On the official website of the National Geographic Society, the introduction to Michael Yamashita begins like this: "As a photographer for National Geographic, Mike Yamashita has combined his dual passions for photography and travel.” Indeed, photography and travel defined his identity, but perhaps it was his Japanese-American identity that initially drove him to do so.
Mike Yamashita was a third-generation Japanese immigrant to the United States, and in his teenage years (in the 1960s and 1970s), people around him tended to look at him differently as a man with an Asian face. Gradually, he discovered that many people cared about his "roots", and he became interested in the East and history. He said: "After graduation, I went to Japan to find my roots. I lived in Japan for four years, and I didn't speak Japanese. I took a camera and used it to take pictures of the things I saw that I was interested in, and recorded them through photos. Telling people what I've done is, for me, an extension of the means of communication." By then, photography and travel were already reshaping Mike Yamashita's identity, and photography became the way the English-speaking Japanese communicated with the world.
It's hard to categorize Mike's work into a style, and if I had to, I'd use the broad term "National Geographic style." To tell the truth, in today's photography world, it is difficult to say that the works of "National Geographic" photographers have a prominent style. One of the reasons is that the shooting scope of "National Geographic" covers almost all themes; the second is "National Geographic". What National Geographic seems to be asking for is a kind of "middle of the road": works that are beautiful without being sane, ingenious without being pretentious, and often don't accentuate a single taste. As Li Yongshi, the editor-in-chief of "China Geography", which has copyright cooperation with "National Geographic", said: "A good photo should have many layers, and everyone can find something different about you? Except for the beauty of color in the composition In addition, there must be a lot of hints behind it, it tells a story, which is more strictly required by National Geographic in the United States." Of course, in this "middle way", "National Geographic" also It has its own uniqueness, that is, it emphasizes placing the subject in the background of the geography/environment to which it belongs, and realizes the photographer's unique expression in the documentary. Mike Yamashita's works are exactly like this, and as a "product" of cultural fusion, he often chooses themes of cultural fusion and conflict, which drives him to wander between the East and the West, especially those that coexist with multiple cultures. , areas where history and reality collide, such as the Mekong River Basin with complex ethnic composition, such as the Eurasian continent that Mark Polo walked through, and the vast ocean that Zheng He crossed.
For Mike, however, these areas initially interested him simply because they were "exotic." Mike once recalled his first photography experience and said: "When I was in London for my third-year study abroad program, I borrowed an old motorcycle, carried a backpack, and took a borrowed Nikon, and set off to Tunisia. Went to find my sister who was a translator there. The unimaginable exotic landscape soaked in the North African sunshine ignited my initial fascination with photography and travel. And, whenever I go to a place to shoot, I feel the same The fire is burning again.” It’s interesting to say that photographers in the English-speaking world often refer to finding subjects as “hunt” (hunting) and shooting as “shoot” (shooting). This kind of lens is called "long gun short gun". These hunting words (which, of course, are now photographic words) seem to reveal the underlying desire behind the camera, a possessiveness about the world. As Mike said: "Trying to tell a story with photos is basically a hunting expedition." It was driven by this hidden desire, Mike Yamashita walked through one strange "exotic land" after another, however, In the process, Mike was quietly changed by his own photography and travel.
Mike's first successful work was the multi-award winning series "Japanese Garden" published in 1992. This album brings together Mike's understanding of Japan over the years. In Japan, Mike learned to shoot in the rain. When there is no rain in summer, the garden becomes a sea of green, which is very beautiful to the naked eye, but in a lens whose ability to distinguish colors is lower than that of the human eye, this green is dull and monotonous. Rain, however, can "wake up the whole garden": it makes more than 100 mosses take on different shapes and chiaroscuro, makes the lotus bloom more vividly, makes the pavement and leaves appear more shiny, and gives the whole picture more subtle texture . Ultimately, the vast majority of the photos in the book were taken by Mike during the rainy or cloudy monsoons. Through this technique, Mike condenses the stillness, agility, and delicacy of the Japanese garden into an effect that appears to be still, yet harbours a serene life. For this shooting, Mike said: "Your shooting task will actually affect the direction of your life." This sentence can be understood from two aspects. On the one hand, Mike said: "When I went to shoot gardens back then, I suddenly found that everyone regarded me as a photographer who shoots garden landscapes, not anything else. Later, I consciously strengthened myself, and started from the source of the Lancang River. Go down and shoot.” Another aspect is the influence of photography style. The latter seems to be more important. Mike poured his own spirit into the shooting of Japanese gardens, and the resulting style of work formulated the spirit of his other works in the future. Looking at his works, whether it is the cities and gardens of Japan, the crowded St. Mark's Square in Venice, or the sulphur mining scene on the island of Java, Mike often processes them into a concise and timeless picture. Even if it is a moving person or thing, Mike often uses the technique of time-lapse exposure to blur the action, creating a dream-like effect, and transforming the external movement into the inner rhythm. When encountering objects that are easily diffused by themselves, such as snowflakes, powder, sandstorms, etc., the microphone will not let it go. In the photo he took of a female Peking Opera actress wearing makeup, the moment the actress applied powder on her face, the powder spread between the puff and her face, creating a dazzling artistic conception in front of the black background, making the slightly blurred The smiling, plump face exudes a beautiful and subtle charm. When dealing with larger subjects (such as religious scenes, historical scenes, etc.), Mike often uses this static and timeless form to wrap the rich geographical and historical factors behind the photos, and bring the packaged cultural connotation to the foreground.
The experience of photographing gardens led Mike to photograph the Lancang-Mekong Basin, and this latter experience led him to focus on other regions with a more complex history of cultural exchange. At the end of the last century, Mike was sent by National Geographic to re-travel the Marco Polo Way to visit historical sites. For the shoot, Mack said: "One of the challenges of photographing the story of an ancient explorer like Marco Polo is to describe what an explorer in the 14th century (actually should have been the 13th century) saw. Looking for a modern counterpart." For Mike, this is a problem, but also a pleasure. When he first read Marco Polo's "Oriental Records", he was "infected" with a "disease" called "Marco Polo Fever", the symptoms of which One is being completely fascinated by everything Marco Polo has to say. Interestingly, Ma Ke who went to China was just like Mike who first went to the "exotic" to "hunt", maybe just a curious hunter attracted by the distance, and his "Oriental Insights" is also quite exaggerated tones used by travelers from afar. Introduce the color of travel experience to hometown elders. Is what the controversial explorer wrote true? Has he really been to China? Why did the "Oriental Insights and News", which has been revised many times by others and has the flavor of a legendary story, be vague about many important matters? For these issues, Mike has no intention of getting involved in the academic debate, but uses his footsteps to test the legend of Marco. He followed the route of Marco's expedition, from St. Mark's Square in Venice to Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, then to Kashgar in Xinjiang, China, then through the Taklimakan Desert and the Hexi Corridor, into Jiayuguan, to Yuanshangdu ( Ruins), Beijing, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Sichuan, Yunnan, Southeast Asia?? Finally returned to Europe by sea. Most places are not what they used to be, such as Hormuz, an important commercial port in the 13th century, which is now dilapidated and desolate amid the frequent wars. In some places, whether it is people or things, it is still Marco This reunion with history, as Poirot describes it, was a great blessing for the photographer. When photographing Mingsha Mountain in Dunhuang, Mike drove around to the back of the dunes instead of crowded with tourists. At this time, he saw a camel caravan slowly passing by. The setting sun is slanting, and what the camel caravan leaves to the picture is just a series of lonely silhouettes; At that moment, it was as if history had reappeared, as if nothing had changed. This photo later became the cover of the book "Marco Polo" and the opening image of the second issue ("In China") in the third issue of "Marco Polo" serialized in National Geographic (It was this issue that earned him National Geographic awards for best story and best photography). Later, Mack commented: "If you think that's Marco Polo walking through the Taklimakan Desert, then my job is done."
Compared with Marco Polo, the recorder who still has curious and exaggerated colors although his works have been passed down to later generations, Mike seems to be more spiritually identified with Zheng He, the 15th-century navigator. If repeating the path of Marco Polo is a kind of discovery and verification, then it is an experience to go sailing with this self-reliant, confident and generous general. Why did Zheng He go sailing? Among the various answers, Mike seems to be more willing to believe that one of the purposes of Zheng He's voyages was to "seek roots" in Central Asia. Like Mike's own story, Zheng He's story begins with his identity. Zheng He's original name was Ma He. His ancestors were Muslims from Central Asia. Perhaps when the Mongolian cavalry swept across Eurasia, they came to Yunnan, China. The Ming army went south, castrated horses and captives, and trained to become a eunuch. Later, however, Ma He not only became Zhu Di's right-hand man in seizing power, he was also given the surname Zheng for his neutrality in the Zhengcun Dam near Beijing, and was later promoted to be the commander of the fleet. Mike's understanding of the purpose of Zheng He's voyages is well-founded. First, Zheng He's father and grandfather have the title "Haji", and only Muslims who have been to Mecca for pilgrimage will be respected by people with such a title; second It was Zheng He's seventh voyage to the Western Ocean, and when he arrived in the Persian Gulf, he sent his personal interpreter, Ma Huan, a fellow Muslim, to lead a detachment to Mecca for a pilgrimage. According to Ma Huan's account, they saw people there from every corner of the known world.
Maybe Mike poured his own experience into Zheng He's experience, and when he experienced Zheng He's road, he was actually experiencing his own life. The subtitle of his book "Zheng He" was "The Epic of Navigation in Search of China's Greatest Explorer," and this "chasing" lasted two years. Perhaps it was impossible to express his appreciation for Zheng He with a single work, so he chose to use the mottled portrait of Zheng He as the cover of the entire album. Opening the album, the first thing we see is not Zheng He, but the vastness and darkness of the East African coast in the evening. Mike intentionally guides us to redraw the spectacle and magic of 600 years ago in our minds - as if a magical force, a huge sea city appeared at the end of the Swahili's line of sight. It was a treasure ship from afar, carrying a cosmopolitan dream, crossing the vast Indian Ocean and arriving at this cape and horizon that seemed to be a new continent.
Only, there is no conquest and colonization here. During the voyage, Zheng He's fleet acted as a kind of cultural blender with a gesture of grace. What moved Mike was a stele at Dondra Point in Sri Lanka. The inscription was written in Chinese, Tamil and Persian and dedicated to Buddha, Shiva and Allah respectively. This stele was erected by Zheng He to resolve the local religious disputes. However, today, 600 years later, the entire route Zheng He traveled is still the most chaotic area of cultural conflict. While experiencing Zheng He's 15th century, Mike was also experiencing the conflicts, dangers and difficulties of the road, and in the process of walking, he changed from a root seeker and a curiosity hunter to a Zheng He-style cosmopolitan.
Mike has preached on many occasions that because of the hurricane-like development of digital, internet, multimedia, etc., everyone can become a photographer nowadays, but it is an increasingly difficult time for professional photographers. However, what fascinated him with photography in college still holds him tightly. Perhaps this is because, in this developed world, mutual communication and understanding are still lacking, and photography is precisely Mike's unique way of communicating with the world.
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