田大为（H. David Tian）
1995年 开始自学风光摄影
1996-98年 作品发表于美国专业摄影年鉴、广告及大幅挂历等媒体中
2004年 个人作品《神秘的大烟山》刊登于《中国摄影家》第11期
2008年 出版影集《视觉大地:风光摄影的艺术表现》(ISBN9787806866573)
2013年 出版专著《无穷之光:风景摄影的用光技巧》(ISBN9787802368606)
2015年 出版专著《风光的表达:美国摄影大师的思想和视野》(ISBN9787517902911)
2019年 大型画册《风光的启迪:探寻摄影艺术的人生》(ISBN9787517908944)
2024年 个人作品《冰画》系列刊登于《中国摄影》第2期
田大为是驻美华裔风光摄影师；出生于中国天津市。他于1989年初自费赴美留学, 分别于1992年和1997年获得硕士和博士学位。1995年开始自学彩色风光摄影，创作活动遍及美国和中国各地。2012年他开始质疑色彩在影像作品中的作用，随后其视觉意识逐步转向以黑白影调看世界。至2016年末他已彻底终止了彩色摄影，进而全面投入到黑白摄影的艺术创作。另外他还钻研摄影理论和历史，致力于探索现代摄影艺术与中国传统美学理念的有机融合。2019年他的视觉意识在时间跨度极大的“冰画系列”创作中再次发生了重要转折，从对宏阔景观的唯美写实演变为对抽象现实的表达。他的“冰画系列”创作始于2003年，期间他不断增进了世界万物相联、一物映万物的艺术哲学观。他将这一思想融入摄影艺术当中，深入探索了抽象与现实之间的关系，并萌生了抽象现实主义的摄影理念。由此也引导他专注于利用抽象化的视觉符号来再现千姿百态的大千世界。2023年10月他在杭州艺术区举办了题为《抽象现实主义的视觉符号》个展。已出版的专著和画册包括《风光的启迪——探寻摄影艺术的人生》、《风光的表达——美国摄影大师的思想和视野》、《无穷之光——风景摄影的用光技巧》和《视觉大地——风光摄影的艺术表现》；刊物代表作有《冰画》、《神秘的大烟山》等。
H. David Tian is a self-taught landscape photographer. Born in the city of Tianjin, China, he came to the US for graduate studies in early 1989 and later became an American citizen. In 1995 he started learning color photography on his own, and ever since had been focusing on landscapes in America and China. However, in 2012 he began questioning the role of color in his works. A few years later he ended his color photography and turned his work entirely to black-and-white. His photographs, often taken at the most mystical moments of nature, convey the dramatic effects of shape and form, light and shade. Using traditional film camera equipment and darkroom processes, he pursues landscape photography to its purest form. His work yet took another major transformation through a prolonged project “Ice Transcription” spanning from early 2003, with his major focus shifted from grand landscapes to abstraction. In his vision natural elements were rendered in abstract forms to convey the real world through the fluid quality of single subjects, with the belief that all objective elements are connected fundamentally and intrinsically. While the world contains all objects, every object reflects the whole world. He has integrated this notion into the art of photography with the term abstract realism. Tian’s exquisitely hand-crafted silver gelatin prints reflect a strong sense of contemplation and originality, and embody a unique aesthetic sensibility. His works have been published in magazines, displayed in exhibitions, and sought by collectors. In October of 2023 he held a solo exhibition entitled Visual Symbols of Abstract Realism in the art district of Hangzhou. He has authored four books in China: The Enlightenment of Seeing: A Path to Self Discovery (2019), Landscape Photography: American Master Photographers on Their Art (2015), Infinite Light: Using Light in Landscape Photography (2013), and Landscape Photography: Artistic Expression (2008).
What other photographers say about his work:
"David Tian is a photographer with great sensitivity to the natural world. And above all, a disciple of light in all its many forms." Charles Cramer (American Landscape Photographer)
"David Tian's photographs express the spiritual desire to preserve every encounter with the beauty of Nature. Through a diversity of subjects and stylistic approaches, Tian has maintained a consistent and somehow contrarian vision. In a world brimming with excessively bright digital images, his film-based photographs, devoid of exaggerated colors or over-brightened shadows, feel refreshingly honest. They offer not only keen observations of scenes deeply and personally seen, but also the hope that mankind will always see Nature as a precious part of our world." QT Luong (Landscape Photographer and Author of Treasured Lands)
