The “phot” in “photography” originates from the Greek word meaning “light,” while “graphy” refers to “ to describe, record or draw.” In this sense, the literal meaning of photography is "drawing with light." When “photography” was translated into Chinese as shè yǐng, "light" was replaced by the word for "shadow" (yǐng), and the more objective "graphy" was translated into the active verb meaning “to take/capture" (shè).
"Photography" is object-oriented, while "shè yǐng" is oriented to the subject's perspective. The world emits light. What we see is the shadow. Light and shadow together comprise the form of the world (eidos)—perhaps then, the everyday Chinese term “zhàoxiàng” (take a picture) is a more complete expression.
To discuss photography in terms of light, shadow, and picture is not only to be concerned with the ontology of photography in the philosophical sense, but it is also to consider it from its technical origins. In terms of its technical mechanism, photography is a photochemical reaction that occurs in optical devices. From lens imaging, to negative film exposure and darkroom development, several light-shadow logic reversions occur, although only one photo is seen. Wang Ningde's entire photographic practice has undergone a shift, turning from an early emphasis on the photo as result, and back towards the mechanisms behind photography.
From his use of the flash/photo line in the Let There be Light exhibition to the slide/film matrixes of his Form of Light series, in Wang Ningde’s series of artistic practices taking the theme of “light” as language and material, the background mechanisms of photography are successively expanded on. At the same time, the production and viewing relationships of photography become reorganized. Through these reorganizations, new perceptions of photography are able to emerge, and the relationship between people and photography is restructured.
In Negative Light, the basic language and materials of photography such as shadows, mirrors, silver foil and photographic emulsion (silver halides) are distanced from the camera body, just like words that have been separated from a sentence and formed into another possible text. The shadow is no longer part of the shape of the object, but becomes an abstract—yet independent—form; the mirror is no longer just a reflector of other things, but an opaque signifier itself; silver foil and silver halide are no longer photosensitive substrates, instead acting as ready-made materials.
Here, "negative light" is not so much a metaphor for shadow, but rather a retrospection of photography as a light-based mechanism, returning to its origins and further, into its conceptual mirror quadrant. Therefore, rather than saying that this is an immersive exhibition, it is better to say that this is a contemplative exhibition, an exhibition that ventures outside of and before photography, in order to consider “what is photography.”
