In his Chinese Pool Portraits, German photographer Roland Fischer discusses polarities that come from the strong contrast of the surroundings and the human condition. [Feng Yongbin / China Daily]

German photographer tackles Chinese population one person at a time

When German photographer Roland Fischer first visited China 15 years ago, the "massive concentration of people" he encountered overwhelmed him. The images made him think about the question of individuality among such a large, homogeneous population. "Under such circumstances, how can one man still develop his own individual thinking, feeling, life and career?" Fischer wondered.

Those questions also became the trigger and background for "Collective Portraits" series, his first project that lasted five years in China.

Born in 1958, Fischer is a key character in contemporary German photography. The influential Photo Technik International Magazine named him one of Germany's top 10 photographers. His work has been the subject of many national and international exhibitions and solo retrospectives in places like Germany, Spain and the United States over the past three decades. Fischer met his Chinese wife in 2006 and decided to live in Beijing since 2007.

China's large population continues to feature prominently in Fischer's work. His series consists of four population groups - steelworkers, farmers, students at the elite Peking University and soldiers in the People's Liberation Army.

"These figures represent the four pillars of Chinese society for me," he says.

Each of the four large-format images in his series shows 450 individual shots composed together to form a collective portrait, with the subjects named.

"I edited the name of each individual under every photo so that everybody has his own identity," Fischer says.

Fischer has become famous for his discussion of polarities in his artwork. The Chinese Collective Portraits also explore the two sides of every social being, individual identity and peer community.

"When you see the original artwork, close to somebody's face, and you can think about what his personal life might be, whether he is happy or whether he has a big family. You can also step back, and you'll see him die away in the mass of the other people. That's how the audience gets the feeling of polarities," he says.

An important project Fischer carried out after settling in China was the 2007 Chinese Pool Portraits series, which was a follow-up to his Los Angeles Portraits created in early 1990s. Female models were placed in a swimming pool, above the smooth, monochrome blue surface of the water.

Fischer's first idea was to try replicating the Los Angeles Portraits series, but he found that some variations like the different positions of models' heads could better present "oriental beauty".

"I am very happy to present the oriental look. You see the eyes, very much like being drawn in ink, just like Chinese paintings," he says.

In his Chinese Pool Portraits, Fischer discusses polarities that come from the strong contrast of the surroundings and the human condition.

"If you look at this image, you immediately feel a strong contrast between the water which is the origin of life and the figure," Fischer says.

"The contrast focuses your attention on the character who presents both a physical body and an immaterial spirit."

Fischer had to rent two big movie studios in Beijing and Shanghai to create his own swimming pool that was much harder to create than the open air pool in LA because of the lack of natural sunlight.

When asked about why he had chosen the swimming pool as the surrounding, Fischer says: "You don't choose anything as an artist. A visual idea comes first, and then comes all kinds of interpretation."

Another theme for Fischer's work as an artist is architecture, or more exactly, parts and pieces of the surface of high-rise buildings across the world. He calls these Facades.

Audiences can still find polarities in his Facades series.

"Every photo is both abstract and concrete. The basic idea for the series is trying to push photography to a point where it splits into two sides. One side is a very beautiful abstract image that is just like a colorful painting, but the other side remains the concrete presentation of urban reality. Only photography can do his," Fischer says.

For the German artist, Chinese contemporary photography is also interesting because Chinese artists have a completely different working style from that of Western artists. Fischer is especially interested in some of the Chinese photographers born in the 1960s.

"They experienced the 'cultural revolution' (1966-76) they have very strong personal experiences of a difficult time. Their work is a strong reflection of society, life, money and all these things going on."

In Fischer's eyes, the Chinese art market is also new but already overheated - he calls it the "Wild West" because, ironically, it does not actually follow Western patterns. There are very serious artistic standards to be followed in the West, to create a system where everything is connected. For example, all large newspapers have a cultural section that showcase ongoing art exhibitions, theater offerings or movies.

"The art critiques, which arouse discussion among the public, is a very important backup for the arts, which in turn makes works well known and expensive. But in China, this structure is still missing." Commentary on China's art market is still not professional, he says.

The German artist admits there is no major market yet for him here in China, because there is a big "cultural wall in between".

"But I live in China not because I want to do business here, but because I love Chinese culture and the people," he says.

Still, Fischer believes art is not usually very illustrative - it is sometimes related to the artist's own fate. But a good piece of art has a larger meaning.

"When you look at such work, you can get the idea of what is happening and what has happened in China," he says.