把摄影归入中国当代艺术中来谈，是区别于作为新闻和其他功用的摄影，因为新闻和其他功用的摄影有艺术之外的评判标准，如同录象艺术不同于做电视报道的录象一样，摄影和录象在艺术范畴里，只是艺术家个人使用的一种媒介。
90年代中期以来，消费文化使全社会陷入一种日常琐碎的生活之中，它带给艺术的直接影响是艺术家的视野象日常生活的转移以及艺术多元格局的形成。事实上，西方艺术自60-70年代以来的变化，也经历了这样一种转移。60-70年代的嬉皮、朋克运动、美国的越战、法国的5月风暴等等，影响了西方的当代艺术，而艺术的多元和日常化则成为其后的趋向，正如著名的南美艺术家Leo Nilson 1992年说的：“我们这一代是没有革命的一代，我们这一代是日常责任的一代。”
洪浩90年后期的一部分作品的视角转向消费文化，在媒介上也使用了摄影和电脑。《我所认识的Mr.Gnoh》和《Yes，I’m Gnoh》是通过电脑将自拍像化装成金发碧眼的洋人，并将姓氏Hong的字母顺序颠倒为无法发音的gnoh，“这样的中西结合是企图描述文化判断的有趣尴尬”《Mr.Hong时常在拱形屋檐下等候阳光》和《Hello，Mr.Hong》是由现代商业广告里宣传的生活方式：一个成功者和他的华丽的住宅景象构成的图象，而这个成功者即他本人的化装自拍像。作者“试图通过这种不对位的关系来呈现变化环境中的人的游离以及艺术在现实中的尴尬。”90年代以来，中国消费文化的泛滥，媒体、广告狂轰乱炸式地为人们描述了一个美好的现实和前景，而事实上人们身边正经历着物价飞涨、失业、贪官污吏和种种的社会动荡，这种巨大的反差，把人们推向心理崩溃的边缘，而洪浩作品的极尽粉饰和矫情，可以视为对类似中国房地产广告中那种虚假豪华的反讽模仿。最近洪浩热衷于拍摄长卷式的作品，诸如《清明上河图No.2》模仿中国古典作品《清明上河图》，拍摄了北京的中轴线长达几十公里的街景。《清明上河图No.1》是洪浩乘车拍摄北京龙脉的景致，同时与《清明上河图》进行片段的交错。《7小时32分》是作者从坝上草原乘车返回北京时，一一个胶卷的36张为限。每隔20分钟左右按一次快门沿途拍摄下的风景。洪浩的此类作品使我想起广州徐坦最近的工作方式，徐专注于对各种“无意义”生活场景的拍摄，他认为今天的录象与摄影媒体的艺术都太“艺术”了，艺术家注入作品以太多的观念，而现实中，媒体是通过无以计数的无意义的图象进入我们身体，在他看来这是一种新的政治。虽然洪浩拍摄的街景和风景，锁定的是今日生活的景观，而且选择诸如龙脉、中轴线作为拍摄路线，更是一种观念的介入，但是他具体的拍摄方式，依然有一种追求“自然和客观化”的倾向。如他在叙述《7小时32分》时说的“作品的视觉内容一律由时间决定，从而消解了眼睛的选择。”洪浩近期作品还有一类是关注文化问题的摄影作品，作品亦有类似《游京指南》自己扮演“剧中人”的方式。或者说，洪浩近期作品企图杜撰，扮演和客观化的两极寻找自己新的话语方式。
摘自栗宪庭的《中国当代艺术中的摄影》
Chinese Experimental Photography(节选)
By Li Xianting
To put photography into the category of contemporary art is to distinguish it from the news and other forms of functional photography because those other forms are judged by criteria which are not "artistic", just as video art is not the same as television news. Photography and video fall under the category of art, though they are merely one type of media for artists to use.
At the end of the 1970's, the April photography Group exhibition not only had huge repercussions in Chinese society, it became a way for photography's change from a mere tool to a medium of individual expression. The works shared a similar point of view with those of the "Stars" Group exhibition (Xingxing) and the "Scars Group" in Sichuan Province. They were reactions to the state of photography since 1949, especially the Cultural Revolution photography, which arranged people in artificial positions instead of representing their real lives. The new works focused on reality, nature and individual perspectives. Representative artists were Wang Zhiping and Li Xiaobing. From a linguistic perspective, photography of this period was still considered "traditional," in the same way that the Scars Group didn't reject the ideas of realist writing.
Afterwards, the photography world [in China] underwent a structuralist phase, but no group of photographers as influential as the April Photography Group came about. It wasn't until the 1980' sand early 1990's that Lu Nan, Zhang Haier, Gao Bo, Han Lei and Yuan Dongping emerged. Photography became a "sensitive" topic in contemporary art. First, the photographers took as their starting points sensitive topics: Lu Nan's mental hospitals and Chinese Christians, Zhang Haier's "bad girls", Han Lei's migrant workers, Yuan Dongping's mental hospitals and poor people, etc. Also, the photographic language they used was not traditional, instead they chose to emphasize the subjective perceptions so that one could detect the involvement of the photographer, sometimes achieving a bizarre effect. For example, Zhang haier emphasizes his own movement in the photographic process, giving his photographs a live effect and also a sense of the disorder of people's lives. Hai Lei's "On the Railways" gives the impression that the photographer is talking to his subjects, strengthening the effect that these victims are panicked and helpless.
Whenever a trend has appeared in Chinese contemporary art, this is the result of a certain influence from the international scene. In the 1990's, with more artists going abroad to participate in exhibitions, this influence has entered China more quickly. When photography became the trend abroad in the 1990's, is also became popular in China. From the start, Chinese artists had always liked cameras, so doing photography was like "driving a light carriage on a familiar road." When photographers started doing more conceptual work and participating in photography exhibitions, photography started to become and eye-catching phenomenon.
In the mid-90's, as consumer culture grew, society became immersed in a certain kind of trivial daily ritual that had a direct effect on artists, shifting their focus towards the daily rituals of life and making their art more varied. Western art went through this kind of shift in the 60-70's. in the 60's and 70's, the hippie and punk movements, the American involvement in the Vietnam War, the may student riots in France, all shifted the focus of contemporary art towards topics that were both varied and ordinary. As South American artist Leo Nilson said in 1992, "We are the generation without a revolution. This generation is the generation of the everyday."
Hong Hao, in the late 90's, focused a portion of his work on consumer culture, using photography and the computer to create "Yes, I'm Gnoh", in which he used the computer to give himself blond hair and blue eyes and turned his name "Hong" around into the unpronounceable "Gnoh." "This attempt to combine Chinese and Western culture turns out to be very awkward", he notes. "Hello Mr. Hong" appropriates the lifestyle propagated by contemporary advertisements. In it, a successful man standing in his magnificent house makes up the image. "This attempt to mix these unrelated concepts shows the distancing effect on people in this environment and the awkward effect on art", the artist has said. From the 90's as China's consumer culture flourished, the media and advertisements sketched out a prosperous current reality and outstanding future prospects, while the reality that people actually experienced was about soaring prices, failing industries, corrupt officials and myriad societal upheaval. This kind of dramatic difference pushes people towards the edge of collapse. It can be said that the false luxury of Chinese real estate advertisements is a type of satirical parody. Recently, Hong Hao has been producing scroll paintings, such as "Spring Festival on the River No.2"in which he photographs the street scenes along a 10-kiloeter axis of Beijing, in imitation of the ancient Chinese painting “Spring Festival on the River.” After Hong Hao shot photographs from a car along the main artery of Beijing for “Spring Festival on the River No.1,” he interspersed segments of it with the original scroll for his “Spring Festival on the River.” Series. “Seven hours and thirty-two minutes” was taken on a car journey from the grasslands outside of Beijing back to Beijing. Because one roll of film has 36 shots, he took a photograph of the scenery approximately every 20 minutes. These works of Hong Hao resemble that of Guangzhou artist Xu Tan, who deliberately photographers scenes of “meaningless” life because he believes that today’s video artists and photographers create art that is too “artsy” and conceptual. Also, in today’s society, the media has a countless number of ways to enter images into one’s mind, which he considers a new kind of politics. The street scenes and scenery that Hong Hao photographs are scenery of today’s life and because he has chosen the main artery of Beijing, it becomes a conceptual work.. However, in his photographic technique, he is still pursuing the “natural and objective.” Of “Seven Hour and Thirty-two Minutes” he say, “The contents of the photographs were decided by the time, so to eliminate any possibility for the eyes to choose”. Hong hao has one last photographic work that deals with a cultural issue, his “Beijing Tour Guide-The Great Wall” in which he plays a “character.” In his works, Hong hao uses the opposite poles of subjectivity and objectivity in order to search for his own new language.
【编辑：陈耀杰】
