In the 1930s, war against Japan prompted Chinese photographers to depict mainly the realities of the labouring classes, and most importantly battles and soldiers. “Internally, Chinese photography during this period experienced intense and rapid change,” writes the scholar and curator of Chinese photography Gao Chu. Often trained locally in photographic training courses, young apprentice photographers learnt to master the technical aspect of photography while disseminating images that mobilized the masses for wining over the enemy.
Photographers like Gao Fan 高帆 (1922-2004) “abandoned their subjectivity to engage in this work, but they also shaped their subjectivity in this process. They accumulated visual experiences, shaped aesthetic attitudes, and explored personal styles,” explains Gao Chu. “After studying at a public school in Yan’an and the Anti-Japanese Military and Political College, [Gao Fan] was called to the front lines, and the president of the college wrote in his book, ‘Advance, Chinese Youth!’. When he first arrived, he served a woodcarver and muralist, but when the 129th Division received a camera, it was allocated to Gao Fan. Thus, Gao had the opportunity the become the primary photographer for the 129th Division.”
During the wartime period in the mid-twentieth century, Gao Fan was the main person-in-charge of Battlefield Pictorial, People's Pictorial and North China Pictorial. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, he successively served as Editor-in-chief of Southwest Pictorial of the PLA Southwest Military Region; Deputy Editor-in-chief, Editor-in-chief and President of PLA Pictorial; Editor-in-chief of Chinese Photography. He used to be one of the initiators for China Photographic Society. He successively served as Director, Vice Chairman, Chairman and Honorary Chairman of China Photographers Association (China Photographic Society).