Le Ronghua

Born in China in 1971, he began to shoot his first black and white picture since 1989. In 1998, he decided to go on a discovery journey by travelling through Taklamakan, the largest desert in China. Over five years, he covered more than 20,000 kilometres across Tibet, Qinghai and Xinjiang province including a walk through the hazardous Luobubo (Lopnor) area, made famous by Sven Hedin’s expedition.

Ronghua came to the UK to study English in 2003 followed by a MA course at the University College of Creative Arts at Rochester. His tutor, Kevin Leggett wrote in his reference letter about his ideas and experiences as follows:

"In photography, what I want to present is not merely a visual depth but a depth of reflection. I try to present a complete and sophisticated structure on the basis of a singular symbol. I hope to penetrate through its form and space in order to exclude it from its own blankness and depression. In some degree, I’m more fascinated by the solidity and fluidity of the colour.

In my creating, I tend to manipulate those photographic elements - lines, light, colour, form, composition as such to break down the temporal order in exposure with fractural combinations. I feel the need to deny the visual tradition of objective representation and realistic presentation. By the juxtaposition of the transforming of colour and form with my control of the exposure time, I try to decompose the significance of the original subject and replace it with a refreshed visual experience. Behind this detriment of the significance of the original subject, is an incentive to break from the bondage and chains around my reason. Of course, all these are to be done under the operation of light. And this attempt to decompose the temporal continuity in my photographic practice only coincides with the artistic strategy in modern painting to deconstruct and reconstruct the form and presentation. Yet what we can experience in a certain art work often has its own impulse or even vitality to break through the original creation itself."