Sad Winter Afternoon, Beijiing, China, 2004 by Jennifer Zhou

Jennifer Zhou | all galleries >> Galleries >> Landscape > Sad Winter Afternoon, Beijiing, China, 2004


23-DEC-2004

Sad Winter Afternoon, Beijiing, China, 2004

Beijing is the soul of Chinese history. That history is bittersweet -- a mixture of pride and sorrow. I frame this historic building in branches that together sing a sad song in memory of this history. I wanted to make a picture that will also help me remember forever the cold, moody beauty of this sad winter afternoon.

I wanna send this picture as a New Year gift to my dear teacher Phil, I wish him the very best for 2005! :)

Canon EOS 10D
1/640s f/7.1 at 15.0mm iso200 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto

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Ning		31-Dec-2008 05:40
This image moves me deeply. I don't know how to express it, but there's really something in it. I'm seeing myself in the image, looking at the winter scene, immersed in a feeling of nostalgia. It's poetic, it's moody, and it's unforgettable. It reminds me the expressive power of photography. It demonstrates that photography is not just a passive recorder of history, in the right hands, it can also be a tool of creation, much like poetry, painting, and piano. That's probably a simple fact for many people, but I'm inundated by so many photos on the internet and in various art fairs that I have lost sight of this simple fact and I am glad that this image reminds me of it. So glad that I stumbled onto Jenny's web site. I also enjoy reading Phil Douglis's comments - they're incisive and inspiring. Thank you both for sharing. What a gift!

Guest		07-Oct-2007 15:54
wow! very good picture!

bhaswan		29-Oct-2006 00:20
outstanding!

Guy Dube		16-Oct-2006 03:45
Lovely. Chinese art! Very well done Jennifer. Vote! Best regards Guy

Jeremy		22-Mar-2006 15:27
Awesome picture. I believe in this photo, you have achieved the essence of what you wanted to do, to make a picture that "sings a sad song on a winter afternoon in memory of the bittersweet history of Beijing". Congratulations! I am very impressed by your photography.

Guest		18-Jan-2006 22:09
Wonderful work!

Guest		21-Mar-2005 14:31
I like this one a lot!

Guest		20-Feb-2005 23:03
Very nice!

Guest		20-Feb-2005 03:36
Beautifully done...

Guest		05-Jan-2005 10:57
This scape is exellent Jen, all elements bring their information the trees, I don't know how they are called in english, but with it's faiding branches it shows winter as the time of year htat symbolizes deth, on the other hand, they also look like some courtinse that halfe cover the bacground scene giving a misterious atmosfere too, the white snow is not that white, that also gives a sadness feeleng to it and the gray sky with the small sun wisely half covered by the tries otherwise it wold give too much of waight to the photo on the upper part leave the traditional building abandoned, like a ghost house a place were life one day existed but not anymore, a relique of the past, but as you say in the caption. Still denotes the pride of the Chinees culture or at least rulers since it is an image of a temple or a small palace that though their inhabitants have left some time ago still stands proudly under the cold and unpleasent winter. BTW, did you give it a bit of a Cian/Blue, greenesh colour It looks like it and it is nice on it.

Guest		30-Dec-2004 05:55
Quite excellent, Jenny! It's my favorite in this gallery (and there are many great ones here). Chat soon. :)

Guest		29-Dec-2004 23:22
Jen, you've did it, I don't know how the other pictures are and I just was looking for a new folder and saw this one here by accident since you have it as the cover as the gallery. WONDERFULL!!! This is what I have to say. I will come back tomorrow and see more, today I have to go too sleep I'll have a fast look though throe your other folders to see if I find an other surprise.

night@shenyang		29-Dec-2004 04:36
Why so sad? Spring will come soon.:)

Phil Douglis		29-Dec-2004 01:29
****I gasped when I saw this image come up on my screen, Jen. And it takes a lot to make Phil gasp. I have never seen such spare, cold, timeless beauty in a landscape before. And I've seen a lot of landscapes. It is the color that does it for me. It straddles the line between black and white and color -- I see no identifiable color yet I somehow feel the reality of color here, in what is an powerfully drawn black and white abstraction. Everything in this image works to express feeling and mood about a country that goes back so deeply into time. My hands and toes get cold just looking at it, too. You begin at the lower right hand corner with the flow of grass leading to the right hand tree, and then lead us on to the left hand tree as well. Without that connection, the picture would lose its base layer. The trees rise together to form a pointed arch that echoes the pointed roof of the pagoda in the distance. The network of trunks, limbs, and branches soar upwards from both trees to fill the entire gray sky with diagonals that link the image from corner to corner. The master stroke is the delicate flow of tiny branches that droop in homage to the old pagoda. I can even see the tiny sun on the horizon, a sun so small and cold that its function to bring light and warmth is incongruously denied by this image. Every move you made here, from making the Pagoda the context instead of the subject, to walking the fine line between color and black and white worked brilliantly for you. It is a perfect image, and one that will forever influence your style as a landscape photographer. You must have put a lot of yourself into this image, Jen. It is strong, yet very vulnerable. It is breathtakingly beautiful yet also a dark vision of nature at its most demanding. It warms me and chills me simultaneously. I can feel the pulse of the photographer in every branch. They are like the veins in a body, but the cold has frozen the blood in its tracks. This image catches my heart and imagination every time I look at it. It is by far your most moving and thought provoking landscape, and must be placed among the finest images you have ever made.

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