獨立寒江初小青

飄舞的雪花讓我想起一幅攝影作品：初小青的《甌江冬色》。這幅畫的畫面十分簡潔：冰雪覆蓋著山巖、河灘，一位身披蓑衣的船夫撐著舴艋船行進在江雪之中，畫面在寒冷、孤單中透露著一種堅毅。

這其實是一幅老照片，是著名攝影家初小青20多年前的代表作，它曾獲香港《攝影畫報》“四季福祿萊”攝影大賽冠軍。今天，回望初小青追求攝影藝術走過的年年歲歲，驀然覺得他仿佛就是那位身披蓑衣的船夫……

初小青祖籍山東，生于溫州，長于麗水。年輕時在麗水文化部門從事攝影工作，因成績突出于1980年調入《浙江畫報》任攝影記者，這在當時，是令每一個攝影人都十分羨慕的機遇。“在畫報社，拍了兩年之后，我感到拍不出東西了，那種挖空心思的拍攝讓我十分難受，于是擱下相機半年不拍一張照片。”初小青說到這里露出一臉的無奈。1984年初小青終于作出叫常人難以理解的決定：放棄“天堂”杭州的工作和生活，回麗水老家去。一方面，他要去參與籌建《麗水報》，另一方面他要回到家鄉的真山真水中去。

前些日子，我來到初小青在麗水城郊白云山的家。令人吃驚的是，這是一座20世紀60年代建造的公房，外觀陳舊，設施簡陋，周圍不少鄰居已陸續搬離，只剩下初小青等幾戶人家。從事攝影出版的葛衛衛說：“20年了，就你的房子沒有變。”此話說得也是，眼下很多攝影名人早已是“百萬富翁”了，而上世紀80年代就出名的初小青，20年后還是住著老房子，家里也根本沒有什么像樣的家具，一臺電視機是花900元錢買的，空調之類的家用電器他還從沒使用過……20年里，初小青到底在干些什么呢?

1988年6月至1989年6月，初小青自駕車走遍中國除西藏以外的大陸全境，隨后出版畫冊《中國感受——一個攝影家的1988-1989》；

1991年至1992年，先后3次赴新疆創作；

1994年，貸款購車赴西藏創作四個月；

1998年，再次赴西藏創作兩個月；

2001年，出版畫冊《享受陽光》和《西藏風光攝影名家指導》；

2003年，出版旅游畫冊《秀山麗水》；

2005年，出版畫冊《別夢依稀——飄逝的江船》和《九寨歸來不看水》。

……

初小青可謂碩果累累，但攝影并沒有給他帶來經濟效益，反而使他變得愈加貧困。

1995年，初小青為了創造條件再赴西藏創作，在麗水開設了一家圖片社，但由于經營不善陷入虧損，背了一身債務。從此，初小青再也不敢貿然投資，只靠微薄的稿費勉強度日。

客觀地說，以他的名氣，只要稍微削弱一點個性，生活決不會如此捉襟見肘。然而初小青說：“我不想與眾不同，但不可以隨波逐流。”“我要的是思想的自由，自己的人生能照自己的意愿去生活。一輩子拍我想拍的東西，所以我的作品很少有做作的鏡頭。”

思想的自由，是藝術創作的靈魂。

畫冊《別夢依稀——飄逝的江船》所選作品，均攝于20世紀最后30年的甌江。面對家鄉的山水，初小青信手拈來，如清水出芙蓉，天然去雕飾，自然之中透出一股淡雅清新的畫意。尤其是1970年代的作品，那點點帆影、清清江水是再也無法重現的夢幻。如今，很多攝影人慕名到麗水拍攝經典的“甌江帆影”，只能是在水庫里借來幾條船，拉上用白大褂縫制的風帆，擺拍一個畫面而已。其韻其味、其真其感，哪有“飄逝的江船”之酣。這本畫冊一面世，立即受到攝影界和當地老百姓的熱捧，有位老華僑一買就是10本，他要珍藏故鄉的記憶并送給親朋好友。

初小青出畫冊并不是為了經濟利益，他說，如果出暢銷書那是他的悲哀，他要出的是長銷書，是發自自己內心的東西。比如那本《九寨歸來不看水》，內容很單一，每一幅作品都是九寨溝的水，只是初小青把九寨溝的水拍到了極致，拍出了九寨溝水的美妙靈魂。正如初小青自己所說的：“我所做的一切，從拍攝到出畫冊，就是為了尋找生命的知音。”

作者簡介：初小青，1953年4月5日生，祖籍山東萊陽。1976年為浙江省麗水地區文化局攝影干部，1980年攝影作品《影途遇敵》獲聯合國教科文組織“亞洲文化中心獎”，1980年調浙江畫報社任攝影記者，1981年加入中國攝影家協會。主要生平事跡載入《中國攝影家辭典》等。先后出版《中國青年攝影家——初小青》、攝影畫冊《享受陽光》《西藏風光攝影名家指導》《秀山麗水》，《別夢依稀——飄逝的江船》《九寨歸來不看水》。

Photographer's Pursuit

By Ji Yehai

Whenever I think of Chu Xiaoqing and his 20-odd-year photographic career， his prize-winning photograph taken 20 odd years ago comes to my mind: under a snow-covered cliff， a lonely boatman in a palm-leaf raincoat steered a small boat into a chilly river. The picture vividly expresses a sense of fortitude in coldness and loneliness. His life and career appear as if he were born to be lonely in nature.

Born in Wenzhou， Chu grew up in Lishui in southern Zhejiang Province. He was quite young when he began his photographic career. Thanks to his brilliant works， he was transferred to Hangzhou to be a photographer for Zhejiang Pictorial in 1980. His budding career looked very promising. However， he felt he was displaced after a while. He explained his situation: \"I was drying up gradually after two years\"work at the Pictorial. My inspiration vanished. I needed to rack my brain for taking a photograph. The way I was supposed to work made me anguish.?So he decided to give up the golden job. In 1984， he made a bold decision: he would give up his work and life in Hangzhou， a picturesque city known as paradise on earth， and go back to his hometown.

From June 1988 to June 1989， he traveled by bike across the country. His footprints were in all the places except Tibet. The result of the long trip was an album entitled A Photographer's 1988-1989: China Impressions.

In the 1990s， he took three trips to Xinjiang and two trips to Tibet and stayed there for a long time. In 2001， he published two albums. In 2003， he published an album on his hometown. In 2005， he published two more albums.

His fruitful career， however， has not made him rich. He still lives in a house built in the 1960s. It is widely believed that Chu Xiaoqing could be a millionaire photographer if he could bend his will a little. But the freelance photographer has a yearning for carefree liberty. He explains， hough I don't wish to be different， I hate to drift with the tide. What I want to have is a free spirit. I want to lead a life that suits me. I wish to photograph whatever I want. That's why my works are free of pretensions.A free spirit is the soul of artistic creation. Goodbye to River Boats， Chu's album published in 2005， contains photographs created in the last three decades of the 20th century. The Ou River in his hometown still maintained idyllic scenes in the 1970s. The sail boats on the limpid river during that time are no longer seen today. Nowadays， some photographers borrowed boats from a nearby reservoir and put on some white cloth as sail to recreate the scenery on the river. These staged works pale before Chu's real reflections of a past no longer found there. The album was very popular with local people.

Chu publishes albums not for profit. Aiming at being just a bestseller photographer would be his grief， he says. He wants timeless classics.

Nowadays， Chu no longer photographs for the sake of photography. Over the last 23 years， Chu has taken numerous trips to Baishanzu Mountain， the second highest mount in Zhejiang Province. In order to photograph the clouds in the mountain， he once camped in a tent on the mountain top for 15 days. He cooked with a solid fuel burner at the camp and fetched water from a stream at the mountainside. When solitude became unbearable， he sought two forest workers out and chatted with them. Nowadays， he goes to the mountain whenever he feels depressed， not for photographing anything， but for the sake of self-improvement. The brilliant photographer keeps aloof from world of restless change. Fame and fortune are not part of his career of photographing the nature.

(Translated by David)