China News Service, Nanjing, April 4 (Reporter Shen Ran) On the 4th, the Ching Ming Festival of the Chinese lunar calendar is the time of the annual Ching Ming Festival.
In the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by the Japanese Invaders, the names on the "Wailing Wall" have been increasing year by year, while the number of white-haired people who sacrificed in front of the wall is decreasing.
On this year's home sacrifice day, the memorial specially planned the "Time Witness-Art Portrait Photography Exhibition of Nanjing Massacre Survivors", with black and white images, leaving a "footnote of time" for the darkest moments of this history.
Five years, 86 portraits... When the exhibition author and photographic artist Sujia accepted this commission, he didn't know that he had accepted a task that raced against "time" and "death".
Walking in the progress hall, in the dark space, spotlights illuminate the black and white photos.
The photographer's lens guides the audience's eyes to focus on the deep wrinkles, pale hair and muddy teary eyes of the elderly, as well as the old Nanjing homes, deserted hospitals, and dying nursing homes full of age.
"In 2016, I just finished filming the Nanjing Massacre sculpture group of Mr. Wu Weishan, the director of the National Art Museum of China, and I am still immersed in the historical atmosphere. It is logical to accept this filming task." Su Jia did not expect that this job allowed me to He felt the helplessness of chasing life like never before.
"When I called and contacted the family members of the elderly several times, I was told that the elderly had just passed away. The guilt and regret that was within reach but passed by, runs through the entire filming work."
As an old Nanjing native, Sujia's ancestors survived the Japanese invasion of Nanjing.
"When I was young, my grandma always told me that when I fled to Nanjing on the side of the Yangtze River, I almost got on a passenger ship that was blown up by a Japanese plane. The suffering caused by various wars is hard to describe." Because of this commonality. When filming the old survivor’s memory, Sujia also poured more emotions into it.
"There is an elderly survivor who has been deaf for many years. He witnessed the Japanese soldiers beating and hurting his relatives in his childhood. The old man who had little communication during the whole filming process suddenly sang an impassioned war hymn when I left. For a moment, I deeply felt the tenacity in the old man’s anger and the strength after suffering.” Sujia thought: “This is the character of the Nanjing people, and even the spirit of the city of Nanjing.”
"The images of survivors have become Nanjing's urban memory, and this shooting experience has also become my most precious memory." Su Jia told reporters.
After watching the exhibition, a Japanese journalist left with such words: "The expression on the face of survivor Xia Shuqin is engraved with the length of history."
Xi Meijuan, vice chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, was touched by the survivors in the camera: "Each face embodies sadness and suffering, and every wrinkle hides a huge trauma. May this world stay away from war and embrace peace."
Since 2021, three survivors have passed away.
The relevant person in charge of the memorial said that the collection of historical materials and the recording of survivors will be carried out intensively, so as to save more real memories for this period of history.
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