ThoughtGallery.org > Li Shi | Between Me and Mao: Li Zhensheng’s Photography of the Self, 1958–82

Li Shi | Between Me and Mao: Li Zhensheng’s Photography of the Self, 1958–82

The prevailing visual culture of the Mao era highlighted collectivism in both content and form, and harshly repressed individual subjectivity. Yet Li Zhensheng, the photographer known for his visual documentation of the Cultural Revolution (1966­–76), preserved an extensive collection of his own photographic self-portraits generated over almost a quarter of a century, from the late 1950s to the early 1980s. With more than 1,600 self-portraits, he provides us with insight into his life and personality. In a way, this body of work could be perceived as a counternarrative to Mao’s visual prescription. What drove the photographer to turn the camera lens toward himself? What do these images tell us about Li as an individual and the socio-political history he lived through? How does this body of work relate to modern and contemporary Chinese art? In the talk, Li Shi will share with us her research on Li Zhensheng’s self-portraiture. She will contextualise it within China’s art history during and after the Mao era, and offer her analysis and interpretation. She will also speak about her experience getting access to the archive of private museums in China to conduct research, with its potential challenges and promises.

Born in 1940, Li Zhensheng passed away in June this year.

Moderator: John Tain, Head of Research of Asia Art Archive

Li Shi received her PhD in mass communication at Indiana University Bloomington. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Her essay on the rise of citizen photojournalism during the April Fifth Movement, published in Visual Communication Quarterly, was nominated for Outstanding Journal Article of the Year at the 2013 International Communication Association (Journalism Studies Division). Her 2018 publication in Asian Journal of Communication focuses on Chinese photojournalism reform in the 1980s, and her study on Chinese photography’s interaction and engagement with the West during the first decade of the reform era will be published in Media History in 2020. The project on Li Zhensheng’s self-portraiture represents her first attempt to bridge art history and media studies within her scholarly work.











When: Thu., Aug. 13, 2020 at 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Where: Asia Art Archive in America
43 Remsen St.
718-522-2299
Price: Free
Buy tickets/get more info now
See other events in these categories:

The prevailing visual culture of the Mao era highlighted collectivism in both content and form, and harshly repressed individual subjectivity. Yet Li Zhensheng, the photographer known for his visual documentation of the Cultural Revolution (1966­–76), preserved an extensive collection of his own photographic self-portraits generated over almost a quarter of a century, from the late 1950s to the early 1980s. With more than 1,600 self-portraits, he provides us with insight into his life and personality. In a way, this body of work could be perceived as a counternarrative to Mao’s visual prescription. What drove the photographer to turn the camera lens toward himself? What do these images tell us about Li as an individual and the socio-political history he lived through? How does this body of work relate to modern and contemporary Chinese art? In the talk, Li Shi will share with us her research on Li Zhensheng’s self-portraiture. She will contextualise it within China’s art history during and after the Mao era, and offer her analysis and interpretation. She will also speak about her experience getting access to the archive of private museums in China to conduct research, with its potential challenges and promises.

Born in 1940, Li Zhensheng passed away in June this year.

Moderator: John Tain, Head of Research of Asia Art Archive

Li Shi received her PhD in mass communication at Indiana University Bloomington. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Her essay on the rise of citizen photojournalism during the April Fifth Movement, published in Visual Communication Quarterly, was nominated for Outstanding Journal Article of the Year at the 2013 International Communication Association (Journalism Studies Division). Her 2018 publication in Asian Journal of Communication focuses on Chinese photojournalism reform in the 1980s, and her study on Chinese photography’s interaction and engagement with the West during the first decade of the reform era will be published in Media History in 2020. The project on Li Zhensheng’s self-portraiture represents her first attempt to bridge art history and media studies within her scholarly work.

Buy tickets/get more info now