《纽约时报》刊登陈荣辉作品《空城计》｜三影堂+3画廊
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三影堂+3画廊代理艺术家陈荣辉的作品《空城计》（Freezing Lands) 刊登于《纽约时报》Lens专栏，每一幅照片都在诉说着一段东北年轻人自己的故事。
《茫然而疏离：那些格格不入的东北年轻人》
文章转自《纽约时报》/ TIFFANY MAY
当一场零度以下的暴雪在户外肆虐时，陈荣辉推开玻璃窗，让一阵冷空气进来。
2016年12月，他在伊春，中国东北部一个曾经繁荣但已没落的城市。在那里，他开始拍摄一些年轻人，从他们身上，他认出自己生活里也有的疏离。“这种暖气相当于会把一个人弄到一种最慵懒的状态，没有办法思考问题，”他在之后的一次电话采访中说。与此同时，他还发现，在构成中国“锈带”的东北地区，情绪变得像脚下的冰一样冷酷无情，这令人恐惧。“我感受到很多人可能就像土地一样慢慢、慢慢地在冰封自己。”
连续三个冬天，他都在创作《北地凛冬》，一个探索反差的大画幅摄影系列。寒冷传达了城镇的荒凉。就像陈荣辉自己所做一样，随着人们离开这个地区到繁华的城市上学和工作，这里的人口正在减少。年轻的居民在温暖和涂着明亮色彩的室内度过了他们的冬天，对未来感到一片茫然。
“和其他许多中国年轻人一样，我离开家乡是为了在城市里寻找机会，”在一份关于他的摄影作品的陈述中，陈荣辉写道。“和其他许多中国年轻人一样，这给我带来一种不稳定的自我意识。现在我已经离开了，但我在城市和乡村都感到不自在。”
许多农民工在他们所迁入的城市不被视为永久居民，他们也不能获得相同的社会福利或政府补贴。但即使对那些留下来的、或者在大城市学习或工作后返乡的人来说，关于离开还是留下的问题也从未远离他们的脑海。
根据2016年的一项研究，2000年至2010年间，因为许多居民在其他地方找工作，大约180个城市的人口减少了。在东北，曾经有着繁忙的工厂、发电厂、采矿和伐木活动的乡镇和城市，自然资源正在枯竭，生产总值在下降，商业前景几乎消失。
陈荣辉最为人所知的也许是他拍摄的名为《圣诞工厂》的作品。在那些工厂里，民工们常年在满是红色闪粉的车间里制作圣诞袜、雪花和塑料驯鹿。他们每天在恶劣环境下的劳动，和他们所制造的节日欢乐构成了一种超现实冲突。该系列的一幅肖像作品为陈荣辉赢得了2015年世界新闻摄影比赛的二等奖。这一荣誉以及出现的大画幅相机，预示着陈荣辉的摄影实践将出现一个转折。《北地凛冬》是他的第二个大画幅项目。
2017年1月，黑龙江富拉尔基，22岁的双胞胎。她们说那年卖衣服赚不到钱，她们原打算搬到浙江去。 ©️陈荣辉
“作为记者的时候，追求快速抓拍，把思考的能力给了数码相机，而不是我自己去思考，”他说。相比之下，大画幅摄影的缓慢使他能够更好地关注他的主题，并捕捉到一种不确定感。大画幅摄影所需要的这种深思熟虑的技法，与他用于该项目的方法相匹配，这个项目最初是一个新闻摄影任务，后来更多的变成了个人作品。
在暴风雪中的第一天，他使用在该地区尤为流行的短视频应用程序快手来寻找年轻的拍摄对象。那上面的一些人是通过直播谋生的诙谐表演者；另一些人在大学放假回家后寻找喝几杯的朋友。
“我拍的这些年轻人都算是格格不入的人，他们可能不属于我们社会的主流，但其实他们跟每个人都一样，”陈荣辉说。“这种互联网的方式拉近了人与人之间的距离，但是我们在线下真实的亲密感就消失了。”
2016年12月，当地猎人黄春（音）在伊春桃山国际狩猎场。 ©️陈荣辉
2018年2月，辽宁抚顺，10岁的于婷（音）站在浑河岸边，手里拿着一束用来装饰冰雕的人造花。 ©️陈荣辉
20岁的姚乐（音）和他16岁的女朋友，他是来自富拉尔基的网红，在直播应用上表演说唱。富拉尔基的许多年轻人已经转向网络流媒体以获取经济机会。 ©️陈荣辉
他花了三个冬天走访东北，一次一两个星期，将这个摄影项目扩展到五个城市：伊春、龙井、富拉尔基、抚顺和双鸭山。陈荣辉舍弃了纯粹的纪实摄影，专注于令他印象深刻并触动他感受的东西，而非客观地描述。
通过拍摄年轻人，陈荣辉认识到了他故事的各个方面：离家到另一个陌生城市带来的冲突，以及不属于任何地方的孤立感。“虽然这个地方跟我很遥远，但是我自己感觉的那种孤独跟他们的没那么大的差别，”他说。“当个体面对这种社会环境巨变的时候，那种无力感就会特别明显。”
陈荣辉来自东部省份浙江一个气候温和的村庄，他将在严酷的天气中摄影看作是一种忍耐度的考验。大画幅相机有时候摸起来可能感觉像是一团火球，而且需要在很滑的冰面上拖拽设备。但陈荣辉说，将自己置于拍摄对象的处境中，体验寒冷生活中的困难，对他来说是至关重要的。
第一次来到这里时，他被窗外的厚厚积雪发出的刺眼强光所震惊。他的眼睛刺痛，视线模糊了。但看得越近，他就越能看到那里反射出自己的故事。“雪它很美，但它可以把很多东西遮盖住，”他说。
2016年12月，政府在伊春河上放置的彩色假树。 ©️陈荣辉
2017年2月，五名朝鲜族儿童在龙井当地教堂祈祷，该教堂位于与朝鲜接壤的地区，是朝鲜族社群的聚居地。 ©️陈荣辉
2017年2月，龙井一名当地职业高中学生黄平（左），这所学校许多学生在网上表演赚钱，他的室友在进行一场直播。 ©️陈荣辉
2016年12月，黑龙江伊春，22岁的子怡（音）站在父母为她购买的车前。她正考虑搬到北京，但她担心在那里她要被迫住进狭小的公寓。 ©️陈荣辉
2017年3月，吉林龙井，19岁的凌说，“我是我们大学的排球运动员，我不想离开家乡。” ©️陈荣辉
艺术家简介
陈荣辉丨Ronghui Chen
摄影艺术家，任澎湃新闻英文版 Sixth Tone 视觉总监，现居上海。他的作品主要关注于中国现代化进程中人和城市之间的关系。从作品《圣诞工厂》 获得第 58 届世界新闻摄影大赛(荷赛)，到作品《空城计》获得第六届侯登科纪实摄影大奖再到获得第十届三影堂 ALPA 奖，陈荣辉的作品逐渐获得了从广泛认可。出版同名画册《陈荣辉》归属于中国当代摄影图录。他的作品曾在美国国际摄影中心 ICP、法国阿尔勒摄影节、纽约 photo ville 摄影节等地展出。
相关阅读：陈荣辉镜头里的东北与网红经济｜第十届三影堂摄影奖入围艺术家专访Vol.3
Young People Left Behind in China’s Snowbound Rust Belt
Ronghui Chen’s photographs of young people in Northeastern China capture a loneliness he recognized in his own trek from village to city.
Photographs by Ronghui Chen | Text by Tiffany
May Feb. 26, 2019
As a sub-zero blizzard raged outside, Ronghui Chen pushed open a glass window to let in a gust of cold air.
He was in Yichun, a faded boomtown in northeastern China, where in December, 2016 he began photographing young people whose isolation he recognized in his own life. “This kind of heating puts people into the most lethargic state, depriving them of the ability to reflect,” he later said in a phone interview. At the same time, he also finds it frightening to become emotionally hardened like ice underfoot in the northeastern regions that made up China’s Rust Belt. “I feel that many people, like the land itself, are making themselves freeze.”
Over three successive winters, he worked on “Freezing Lands,” a collection of large-format photographs that explores contrasts. The cold conveyed the desolation of towns and cities whose populations are shrinking as people leave the region for education and work in bustling cities, just as Mr. Chen had done himself. The young residents spent their winters in warm and brightly painted interiors, uncertain about the future.
“Like so many other young Chinese, I left my hometown in search of opportunity in the city,” Mr. Chen wrote in a statement about his photography. “And like so many other young Chinese, this has left me with an unstable sense of self. Now that I’ve left, I feel out of place in both city and countryside.”
Many migrant workers are not recognized as permanent residents in the cities they move to, nor can they receive the same social benefits or government subsidies. But even for those who have remained, or returned after studying or working in bigger cities, the question of whether to leave or stay is never far from mind.
Between 2000 and 2010, the population has fallen in about 180 cities, according to a 2016 study, as many residents searched for work elsewhere. In northeastern townships and cities that once housed bustling factories, power plants, and mining and logging operations, natural resources are depleting, the gross domestic product is dropping and business prospects are all but disappearing.
Mr. Chen is perhaps best known for his photographs of so-called Christmas factories, where migrant workers made Christmas stockings, snowflakes and plastic reindeer in workshops filled with red glitter all year long. Their grim daily labor was a surreal clash with the holiday cheer they manufactured. One portrait in the collection earned Mr. Chen a second-place World Press Photo Award in 2015. The recognition came with the prize of a large-format camera, signaling a turning point in Mr. Chen’s practice. “Freezing Land” is his second project shot in large format.
“As a journalist, you aspire to capture images quickly, leaving the thinking to a digital camera,” he said. In contrast, the slow-moving technique of large-format photography allows him to pay closer attention to his subject and to capture a sense of uncertainty.
The considered technique required by large-format photography matched his approach to the project, which began as a photojournalistic assignment but veered into more personal territory.
On his first day in the snowstorm, he turned to Kuaishou, a short-video app particularly popular in the region, to find young people to photograph. Some were personable and witty entertainers who made their living through live-streaming; others searched for drinking companions after returning home from university.
“Most of the people I photographed could be called outsiders, but they’re also the same as everyone,” Mr. Chen said. “The internet narrowed the distance from person to person, but true intimacy has also vanished.”
He spent three winters visiting the Northeast a week or two at a time, expanding the project to five cities: Yichun, Longjing, Fularji, Fushun and Shuangyashan. Departing from pure documentary photography, Mr. Chen focused on what stood out to him and touched his feelings, rather than making an objective account.
Through photographing the young people, Mr. Chen recognized facets of his own story: the conflict of leaving home for an unfamiliar city, the isolation of belonging to neither place. “Even though this place is very remote to me, my loneliness is not so different from theirs,” he said. “When huge social changes impact you personally, there is a clear helplessness that results.”
Originally from Lishui, a temperate village in the eastern province of Zhejiang, Mr. Chen saw photography in the punishing weather as a test of endurance. The large-format camera could feel like a ball of fire to the touch, and there was also the lugging of equipment on slippery ice. But Mr. Chen said it was crucial for him to walk in the shoes of his subjects, to see the difficulty of life in the cold.
When he first arrived, he was struck by the strong glare on the snow that piled in thick layers outside his window. His eyes stung, blurring his vision. But the closer he looked, the more he saw his own story reflected.
“Snow is very beautiful, but it can conceal a lot of things,” he said.
About Artist
Chen Ronghui (b.1989) is a young Chinese photographer and storyteller based in
Shanghai, whose work focus on China’s urbanization in long term projects. He has
devoted himself to the study the relationship between China’s urbanization and
individual’s experiences. Known for his specific interest in these social issues, he had
published his first collection of photographs named Chen Ronghui, which is one of
the book among China’s Contemporary Photography Catalog. His projects have
brought him many awards, including World Press Photo prize, Three Shadows
Photography Award & Alpa special prize and Hou Dengke Documentary Photography
Award. Outside of his own professional practice, Chen also acts as the head of the
visual department in Sixth Tone, which is a Shanghai local English-language digital
publication.