Contemporary Chinese Social Documentary Photography Evolution Relationship With The Time Background

As we all know, the photography was born in August19,1839, and soon thistechnology will be introduced to China. The first60years in china, photography has not beendeveloped rationally and systematically. During the20thto the30th years of the last century,photography practitioners began to think and intervene real life to promote the budding ofdocumentary photography.From the end of the1940s to the late1960s, under the principle that all the service forpolitics, documentary photo coverage filled up the spirit of the times of the socialistrevolution and construction, may also have a single theme and keynote, the lack of the focusof the community and concerned about people’s livelihood During the "Highly politicized" era,documentary photography formed the unique and "highly politicized" personality and style.In a10-year "Cultural Revolution", the art of photography fell into an unprecedentedstagnation, confusion, distorted state. In the extreme politicized period, photography hasbecome an instrument of political conspiracy of the "Gang of Four" propaganda. Under theweight of the ultra-leftist political discourse hegemony, the formal structure of documentaryphotography in this period was formulated and conceptualized, the content and image weremonotonous and mediocre artificial, it is difficult to see a trace of human nature, humanity,human flexibility, retaining only the extreme political needs of "high, large, red, light andbright ".The “5, April” incident of the Tiananmen was called the major turning point ofphotography in China. Under high pressure of the extreme-left politics, photography bravelywatch reality and reveal the reactionary nature of the extreme-left politics, according to theirown distinctive moral position and value judgment. Eulogizing Sound of Music to the humancare. The special era, using this special form, bred a number of the good works of socialdocumentary photography.From1977to2000，in this sense of people，it is the prosperity and upgrading ofdocumentary photography in China. Under the premise of the ultra-leftist “photographichegemonic discourse was difficultly digested, photographers go along the humanitynormalized complex road, with the conscious human awareness and critical thinking, dialogueextensively and in-depth with the history and society, integrate feelings and personal positionsinto works, more highlight the nature of documentary photography. With the furtherdeepening of reform and opening up, the social system gradually improving, graduallyincreasing awareness of democracy, documentary photography has gradually become a publicinstrument to maintain healthy social development. This period, the emergence of a largenumber of outstanding social documentary photographer. Their works, themes close to reallife, in various forms, the novel point of view, the subject is profound, in the light of the human spirit, pulsing with its own independent thinking. This is one of the most importantadvances of social documentary photography, is a great development.After2000, the new century launched a colorful background for social documentaryphotography. High-speed "rising", again and again scouring of the economy, globalinformation, East-West cultural collision, exchange and blending, so that China’s SocialDocumentary Photography in the Modern Context seems unusual dynamic. The growth ofpeople’s wealth, resulting in rapidly growing team of documentary photography. Moderndigital cameras and network rapidly joint together, with extraordinary strength, made thesocial function of documentary photography unprecedented expansion and depth. The newgeneration of social documentary photographers even more hope to express their emotionalqualities and personal view in the works. Facing the complex and numerous real life, they areaccustomed to a more subtle observation, focus the shooting psychological andemotional’Characterization and expression of the object. Facing the language forms ofthis documentary photography, some scholars have called documentary photography"micro-era".The moment, documentary photographers need to think seriously about the relationshipbetween traditional culture and the Chinese documentary photography and to face our ancienttraditional culture with the spirit of scientific inheritance and giving up. At the same time,photographers clearly recognize that learning from the Western, just use what they havelearned to help eastern to prosper and improve our own documentary photography.The prosperity and improvement of documentary photography, it is imperative to focuson improving documentary photography’s own cultural quality. This is a top priority.This paper attempts to clean up a clear development path for the history of documentaryphotography, and elaborates the relationship between the social documentary photography andhistorical background. This study has some significance for the development and features ofChinese documentary photography.