The North and the South
Jiang Wei

These photographs were taken as Luo Dan crisscrossed half the nation over the year 2008. Taking “The North and the South, China 2008” photos is always a difficult task, and the result is often full of cheap romanticism, quaint folk customs and a sense of nature. There has been no lack of such “works” over the past few years.

But instead of choosing the easy way out, Luo Dan is on a quest to find out whether or not Chinese values and lifestyles still have a means of surviving the wave of globalization sweeping over the nation. The question appears to be a pressing one for Luo Dan, who seems to find little positive proof in the current state of affairs. Shooting “The North and the South, China 2008” has become a framework from which he explores and searches not only for the other, but also for his self-identity. It is a road filled with danger and hardship, and sometimes a distance separates the lens from reality. In that sense, Luo Dan’s work is rare and commendable indeed.

Although what we see here is an extremely personal and concrete Luo Dan, we must remember he is always on the move in highly changing circumstances, and he deals with these by constantly filtering, picking and choosing. “The North and the South, China 2008” is not only a state of mind, it is about an individual in his environment who takes the initiative to reflect upon himself and express himself. Because it is self-initiated, it is enriching enough providing us a rich picture of spiritual insight, at the same time sharply intervene our imagination and dispute on our individual life and the common life.

Luo Dan obviously does not see his photography as the result of some preconceived action. He maintains a sharp dialogue with reality, life and himself, keeping in mind that the chaos and challenge of the Chinese experience and current reality is an imminent cause for making choices and taking action. For him, photography opens up a new prospect, a new gaze, a new road of contemplation within action and choice.

It is extraordinary to all the Chinese in 2008. For Luo Dan, he decided to walk along China after a prefunding thought. He is one of the fewer Chinese young photographers who always harbor the emotion and vigilance to lives and can simultaneously obtain a kind of grave feeling to the lives through the camera. He thoroughly understands the narrative art and has the poem conciseness talent with photographic language, moreover he has made the narrative mode of photography a subject again.

In Luo Dan’s photography, there are feelings of sadness on existence, enthusiasms about language exploration, a great feeling with richness, and an indulging desire to express life. Why we should have a look at these photos? How can we accept and bear all of these? Therefore, Luo Dan took it as if it was easy, just like what Harold Bloom has said in his The Anxiety of Infuluence: A Theory of Poetry: “In the story it only mentioned that people should go there.”