”她說。That was enough to have her transfer to Pratt Institute to study photography. It was there she first encountered a view camera.
這就足以讓她轉到普瑞特藝術學院(Pratt Institute)學習攝影。在那裏，她首次接觸到大畫幅相機。"There was something about having the camera on the tripod that allowed me to pause," she said. "It just made sense to me. My sensibilities are more contemplative."
“相機放在三腳架上，讓我能停下來，感覺挺特別，”她說，“這的確很適合我。我的情緒更傾向於思考。”She needed that quiet time, given her schedule. By day she was at school in Brooklyn. Evenings she worked at the United Nations. Lunch was at midnight. At least when she started traveling for the United Nations she was able to afford a proper lens and tripod.
由於日程繁忙，康納很需要這種靜下來的時間。白天，她去布魯克林上學，晚上則在聯合國工作，午餐得等到午夜。至少，當她開始爲聯合國的工作出差的時候，能買得起不錯的鏡頭和三腳架了。
"Traveling suited me," she said. "When on the road I would try to think of what other road had looked this way, or how suddenly the landscape in front of me looked like China or other places I'd never been."
“我喜歡旅行，”她說，“在路上的時候，我會努力回想別的什麼路曾經看起來一模一樣，或是想象眼前的風景突然就像是中國之類我沒去過的地方。”In 1984, she left the United Nations to become a full-time encounter with Chinese landscape painting prompted her to think in panoramas, which she eventually made with a 7×17 banquet camera. The camera was originally used in the late 19th century for photographing large gatherings, and its format and huge negatives ensured that throngs of sharply dressed guests would remain in equally sharp focus.
1984年，康納離開聯合國，成爲全職攝影師。對中國山水畫的接觸讓她擁有了全景的思維方式，促使她最終用一臺7×17英寸的宴會相機來拍全景照。這種相機原本在19世紀末用於拍攝大型聚會，其規格及巨大的底片能夠保證，一大羣衣着光鮮的賓客會被拍得個個都很清晰。
During her three decades in China, she noticed many changes, like cities emerging seemingly out of nowhere.
在探訪中國的30年間，她注意到諸多變遷，比如有些城市似乎一夜之間拔地而起。"Interior of the Bank of China During Construction" shows one of the first of the new architectural landmarks in Beijing, with its 130-foot, winglike interior obscured by a waffle of scaffolding in a tight frame, blotting the sky. Conversely, "Solitary Arch, Changchun Yuan, Yuanming Yuan," shows the skeleton of a snow-topped vault flanked by thin tilted trees, an entrance into a world both magical and removed. The wall was once apart of a Western palace designed by Jesuit missionaries in the mid-18th century for the Qianlong emperor and served as both a de facto center for the Chinese Empire and a site for Chinese culture.
《中國銀行建造期間內景》(Interior of the Bank of China During Construction)展現了北京首批新建築地標中的一座。130英尺（約合40米）的翼狀內部結構緊緊包裹在格狀腳手架中，遮蔽了天空。與之相反，《圓明園長春園孤寂的拱門》(Solitary Arch, Changchun Yuan, Yuanming Yuan)則表現的是積雪覆蓋的一座殘缺拱門，兩側栽着纖弱的歪樹，好像是通往神奇而遙遠世界的入口。這些斷壁殘垣曾經屬於18世紀中葉耶穌會士爲乾隆皇帝設計的一座西式宮殿，當年曾是帝國實際上的中心，也是中華文化遺址。
Once part of a trio of its kind known as the Garden of Perfect Brightness, the wall was destroyed in 1860 by the British and the French. All that remains is this national ruin, a reminder of these European wounds.
圓明三園在1860年毀於英法聯軍之手，剩下的只有這片作爲國家紀念場所的廢墟，提醒着人們歐洲帶來的創傷。But the photograph is doubly significant. It was a turning point in Ms. Conner's project, when she started her longtime collaboration with Geremie Barmé, a leading expert on Chinese culture and history. It also sparked her obsession with the lotus flower, which has appeared in her work ever since.
不過，這批照片具備雙重意義。這是康納進行的項目的轉折點。當時，她剛開始與中國文化與歷史方面的著名專家白傑明(Geremie Barmé)進行長期合作。這還引發了她對荷花的癡迷。從此以後，荷花成爲她作品中的恆久主題。
"It was raining and it was summer," Ms. Conner said. "I got soaking wet. I just wanted to go home and take a shower. But, all of the sudden, I noticed these lotuses and water droplets sparkling on top of them."Between her trips to China, Ms. Conner was busy teaching. She spent 10 years at Yale as both director of undergraduate photography and a professor in the graduate school.
“那時下着雨，是夏天，”康納說，“我全身溼透了。只想回家衝個澡。可是，突然之間，我注意到了荷花和它們上面亮晶晶的水珠。”在中國之行的間隙，康納忙於教學。她在耶魯待了10年，同時擔任攝影本科專業的主管和研究生院的教授。If she is not in China or teaching, Ms. Conner is processing her film or platinum printing in her apartment. The process is meticulous, but she wants her work to be believable, no matter how long it takes.
如果既不在中國，又沒有教書，康納就是在自家公寓沖洗膠片或是製作鉑金印相。沖洗過程一絲不苟，因爲她希望自己的作品真實可信，不管要花多長時間。
"The most important thing is not an artistic career or big pile of money, but to have that group of prints or the body of work that matters," she said.
“最重要的事情不是什麼藝術生涯或大把鈔票，而是拍出的照片集或者說是一生的作品能有意義，”她說。"Atget is the perfect example," she said, referring to the French photographer Eugène Atget. "He put all the money into his work, but look what he has given us, it's profound and encyclopedic, a life's work. That's what I aspire to at the end of my life, to have that body of work. Not fame, not fortune, not recognition. I have enough right now."
“阿杰特就是完美的例子，”她說。這裏談到的是法國攝影師尤金·阿杰特(Eugène Atget)。“他把所有的錢都花到了工作上，看看他給我們留下了什麼，深邃廣博，一輩子的作品。我渴望生命終結的時候也能夠做到，拿得出這樣的作品。不是名聲，不是財富，也不是認同感。這些東西我現在擁有的就足夠了。”
What she cannot get enough of, however, is something that is endlessly enchanting. The lotus.
不過，讓她總覺得不夠的是種擁有恆久吸引力的東西：荷花。In one triptych, the flowers are scattered randomly, and yet there is a sense of order. If you stare long enough, you will discover whole worlds, villages, people, faces, eyes. Shadows become reflections; light sparkles like dabs of paint.
在一組三聯拍作品中，荷花隨意散佈，卻又帶有某種秩序感。如果長時間盯着看，可以發現整個世界，村莊、人、面部和眼睛。陰影變成了映射；光亮像零星的顏料般閃耀。
"Looking at my lotuses, I want to cry and photograph them until I don't have any film," Ms. Conner said. "And then when I don't have any film, I just want to sit there. It's like being in love. I don't want it to stop. There are so many possibilities. My life isn't long enough."
“看着我的荷花，我想哭，想拍到沒有膠片爲止，”康納說，“等到真沒了膠片，我只想坐在那裏。跟墜入愛河似的，我不想結束。可以做的事情太多了，我的生命卻不夠長。”
