Photographers catch beautiful photos and record beautiful moments from the bottom of heart.

In November 2021, the 10th Lishui Photography Festival was held.

“Beautiful Lishui with Beautiful Life”. The theme of this Photography Festival is very clear which is innovating on the basis of protecting the traditional culture. The epidemic did not give up people's love for photography and life, but made people pay more attention to the harmony between human and nature. Photography was used to record people's indescribable love for life and interpret the vivid story and beautiful life behind the images.

Lishui is the cradle of biodiversity and an important ecological barrier in East China with the forest coverage rate of the city is 81.7%, the ecological environment index has ranked first in Zhejiang province for 18 consecutive years, and the environmental quality of water and air has been in the forefront of the country. The beautiful environment, the beautiful economy, the beautiful life are integrated well in Lishui.

And photography is the real representation of what the eye can see. Walking in the green mountains and the green waters of Lishui, the beautiful scenery engraves with a picture of "Lishui Mountain Dwelling map" in the new era. Through the window and platform of the photography Festival, Lishui not only lets photography tell the world that there is a Lishui in China, but also boldly announces another ambitious goal: "There is a medium called photography in international communication, and there is a city called Lishui in international photography.

887 exhibitions could be watched online to create "International Photography Festival that never Ends"

Energy level promotion, brand expansion, industrial development, digital reform... The 2021 Lishui Photography Festival adhered to the tenet of "academic, international and massive" as always, and launched a total of 887 photography exhibitions through online and offline against the backdrop of normalized epidemic prevention and control. More than 13,000 photographers from 120 countries and regions contributed to the first International Nature Photography Exhibition and other global solicitation activities.

Against the backdrop of global epidemic prevention, photography is a special expression and mirror of The Times, photographers from all over the world are willing to submit their works to the organizing committee of 2021 Lishui Photography Festival, which shows the influence of Lishui as an international photography city in their mind.

The exhibition brings together the classical original works of talbot, Stiglitz, Steichen and other world-renowned masters of photography as well as the works of a number of influential photographic artists in the global professional field. It also attracted a number of well-known curators, photographers and experts, such as Xie Hailong, the author of "Big Eyes" of Hope Works, Fu Yongjun, the professional committee member of China Photographers Association, and He Lin, the academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

On the basis of the past festivals, the British journal of Fused exhibition, Yale university, New York university, Tsinghua university and a number of professional organizations at home and abroad participated in the festival this year, and ultimately more than 20 international professional authority and more than 100 professional colleges and universities at home and abroad took part in the festival, which further enhanced its professional and academic. This photography festival also achieved a new breakthrough that provinces and cities like Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Shanghai, Kaifeng city and others participated in the exhibition on behalf of their name.

Photography is the most vivid and down-to-earth art form. "Keeping pace with the Times and the people" to lead the fashion of the Times with images.

The photography festival had nine exhibition areas, which were the Lishui Original Oil Pump Factory Exhibition Area, Lishui Art Museum, Lishui Photography Museum, Lishui Museum, Oujiang Garden, the back of Liu Ancestral Temple, Ai Lai Yi ART35 Art Village, Daxiu factory Cultural Innovation Park and Songyang Old Street Exhibition area, and the spatial layout gives full consideration to the principle of urban and rural spatial penetration and locality, so that photography can be integrated into daily life style.

Lishui ecology goes toward international through photography. The first International Nature Environmental Protection Photography Competition was held for the first time in Lishui, and a total of 70 prize-winning works (groups) were selected, 10 of which were from Lishui Special group. This is the first international photography competition in Lishui, and also an important platform for Lishui to promote the natural ecological environment and the development achievements of "lucid water and lush mountains are priceless". Lishui ecological elements, for the first time went into the international vision through photography, which not only told the ecological story of Lishui, but brought the concept of "lucid water and lush mountains are priceless" to all parts of the world.

The International Center for Classical Arts and Crafts was set up in Lishui during the 2021 Lishui Photography Festival. The inaugural ceremony of the International Center for Classical Arts and Crafts and the International Seminar on Handmade Arts and Crafts were held in the form of an online conference, and more than 30 classical arts and crafts were exhibited in Lishui.

丽水数字化改革，支撑起“永不落幕的国际摄影节”。

Lishui's digital reform supports the “International Photography Festival that never ends".

验更丰富。

At the beginning of the 2021 Lishui Photography Festival, the organizing committee had decided to hold the event online and offline, and then, Lishui Photography Festival invited Lishui college R&D team for the first time using mobile game model and 3D modeling means to release " Cloud Exhibition Hall" in 3D, which restore the exhibitions in Lishui Photography Museum and Lishui Art Museum, and also to provide panoramic, immersive viewing experience for global online audience and to realize interact with the artist's real-time imaging. In the 3D version of "Cloud Exhibition Hall", people not only had an immersive feeling, but also could watch multimedia image works in a real-time and all-round way, with a broader perspective, more comprehensive display content and richer detailed experience.

At 7 o’clock in the evening of November 5, 2021 Lishui Photography Festival "Cloud Exhibition Hall" online exhibition onlinede on time, in addition to the 3D version of "Cloud Exhibition Hall", the other exhibitions were fully opened in a manner of   "Cloud Exhibition Hall" web version. In terms of activities, the annual conference of photography Education Committee of China Association of Higher Education, international Seminar on Photography Education and "Cloud Exhibition Hall" guide sharing meeting and other conference activities opened online channels and attracted guests in domestic and abrod to participate in the Internet.

Photography depicts a new picture of a better life with the innovation on the basis of protecting traditional culture.

An Excellent photography has a relationship with the Times. Photographers of our time also shoulder such responsibilities, and keep in close contact with various times, social environment and natural ecology.

The third season of the "Seven Alleys" Art Project - "Seven Alleys Art Museum" is an on-site image investigation project rooted in Lishui, trying to explore how the image should serve the community.

Fu Yongjun, the tutor of the "Seven Alleys" project and the curator of the Art Museum of Zhejiang University of Media and Communication, led his team to enter seven alleys in Lishui old town for the third time where there were Guishan Road, Shen Lane, Liu Ancestral Temple, Wenchang Road, Jiangyuan Lane, Taishan Lane and Yingfang Lane. They did in-depth fieldwork and video creation, and created an actual art gallery in the alley.

In order to create a various and humane interactive community space, the gallery set photography gallery, video hall, resident library, multimedia space, alley meeting room and alley photo studio so as to let the residents became photographers to document their wonderful lives, to become curators to curate a photographic exhibition with installations, photographs and lights and let the "folk bands" around the alley get together to take an concert and write and play the new movement of the good life.

“Format Photography Festival in the UK: Not/Nature "exhibition expressed the perception of nature through the work of 13 photographers, and explored the human impact on the land, flora and fauna and the impact of urbanization on nature and the multiple tensions between the causes. Due to the lockdown, photographers were living a slower life and reconnecting with nature. From the film festival, people could see innovative interpretations, such as the impact of air pollution, the ingenious design of urban gardens and so on.

"Looking Back at History, Walking with The Times" international Classical Video Art Invitational exhibition, through the handcrafted video works of 29 historical photographers, 30 international photographers and more than 50 Chinese photographers, presented their views and reflections on history and the present as independent individuals. Through the innovation of techniques, themes and contents, the art invitation exhibition enableed the audience to understand the shooting themes and techniques of historical images, as well as the starting point and initial context of the development of today's photography.

The eighth Annual List of Chinese photography, Lishui Photography Museum launched a persistent activity to the country, and the exhibition of listed works was a highlight of the photography festival. Li Ge, chairman of The China Photographers Association, led a team to Wuhan during the epidemic, and his work you are the One I care most was in the exhibition. A total of ten photographic masterpieces were exhibited in the festival, which on some extent represented the main trends and forms of Chinese photographic creation in the current academic context, and was an important sample of the forefront of Chinese photographic creation in the past year, aiming to sort out an annual vane for the development of Chinese photography and jointly promote the progress of Chinese photography.

"Light makes Everything Possible: A group exhibition of works by more than 10 professors" attempted to explain the fundamental principles of photography, these people engaged in photography education, with light as a means of teaching. It ws the works of photography professors who have been studying photography for years, and were also full of their devotion to light.

"Longing to · Realizing a Dream -- Xie Hailong's Project Hope Documentary Photography Collection Exhibition" let Xie Hailong, who has been photographing Project Hope for more than 30 years, to the stage from behind the scenes. A picture of "Big Eyes" became a publicity poster of Project Hope, which promoted the public welfare cause of Project Hope to win the hearts of the people, helped many poor out-of-school children to return to class, and improved school conditions in poor areas. The comprehensive victory of poverty alleviation would never forget the unforgettable years of hard work. This exhibition displayed 40 representative photographs of Project Hope series taken by Xie Hailong to pay tribute to the great public welfare cause of Project Hope.

"Poetic Landscape, Vientiane Era -- Lishui Photographers' Works Group Exhibition", as Lishui photography group collective appearance in 2021 Lishui Photography Festival, the exhibition developed on the basis of inheritance, innovated on the basis of protecting traditional culture, covering the traditional documentary, new documentary, landscape painting meaning, terrain landscape, contemporary art and other forms of art exploration and practice. From the aspects of natural geography, traditional culture, landscape of the Times, revolutionary inheritance and historical review, it comprehensively and deeply reflected the history, culture, social development and natural appearance of Lishui, as well as the diversified and three-dimensional ecological pattern of Lishui's photography creation group.

Only with temperature, plot and thought could photographic works transcend the boundaries of culture and times.

"80 and 15 – Grandma Zhu Wenxia and Grandchild Liu Yican's photography exhibition", let Zhu Wenxia, a well-known "old lady" in the field of photography, and her granddaughter Liu Yican's photography works to hold the exhibition together. Two generations liked to use mobile phones to take photos of moving moments and details of their lives, and interpreted their "songs in their hearts" with images.

"The Memory of Dongting Lake – Father Li Jiping and Som Li Yongpeng Images Joint Exhibition" were also exhibited in the same way. The photographic works of them were not only the family inheritance of photographic style, but also the innovation of photographic style across generations. They used different perspectives of two generations to see the world and life.

"Home stuff" Exhibition was about watching and taking pictures while touring. Photographer Huang Qingjun had been photographing for 18 years and had also been traveling around China in a touring car for 18 years. He mainly took photos of family owners and their typical or representative furniture in China.

“The Joint exhibition of 15 People” expressed the determination of the whole China to win the battle of poverty alleviation through filming of Lishui opposited the poverty alleviation area in Sichuan province. Through the visual pictures, people could evoke the memory of that hard time, and created a telegraphic dialogue with "me and my father".

In addition, the “Charm of the Township" Exhibition, the “Important Window of My Eyes " Provincial Photography Exhibition, " Meet Times" in SongYang Old Street Art Workshop Project and so on, all from their own perspective, revealed the major themes that era had entrusted to: longevity of the township, common prosperity and protection of old street.

Moreover, the national Red Army Long March Forum Alliance Cities Images Joint Exhibition showed the "new appearance of the old revolutionary base areas" of the cities passed by the Long March, highlighting the beautiful vision of the people in the old revolutionary base areas to jointly pursue a better life.

Lishui local photographers was a beautiful scenery line in the nine exhibition area of 2021 Lishui Photography Festival.

Ren Lingfei is a photographer and curator from Liandu. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York with a master's degree in photography and related media and George Mason University with a major in art Management. Her works have been exhibited at Three Shadows Photography Art Center, International Photography Center in New York, La Mama La Gallery in New York, Filter Gallery in Chicago, Photo Fringe in the UK, Pingyao International Photography Festival, etc.

She exhibited “From that Day On” Ren Lingfei Individual Exhibition in the festival. One of her photographs, "Life in quarantine", showed a sharp segmentation of her life in New York since the outbreak of the epidemic. With the vaccination administered and economic recovery, her life seems to be slowly returning to normal, but her attitude towards life and her perception of the world has completely changed.

Chen Ronghui, a photographer from Lishui who studied in Yale University, has exhibited his works in the Lishui Photography Festival for many times. He was a local photographer who started his career from the Lishui photography Festival. This year, as a photographer, he and his classmates brought the "Departure: Yale university photography Exhibition" once again, displayed photography works completed during outbreaks by nine graduators of 2021 session from Yale, and tried to use their images to interpret the future direction of photography theme under uncertainty environment.

Lishui photographer Tan Qiumin's "Ten years · Liu Ancestral Temple" exhibition was located on the third floor of "Seven Alleys Art Museum". He insisted on photographing the road in Liu Ancestral Temple in ten years. Now the alley is undergoing urban renewal, with 90 percent of the existing houses empty and residents evacuated. Tan qiumin's image of Liu Ancestral Temple is not only a simple record of the past ten years, but also an image creation based on field investigation, which is a long-term documentary sample of the streets and alleys of Chinese cities.

Shu Qiaomin’s photography "Wang Liang", meaning "the shadow of the shadow," with Oujiang fish as the motif of creation, used classical technology, medical biological image, negative image and micro technology to connotate fish epitaxial abstraction, through the illusion of visual presentation to deduce the poetic expression of Oujiang. they are "the shadow of the shadow" of the Mother River Oujiang.

In the 2021 Lishui Photography Festival, the story behind each photo waited for the audience to visit each venue and appreciate them from different perspectives.

The international photography city starts a new journey with leap-forward high-quality development.

In Lishui, photographers find the beautiful scenery and demonstrated their photography skills to activate the static landscape, plants and animals, and to show the beauty of Lishui and the simplicity of Lishui people in a more three-dimensional way, so that more audiences can experience the wonderful stories behind the photos, and wake up their memory of the Times with images so as to find their own shadow in the big era.

Lishui, as a city full of culture, is also called "the hometown of folk art" and "the hometown of Chinese photography" because its rich resources of photographic creation materials. There are 3 intangible cultural heritages of humanity, 18 national intangible cultural heritages, 17 key cultural relics under state protection and 257 traditional Chinese villages. "Lishui Three treasures" -- Longquan celadon, Longquan sword and Qingtian stone carvings are famous at home and abroad. The overseas Chinese culture, She Autonomy culture, photography culture, Tang Xianzu culture and Langqiao culture in Lishui are all local ethnic characteristics.

Lishui's cultural tourism bears people's yearning for a better life. People traveling while taking photos make "a photo achievements a scenic spot" from the ideal into reality. Yunhe Rice Terraces, Suichang Shenlong Valley, Songyang Ancient Village, Liandu Ancient Painting Village, Jinyun Immortal Capital... Even in the rural theme of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization, photographers can achieve an A-level scenic village through an intuitive picture.

Over the years, photography industrialization has also been boosting Lishui, an international photography city, to improve and upgrade.

2021 Lishui Photography Festival will launch its first gallery section -Wanxiang Photo Art Fair. More than 400 works of 128 world-renowned and domestic photographers from 23 famous image galleries will be exhibited and sold.

At present, the project of Lishui International Digital Image Center with an investment of more than 4 billion yuan is being completed. It is committed to integrating photography art, photography industry, history and culture, landscape and cultural creativity, creating a demonstration project of urban renewal and an important display window of cultural Lishui construction in the new era. At the same time, the development of Lishui International Digital Image Center in the downtown Wanxiang Mountain also marks Lishui photography industrialization officially entered the "Wanxiang Mountain era".

This year, Lishui Municipal People's Government cooperated with Visual China to build an image digital center, build a one-stop integration platform such as photography management platform and government image resource sharing, and help to realize interactive links between the image industry and offline entity industry. Looking back, Lishui has accumulated a large number of high-quality video resources through holding photography festivals and various film exhibitions and competitions. Meanwhile, the city and county news and media have also collected a large number of video resources which would be properly kept and effectively utilized in the digital imaging center platform. After the establishment of the International Digital Image Center, Lishui will use big data, cloud storage and other means to centralize the management and integrated application of scattered image resources, , reduce the cost of shooting with one-stop collection and one-stop sharing, improve the efficiency of utilization, and realize the co-construction and sharing of Image resources in Lishui.

At the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan, Lishui issued 10 years planning of Lishui photography - the Lishui International Photography City Development Planning (2021-2030) at the second times. The planning closely around the construction target  of "building a highland for international photography art exchange, international ecological photography creation, photography industry innovation and development, and photography quality elements gathering” to create a "golden era" for photography industry in Lishui. The 2021 Lishui Photography Festival would certainly become a new milestone in the "golden era".

From:  The Reporter: Ye Haobo