With Extra Frames, a Chinese Photographer Looks Inward

September 11, 2012, 5:00 am

By SIM CHI YIN

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Li Zhensheng, a newspaper photographer who was active in the 1960s in northern China, documented the country's Cultural Revolution, in honest, cinematic images.

On Monday, Lens featured rare photos taken by Mr. Li at the height of the Cultural Revolution. Some of these photos were stitched together and presented as panoramics.

In this post, we feature his self-portraits, grouped together for the first time. They will also be on display at the Barbican Gallery in London beginning on Sept. 13.

Recently in Beijing, Mr. Li, who intended to be a filmmaker, explained the images. “In the self-portraits, I was screenwriter, director, actor, cameraman - four roles in one. I was like making a film of myself.”

As a young photographer for the Heilongjiang Daily in Harbin, China, he kept one or two frames on each roll of film after each assignment, “just in case on the way back to the newspaper office, something happened, I can capture it,” he said. “But 98 percent of the time nothing happened and I returned with a couple of frames left unexposed. My colleagues simply went to the darkroom. I didn't want to waste, so lots of these self-portraits were made in my office corner, near my desk.”

Robert Pledge, co-founder of Contact Press Images, whose text introduces the show, diagnosed Mr. Li with a “Cindy Sherman streak” in his self-portraits. Mr. Li, however, said it was not that he was obsessed with himself or his place in history. “That would be too big-h eaded. People would say ‘Li Zhensheng is so big-headed.' No, I didn't have that sense of history when I did it. It was a way for me to keep a diary visually,” he said.

It was Mr. Pledge who convinced Mr. Li and his family that the self-portraits - including the image of Mr. Li in a Superman pose - were worthy of exhibition.

“Later when we showed the picture in Hong Kong, the local press said this is a picture of ‘Li Zhensheng the Superman.' I didn't even know who Superman was at the time,” Mr. Li said, adding, “I just wanted to have a different kind of picture. I just wanted to look like a hero on that day.”