This exhibition traces the decade-long practice of the photography society Guangshe (1923–1934). Founded in Beijing a hundred years ago, Guangshe was an art society formed by a group of educated amateur photographers from Peking University. The society’s history demonstrates the pioneering artistic explorations of the new intellectual class using photography as a medium and the ideological impetus that drove their artistic orientation during the transition period in modern Chinese history. Part of the rapid and profound cultural changes of this period, it is a remarkable case study of Chinese intellectuals’ search for a new order in the face of a double crisis. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of Guangshe, we organized the exhibition Road to Enigma and Profundity, revolving around works by Guangshe members. In the exhibition, we also make use of a variety of contemporary pictorial publications related to photography, as well as the works of individual photographers who followed their interests in the humanities or other personal preferences, in an attempt to outline the humanistic and artistic shifts in photography practice in China during the 1920s and 1930s, as well as the bigger picture behind them.

In autumn 1923, as the May Fourth Movement’s radicalism waned, Peking University saw the birth of the Art Photography Research Association.In the following year, it was renamed Guangshe, literally “the society of light.” At its peak, the society had more than twenty members. They explored complex potentials of photography, gradually developing it into a medium of art and a vehicle for self-expression. The founding of Guangshe was an important catalyst for the introduction and development of art photography in China. Their annual exhibitions from 1924 to 1930 attracted considerable attention. The members of Guangshe were mostly intellectuals. Knowledgeable in their respective fields, they were not only good at exploring various photography techniques and forms, but conceptually they also regarded photography as an artistic endeavor, advocating and fully practicing pictorial photography. Chen Wanli and Liu Bannong, the two key figures of the society at different times, both shifted their focus to using photography as a tool for academic research in their later years; in their practice, they applied the visual aesthetics of pictorial photography to photojournalism, rendering the latter more artistic. This transition also allows us to see the responsibility that the intellectuals of Guangshe felt on their shoulders concerning the fate of the country.