The Golden Lens Award is said to be the most prestigious in China's photography community. The 2010 grand prize went to a YANG Shu-huai who took the photo featured above. Below is some background information of the winning image, titled The Zhong Sisters from Yi Huang and a translation of an interview with YANG.
Background Information
On 10 September 2010, three persons set fire to themselves in protest of the land resumption which led to compulsory demolition of their houses in Feng Kong Yuan of Yi Huang County in Guangxi. The three seriously burnt victims were immediately sent to the hospital for rescue. But one of them died from seriously burnt injuries. After a series of investigations, several high-ranking officials were sacked, including the Party Secretary of Yi Huang County Party Committee who was the de facto head of the county.
Interview with YANG
Reporter: Under what circumstance was this shot taken?
Yang: It was taken for the yearly special edition of a publication. The session was done twice because the initial shots left much to be desired.
R: The incident happened in Guangxi. But the shot was taken in Beijing.
Y: The victims were undergoing medical treatment in Beijing.
R: You just mentioned that the session had been done twice. What was wrong with the initial shots?
Y: After finishing the initial shots, I communicated with the editor and we had the same opinion that the shots were not satisfactory. So I decided to go on a second session. I got in touch with the journalist who reported the incident and invited him to join me. For he knew the lowdown of the matter better and was more familiar with the sisters (,maybe he could help somehow). At first, he turned me down. The weather was cold that day anyway. But finally he agreed to my repeated request. It was two in the morning. We kept waiting for the right timing and expected to do some shots in the early morning to catch the glimmering light at five or six o'clock. However, we both were too tired and finally got some nap around five.
I arranged meeting up with him at 8 o'clock for the second session. But after the nap, I was stirred by sort of an uneasy feeling in the stomach and I went to the hospital alone to do the shots. The final (winning) image does not really strike the eye to me. I think it is at a standard between the shots I do for casual use and those for publishing. If the shot was about just another person, I would have been more meticulous in the process.
R: The injuried lady should understandably be bed-ridden. Why did you choose to arrange her on the wheelchair for the portrait?
Y: Fact is, she normally moves around in that wheelchair. I just tried to make her as possibly comfortable as can be. Her bodily condition really hurt her. When I did the shooting, my concern first and foremost was whether she was properly treated. So sitting on the wheelchair was the usual way she went on the recovery process and moved around.
The pores on her body were damaged which made her feel unbearably itchy all over her. I took a very brief time to finish the shooting. Like 10 minutes. I just wish to finish it as soon as I could.
R: Was it your idea to arrange the embrace?
Y: The two sisters were together when I arrived. R.G. (the bespectacled one) said, that was how her sister held her when they were kids and that was also the only way she could hold her sister now. I think the gesture spoke of their kindred affection for one another. Besides, the thing I least wish was to expose the disability of the injured person. What I expected to show in the image was the fixed feelings of warmth and sadness. What I mean is that the final image has to cover the elements of the news per se and, as far as possible, and give out a visually warm scene. After all, that the two sisters being together was a warm setting.
R: What do you think the winning elements in the image are?
Y: First, there is the advantage of a true story behind the image. Second, the photographic elements are rather adequately reproduced. Visually, the integrity of the image is good. It is also a intensely emotionally charged imaged through (the expressions and gestures of) the two sisters. There isn't much trace of the photographer's manipulation in the image.
R: Has the incident been brought to a conclusion?
Y: It's not yet resolved.
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