LRCCS Community Spotlight: Wang Qingsong
2017The LRCCS Community Spotlight introduces Artist-in-Residence Wang Qingsong, an influential Chinese photographer who started as an oil painter. The interview explores his journey to becoming an artist.
Wang Laoshi explains he never had consistent art education as a child due to his family’s constant moves in the oil industry. He discovered his passion in high school and learned art school was an option. After graduating, he moved to Beijing in 1993 after visiting a pivotal exhibition at the National Art Museum of China that inspired him.
His first years in Beijing were difficult—he couldn’t make a living from art and lived in harsh conditions. However, hope sustained him: “Hope is bigger than any difficulty.” His work gained recognition around 1997-1998.
In 1996, Wang transitioned from painting to photography to document China’s rapid social changes. He states: “To record and document. China is changing too fast. It just needs to be recorded.” He hopes his work serves as “a compressed history” for sociology research and education.
