Chinanews.com, Nanning, December 25th, title: Guangxi cultural relics photographers have bent over for more than ten years to "freeze" history and make cultural relics "live"
Author Huang Lingyan Chen Guanyan Wang Yizhao
Stepping into the office area of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Museum, in a room with photographic equipment and remake tracks, cultural relic photographer Zhang Lei bent down and stared at the viewfinder, prompting his colleagues to gently turn the cultural relics on the shooting stage to a suitable angle.
The picture shows Zhang Lei demonstrating the shooting of cultural relics.
Photo by Chen Guanyan
After graduating from an art school with a major in sculpture, Zhang Lei entered a museum in 2009 to engage in work related to the collection of cultural relics information.
"I had no experience at the beginning, and I almost relied on my own groping to photograph cultural relics." In the past 13 years, he has photographed nearly 20,000 pieces (sets) of cultural relics and stored nearly 100,000 photos of various types.
Heritage photography is different from ordinary still life photography.
Zhang Lei told reporters that when a cultural relic stored in a museum warehouse is carefully taken out and placed in front of the camera, its current state must be truly and accurately restored.
"The safety of cultural relics should always be given top priority, and should not be used freely, but the historical charm and beauty of cultural relics must be shown as much as possible." Zhang Lei introduced that before shooting, one must first understand the shape, age, region, craftsmanship, and historical background of the cultural relics. , material and other information.
The fuller the understanding, the easier it is to capture the characteristics of cultural relics.
The picture shows Zhang Lei demonstrating the shooting of cultural relics.
Photo by Chen Guanyan
For example, Zhang Lei said that in terms of light use, when shooting flat collections, the lighting should be soft and even; when shooting objects that are easy to reflect light, try to avoid excessive reflective areas on the surface; objects with texture on the surface are suitable for expression with hard light; Objects made of different materials can be properly illuminated from behind to reflect their transparency.
Pointing to a photo of a bronze dagger from the Warring States Period, he introduced that there was a depression on the artifact, so it was necessary to choose an appropriate angle and light source when shooting to reflect this detail feature faithfully.
In addition, the control of color and the proportion of objects all need to be accurately grasped during the shooting process.
"When I have plenty of time, I will try my best to take as many shots as possible to seek better shooting effects." The Yuan blue and white "Yuchi Gong Single Whip Savior" unearthed in Hengzhou, Nanning, is recognized as the only 9 yuan in the world. One of the ancient blue and white character story porcelain, 7 years ago, Zhang Lei was fortunate to have the opportunity to shoot.
After spending a whole day face-to-face with this precious artifact, he finally presented a series of more than 30 pictures from different angles that completely recorded the porcelain pattern.
The picture shows Zhang Lei demonstrating the shooting of cultural relics.
Photo by Chen Guanyan
Although he has specialized in cultural relics photography for more than ten years, Zhang Lei still admits that it is often difficult to achieve the ideal state of shooting images.
"Representing abstract cognition and emotion with realistic images is the most challenging part of this work." Long-term bending over to shoot various cultural relics caused Zhang Lei's lumbar muscle strain, and was diagnosed with a second-degree spondylolisthesis two years ago .
The digital construction of cultural relics is regarded as the basis for the long-term preservation of cultural relics resources.
Zhang Lei believes that recording the development of cultural relics collections and museums through photography, and making cultural relics "live" through the dissemination of pictures, is of special significance in today's "cultural and museum craze" and the widespread use of digital collection resources.
In November this year, a new museum of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Museum opened. The number of cultural relics on display has increased from more than 600 to more than 3,000. Its official website also displays a large number of digital collections.
"Photographs shorten the distance between cultural relics and the public." Zhang Lei introduced that for some cultural relics, photos have even become the only channel for the outside world to understand their appearance, and the use of photos to carry out research on cultural relics also reduces the damage to the cultural relics.
The picture shows the Yuan blue and white "Yu Chi Gong Single Whip Savior" pot.
Photo by Zhang Lei
He said that some early pictures of cultural relics were improperly preserved, cataloged unclearly, and records were missing due to historical reasons, which made it difficult to query and use.
In order to avoid this problem, I have made sufficient records for each shooting, and carefully edited and sorted out after the shooting.
"Some photos may have been taken for a long time and have not been used. I will feel very relieved when they are suddenly needed one day." Zhang Lei said.
(use up)