Exhibition puts photographers in focus

An exhibition at Tsinghua University highlights the work of two legends of photography and provides a snapshot of a pivotal period in China's history.

The exhibition, at the university's art museum, celebrates the works of Walter Bosshard (1892-1975) of Switzerland and Robert Capa (1913-54) of the United States, two of the greatest photojournalists of the 20th century.

Bosshard is acknowledged for his reportage of Asia. Capa's many pictures became iconic, and is known to many for one of his quotes: "If your pictures are not good enough, you are not close enough."

The two were friends, as well as professional rivals, whose photos competed for publication in the magazine Life.

The exhibition, Walter Bosshard/Robert Capa－The Race for China, opened on Oct 29 and was scheduled to run through to May 3. It provides a rare opportunity to appreciate their seminal photos taken in China throughout the 1930s.

While the museum is currently closed due to the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak, people can visit the museum's website and WeChat account to take a digital tour of the exhibition.

The exhibition juxtaposes more than 140 images of China that Bosshard and Capa captured between 1931 and 1938, and covers major cities such as Nanjing in Jiangsu province, Shanghai and Beijing, as well as provinces such as Shandong and Qinghai. They reflect the country's political climate and social landscape at that critical moment in history. They present a panoramic view of China in an informative and visually attractive way.

Works on show are from the collections of Fotostiftung Schweiz (Swiss Foundation for Photography), the Archives of Contemporary History (ETH Zurich), Switzerland, the Ullstein Bild Collection in Germany and the International Center of Photography in the US.

Some of the images by the two men were taken in 1938 in Hankou, one of three adjacent former cities that comprise today's Wuhan, documenting the suffering of the city and its people during wartime to highlight China's situation as a major theater of World War II.

Bosshard, whose photos were internationally sought-after, began to focus his lens on the dramatic changes in China in 1931, and for years lived in Beijing and traveled across the country. His photos offered the Western world an unbiased perspective on China.

Capa, who built a reputation as a wartime photographer, came to China as a member of a film crew led by the Dutch director Joris Ivens who was to produce The Four Hundred Million, a documentary on China's anti-fascist fight.

Peter Pfrunder, director of Fotostiftung Schweiz and the exhibition's curator, says Capa viewed the Chinese resistance as an action parallel to the battle in Europe, wishing to "produce exciting reports from the front lines".

They took distinctive approaches to shared subjects: The former's works show a calm, reserved attitude, and the latter's convey motion and deliver a dramatic, painterly feel.

Pfrunder says Bosshard lived in Beijing for years and carried out expeditions in China, allowing him to understand daily life and Chinese culture, and he was able to build a well-connected social network on which he could rely to benefit his work. Meanwhile Capa arrived in China with an idealistic vision, and stayed for only a few months, Pfrunder adds.

"He was part of a film crew that was under constant observation by the Kuomintang. He always felt too restricted to fully display his talent, but nevertheless he managed to produce a remarkable number of fascinating stories," Pfrunder says of Capa.

Su Dan, deputy director of the Tsinghua University Art Museum, visited Fotostiftung Schweiz in 2018.He was impressed by a group photo taken in Hankou in 1938, in which Bosshard is seen sitting in a chair, looking straight and with his left hand on Capa's head, and the latter sitting on the ground beside him while resting his head on Bosshard's lap, with his eyes closed as if enjoying a nap.

Su says Bosshard's photographs will remind today's audience of the past's brutal wartime period and behind-the-scenes activities such as public mobilization in different lines of business. He says, while not having an extensive social network in the country like Bosshard did, Capa's images show the "courage and tact" with which he approached news photography.