In the period between the 1930s and late 1970s, photography in China mostly served the socio-political function of struggle and was considered a practical recording tool. Few people would consider it as a form of art. To study the history of Chinese photography in this period it is necessary to interpret images through their functions as instruments of political figures and events. The history of photography in China is a history of political images.

Anyone who attempts to study the development of photography as an art form in this period in China would naturally find it rather challenging because of the limited number and scope of documents, their similar recurring themes and pale language. Of course, there were indeed a small number of masters with very impressive works. Mr. Wu Yinxian is a case in point. In the opening chapter of a book on him, he was introduced as follows:

The cinematographer of the first People’s Documentary Film: “Yan’an and the Eighth Route Army”; The author of “Photography ABC”, the first photography textbook for carders in the Communist Party of China during the Revolutionary War; The cinematographer of the first documentary on the National Congress of the Communist Party of China; One of the founders of China Northeastern Film Studio, the first film studio in the People’s Republic of China; One of the founders of Beijing Film Academy, the first film academy in the People’s Republic of China; The author of “The Art of Photography”, the first university photography textbook in the People’s Republic of China;
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Wu Yinxian studied fine arts in Shanghai in the 1920s. His early photos were about the hard lives of the working class in Shanghai, featuring excellent composition and lighting techniques. He was the cinematographer of early films that were extremely popular among the public, e.g. “Road Angel” (Ma Lu Tian Shi), “Turbulent Times” (Feng Yun Er Nv), “Urban Landscape” (Du Shi Feng Guang) and “United” (Sheng Si Tong Xin). In the 1940s, he managed to take a number of splendid pictures of Mao Zedong and other CPC leaders in Yan’an in spite of highly difficult conditions, such as the lack of lighting sources and expired films, making these pictures a milestone in Chinese photography history (which can also be called the photo history of Chinese politics). Wu Yinxian enjoyed a very long and prolific career and left us with many photo and film masterpieces.   

“Beijing Hotel” and “The Great Hall of the People” are two unique series of works that he created towards the end of the Cultural Revolution and early 1980s respectively. They were the only works in Chinese photography history that aim to demonstrate the power of national politics and the dominant ideology through pictures of rooms in the two buildings that were a synonym to state power. There are no similar photos that depicted the inside of a building in such a thorough manner in the period of Socialist Construction.  

As that period is in the past now, China has undergone drastic changes in terms of urban construction and the political environment. When looking at these old pictures, we can still see signs of the dominant ideology back then all over them. As a realist photographer and artist, Wu Yinxian created these works in his 70s and 80s during a very special historical period in China, which are not only a reflection of that period, but also a representation of his artistic pursuit and ideals.