影像邀约 L'invitation au Voyage

经过两个月的空想，4天的筹备，两天的布展，３０天的展览，我，Claire和庆胜的《旅行的邀约》个人摄影展于昨天闭幕了。比起开幕时的仓促，闭幕不见得好太多。因为，在4月1日到30日的一个月期间，大家在上海的日子少，离开得多。Claire已经有重新投入她喜欢的香港和泰国了，庆胜几乎一直在北京出差，而我在闭展的当日，已经在泸沽湖畔(EN)了。真有种发了邀约，自己却溜掉的感觉。

关于影展

这是我第一次办个人摄影展，能办成这样，已经是大大的出乎我的预料了。Claire在她的blog里面是这样的描述摄影展的开端的：

还是今年二月在仙炙轩的那次下午茶，Jianshuo无意间聊起摄影展的想法，引起了众人热烈的讨论。刚从越南，老挝，泰国等地独自旅行归来的我，早已忘却了旅途的疲惫，又被这个新奇的idea所吸引，跃跃欲试了。Jianshuo在美国旅行，路过一个非常fancy的展览，其中的绘画作品令他喜欢备至。这时从一旁走来一个粗糙黑胖的女人，热情地介绍说，这些都是我家男人平日里画的，我们都是工人。是的，艺术并不是那么遥远的事，只是看你怎么去看待它。上海，这座东海之滨，浦江之畔的繁华都市，迅速崛起的除了五光十色的浮躁，我们是否也应期待更多生活在这座城市里的人，去执起画笔，去端起相机，去抚摸音乐，去创作话剧。

THIS IS NOT A PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION. It is the behavior exhibition of three bloggers: Jianshuo Wang (http://home.wangjianshuo.com), Claire (http://home.wangjianshuo.com/claire), and Edward Wang (http://www.nikonfans.org). Just as blogging inspires normal people to express themselves (although they are not writer or journalist), this personal photography exhibition inspires everyone to do something crazy, something they typically think only those professionals can do. We call it GRASSROOT ART IN SHANGHAI.

关于为什么要办这个摄影展，我最主要是出于几个想法。

记住些什么

我经常问我的朋友：在2004年，你还记得你做了哪几年事情？在2003年呢？那么2002年呢？答案常常需要n长时间，并且，很少有人能够列出超过五条。这让人觉得尴尬。

2004年，整整的365天呀。我们每天都很忙，忙得没有时间去想一想，自己要的究竟是什么。我们在忙什么呢？

几乎每一次，在考虑这个问题的时候，大家才发现，能给人留下记忆的东西，并不是我们每天都在追逐的东西；让我们忘得最快的，反而是我们说很忙时所用来推托的那些事情。

我在2004年，有印象的就几件事情：我徒步访问了所有上海的星巴克(EN)；我骑车去了太湖 (EN)，以及（几乎）到达了东经119度，北纬30度 (EN) 的那个整数的经纬度点。其他的，常规的事情，记得不是那么清楚了。。。

关于2005年，在年初的时候，我就设想，今年我要记住的三件事情：办一个基金会，办一个个人画展，和在青岛办一个高中同学毕业十周年聚会。这前两件都已经完成了，让我很有成就感。画展，就是我在2005年的一个标记，让我在今后的十年中，记得些东西。庆胜说：我参加摄影展的目的，就是在展室里拍张照片，以后给自己的孙子看，告诉他他的爷爷在30岁之前就办过摄影展。我大笑不止，因为，骨子里，我也有这种想法。

不自我设限

我学理工科，一直在搞软件，虽然拍过很多照片，却从来没有过超过专业级的相机，更不觉得自己的摄影技术如何。所以，关于办摄影展的想法，从来就没有过。直到那次在美国见到的一个画展启发我，让我开始想：我为什么不可以办个什么展？其实，从来没有人很人规定我不能去做，那就去做吧。于是，我们就在苏州河边的艺术区里，租了半个厂房，把照片冲成A4大小，到宜家买了像框，陈列出５０幅大些的照片，并在一堵墙上贴了１７０张小点的照片，摄影展就这样开张了。

其实，我想表达的是，当我们不做某件事情的时候，是不是自己给自己设置了限制，却以为是环境所致。去做，永远比去想要来的难些，但是更有意义些。我常开玩笑说：其实，只要有很多人听说几个非常业余的人也办了个摄影展这个消息，并且引发一些“他们能干这个，我为什么不能干哪个”一类的思考，摄影展的目的已经达到了。我到宁可大家都知道这个展览，而不真的来看。:-)　因为展览本身最独特的部分，就是这种“我为什么不能。。。”这句话。

bullfinch的评论倒是我所期待的：

关于这次摄影展，我觉得确实如海报上所写的那样“这不是一个摄影展”，因为虽说照片的质量的确不错，但是要说水平如何如何高，那可能还是属于恭维话。。。

摄影展本身还是受到了不小的关注，在blogging世界里，据不完全统计，有５０个blogger提及了本次展览，也获得了uuzone的慷慨赞助，美国National Public Radio也作了采访。其实，它对我的帮助还是蛮大的。至少，我开始更有信心，就像办摄影展一样，有什么不能办呢？我要感谢所有为这次摄影展提供过帮助的人们，Claire那里有一张比较完整的致谢列表，在此就不再重述了。

Continued from Blogging about the Exhibition.

No 18. Joni visited on April 11. She went to the exhibition by walking from Shanghai Railway station. If I had more time, I will definitely write an article about how to get to the place with map, direction, and pictures. But unfortunately, I wasn't able to do it. I hope our exhibition in August 2006 will be better. She wrote two articles (and said would write the third) on the exhibition: Article I, and article II. However, I was confused that except the only poster, the other pictures are all original oil painting by He Tian and his friends. I am looking forward to her third entry. Maybe there will be some picture about the exhibition. I didn't go there in the last week and don't know what happened there.

No. 19 Frankel posted an entry for the exhibition. Thank you all the same.

No. 20 bullfinch's record is among the best comment I have ever seen around this blog. I am happy that Bullfinch said it frankly that the photos themself are good, but by no means professional. He praised the "idea, the courage, and action" of the exhibition. The blog also mentioned the power of blogging that makes the words to spread out so quickly. This is the echo I want to get from the audience. As I told many visitor: It is more important to spread out the words, instead of inviting people to really checkout the picture. When the exhibition inspires people to think, the goal of the exhibition is already accomplished.

No. 21 Daidai also helped to forward the advertisement.

No. 22 Stefan asked those who visited whether it is interesting or not. What do you think?

No. 23 Ericfish is Clairs' schoolmate.

No. 24 The sponsor, UUZone's official site syndicts some key bloggers around this exhibition

No. 25 Jessie. I am happy that most of the post comes with the UUZone logo. I'd like to thank Robert Mao, the CEO of UUZone, for the sponsorship and especially Xie Jin Hui from UUZone - who not only helped to coordinate the exhibition, she also spend a whole Saturday with us and worked as volunteer. The pictures you see on the black board are her contribution. For me, commericalize is not always the bad thing. When the right idea meets the right sponsorship, many things that are not possible become possible. This is an example.

No. 26 Elvita not only copy paste, he/she removed some and added our names. It is very interesting. BTW, the music on the site is great!

No. 27 This blog on yourblog.org encouraged me a lot. The comment was: "I will go to visit this exhibition. No matter good or bad, they helped me and my friends to understand, keep doing, and the dream will come true."

No. 28 My friend Elfe joined our contributor team for the exhibition in August 2006. The next year, we will put some suggestions on this exhibition to the new one. The next exhibition, there will be 100 framed pictures and 1,000 smaller pictures on the wall. If the first exhibition just inspires people to do something crazy, the next one, will be opporutnity for more people to express their thinking in a creative way.

No. 29 ppgz is not in Shanghai, but he/she also posted Claire's article.

No. 30 Misittig (may be not accessible in China) and I met in the exhibition. He is a great guy. :-)

To be Continued..

I am sure many mentioned the exhibition but I didn't find out yet - I was using Google and Baidu to discover these blogs. Please go ahead to visit Claire's page and leave the URL of your blog under the entry. I may find out more if there are new mention when Google complete the index.

Lecture Today

I visited SHUFE (Shanghai University of Finance and Economics) tonight and hosted the first lecture of the "Kijiji Career Planning Forum". It was a pleasant experience for me, as all the previous opportunities to communicate with the students. The students in SHUFE are very active and smart. It seems the connection between SHUFE is even better than other universities I saw. Just had the feeling...

Continued from Blogging about the Exhibition.

No 18. Joni visited on April 11. She went to the exhibition by walking from Shanghai Railway station. If I had more time, I will definitely write an article about how to get to the place with map, direction, and pictures. But unfortunately, I wasn't able to do it. I hope our exhibition in August 2006 will be better. She wrote two articles (and said would write the third) on the exhibition: Article I, and article II. However, I was confused that except the only poster, the other pictures are all original oil painting by He Tian and his friends. I am looking forward to her third entry. Maybe there will be some picture about the exhibition. I didn't go there in the last week and don't know what happened there.

No. 19 Frankel posted an entry for the exhibition. Thank you all the same.

No. 20 bullfinch's record is among the best comment I have ever seen around this blog. I am happy that Bullfinch said it frankly that the photos themself are good, but by no means professional. He praised the "idea, the courage, and action" of the exhibition. The blog also mentioned the power of blogging that makes the words to spread out so quickly. This is the echo I want to get from the audience. As I told many visitor: It is more important to spread out the words, instead of inviting people to really checkout the picture. When the exhibition inspires people to think, the goal of the exhibition is already accomplished.

No. 21 Daidai also helped to forward the advertisement.

No. 22 Stefan asked those who visited whether it is interesting or not. What do you think?

No. 23 Ericfish is Clairs' schoolmate.

No. 24 The sponsor, UUZone's official site syndicts some key bloggers around this exhibition

No. 25 Jessie. I am happy that most of the post comes with the UUZone logo. I'd like to thank Robert Mao, the CEO of UUZone, for the sponsorship and especially Xie Jin Hui from UUZone - who not only helped to coordinate the exhibition, she also spend a whole Saturday with us and worked as volunteer. The pictures you see on the black board are her contribution. For me, commericalize is not always the bad thing. When the right idea meets the right sponsorship, many things that are not possible become possible. This is an example.

No. 26 Elvita not only copy paste, he/she removed some and added our names. It is very interesting. BTW, the music on the site is great!

No. 27 This blog on yourblog.org encouraged me a lot. The comment was: "I will go to visit this exhibition. No matter good or bad, they helped me and my friends to understand, keep doing, and the dream will come true."

No. 28 My friend Elfe joined our contributor team for the exhibition in August 2006. The next year, we will put some suggestions on this exhibition to the new one. The next exhibition, there will be 100 framed pictures and 1,000 smaller pictures on the wall. If the first exhibition just inspires people to do something crazy, the next one, will be opporutnity for more people to express their thinking in a creative way.

No. 29 ppgz is not in Shanghai, but he/she also posted Claire's article.

No. 30 Misittig (may be not accessible in China) and I met in the exhibition. He is a great guy. :-)

To be Continued..

I am sure many mentioned the exhibition but I didn't find out yet - I was using Google and Baidu to discover these blogs. Please go ahead to visit Claire's page and leave the URL of your blog under the entry. I may find out more if there are new mention when Google complete the index.

Lecture Today

I visited SHUFE (Shanghai University of Finance and Economics) tonight and hosted the first lecture of the "Kijiji Career Planning Forum". It was a pleasant experience for me, as all the previous opportunities to communicate with the students. The students in SHUFE are very active and smart. It seems the connection between SHUFE is even better than other universities I saw. Just had the feeling...

Immediately after Claire announced the exhibition, 7 bloggers caught the news and blogged about it.

No.1: Carmen: Wang's photography exhibition Thanks Jiawen for mentioning the Coffee Bean Club also.

No. 2: skylee: L'invitation au Voyage . It is a nice posting to help us to get more visitors.

No. 3: stefan zweig offered free advertisement for the exhibition. The author mentioned it seems a LOMO exhibition. I learnt LOMO when I talked with the owner of the Room of a View. It is true. The difference is, LOMO pictures are typically taken with LOMO camera, while ours are taken with Nikon (Edward's), Canon 300D (Claire's), and SONY P8 (mine). The idea is the same. We also have a wall of all the pictures. It is the same idea as LOMO wall.

No. 4: Claire Song (not the photographer in this exhibition) recommended the exhibition as a must-see exhibition. Thank you Claire! She said: "I always think Shanghai is a fantastic city. There are someone holding this type of exhibition in this city. It confirmed my impression."

No. 5: Lisa also helped to put the announcement on her blog.

No. 6: My favorite runliu also posted about the exhibition. Thanks Run to address me as the most PC (Productive and Creative) he worked with. haha. I am so flattered.

No. 7: marco not only contributed his time, also blogged the announcement. I hope there should be some comments around it.

Update April 1, 2005

No. 8: Eric mentioned the exhibition but I didn't put it to the list yesterday. He was heart broken. Sorry Eric!

No. 9: Raymond said: "This is an event that I think is very encouraging. An exhibition organized by ordinary people, not some famous professional photographers, showing pictures of places they had been to, from a very personal perspective." Nice point.

No. 10: Eddy helped to put an advertisement on his blog

End of update

Update April 4, 2005

No. 11. Peak from blogbus are among our first visitors in Saturday noon. He posted the scene that all the framed photos are on the ground. The picture itself was well shot. It is one of the most detailed recording of the event so far.

No. 12. Max mentioned the exhibition and I am happy to know he will return Shanghai from Europe. Life is short. Let's have fun. Blogging makes it possible for long-time-no-see friends to get together.

No. 13. John wrote: "Here is a grassroots photography exhibition in Shanghai, and I am quite excited about seeing this kind of initiatives emerging in my hometown. I look forward to its début, and wish for its success". I met John and his family in the exhibition. John was kind enough to donate a picture he just brought back from Hawaii to the exhibition. He is also the first to sign on our comments wall.

No. 14. Sisi said "The most attracting thing in the exhibition is the poster: This is NOT a photography exhibition". Nice observation. It is also my favorite.

No. 15. To be honest mentioned the event and then commented in his own words.

No. 16. Good Knight updated his blog and posted many photos about the preparation work of the exhibition. It is the best guide for first time visitors to find the place. I admit the place of the exhibition is not easy to find.

No. 17. Gudi mentioned the blog with one sentence: "The photos are just so-so". It is honest and straight forward feedback. I love it. The point is to show something. Actually, I started to worry a lot that "Did we put too much time to present the BEST part of the photo and went farther from the original goal?"

End of update

Our goal is to have 50 bloggers mention about the exhibition. If you want to link to it, please comment on the exhibition – not only the photo, but also the idea. It is something like "Link and Think" project for AIDS. Think is even more important than link. The goal of the exhibition is just to inspire more people to do something they never dreamed of. The basic concept is, you can always try something that seems too far away from you. Please include a link or logo to our sponsor UUZone, the leading Social Network Software in China. You can continue track back to this entry or leave comment on Claire's Chinese blog entry.

Meanwhile, some traditional media are sensitive enough to notice the event and called to report it. On one hand, it is very good news for us. On the other hand, maybe it just indicates the importance of fresh ideas and excitement for this city.

To be continued: Blogging about the Exhibition - Part II

Posted by Jian Shuo Wang at April 1, 2005 02:26 AM | TrackBack (2)