Photographer Michael Cherney combines past and present, using the look and format of traditional Chinese ink paintings as the basis for photographs of the urban and industrial landscape of modern China. The subject of this photographic handscroll is Pan Zhi Hua, a city in the Sichuan province. The city is a major producer of titanium. It is also home to the leading steel company in southwest China. Cherney’s style of allowing considerable pixellation in his photographs to recreate the look of ink painting results in images that are not immediately recognizable as views of modern sites. Upon close inspection, however, the role of industry, and the power it requires, are apparent in this remarkable panorama of an urban setting.
Sarah Laursen, Assistant Professor of History of Art and Architecture and Curator of Asian Art, Middlebury College Museum of Art, writes of Cherney:
Michael Cherney, whose Chinese name Qiu Mai秋麥 (“Autumn Wheat”) evokes both the natural landscape and the sound of his English name, is an American-born photographer who has lived in China intermittently since 1991. The Ten Thousand Li of the Yangzi River series was inspired by a Southern Song (1127–1179 C.E.) painting of the same name at the Freer Gallery of Art.
The act of photographing is spontaneous—the final result is not premeditated. However, the process of selecting and printing the minute passages and then mounting them using traditional materials is a painstaking one. For Cherney, the centuries-old formats and techniques he uses complement the finished product—they affect the pacing of the scene, the subtle blur of the ink, and the physical presence of the work of art. Indeed, the grainy pixellated quality of the photograph almost perfectly emulates the textured brushstrokes produced by ancient masters.
The Yangtze River (or Yangzi) is the longest river in Asia, originating in the high elevations of Qinghai and Sichuan province and winding its way toward Shanghai, where it empties into the East China Sea. Its physical beauty and historical importance to Chinese agriculture and commerce cannot be underestimated, and it has been a popular subject of landscape painters. However, in recent years, the natural environment has been dramatically transformed by the growth of cities along its banks and the building of the controversial Three Gorges Dam.