¡¡ There is a subtle paradox in photos by Miao Xiaochun: he keeps deconstructing photography itself, and contrary to most artists, this deconstruction is completed not through concept but through vision itself.
¡¡¡¡ From the aspect of vision, the core of photography lies in the principle of focus perspective. In this sense, such a principle is an extension of perspective painting--the major means of expression in traditional Western paintings. The perspective provides the viewer with a position from which the theme of the painting can be taken in at one glance. Linking this position and the vanishing point behind the painting is the central axis of the painting¡¯s space, along which all the objects of the scene are thus arranged intrinsically within a spatial order and depth. In a certain sense, the perspective is a kind of description of the overall scene and its full structure, giving emphasis to the irreplaceable central position of the artist as well as the viewer. As a continuation of the concept of Western painting, photography also presents reality in a way as people actually see from a certain point of sight, which characterizes in the phenomena that ¡°things seem larger when nearer and smaller when further away¡±. And the so called larger or smaller is always centralized from the view point of the artist and the viewer, who form the subjective center. Again, like painting, photography also has a ¡°best point of sight¡±, from which the views of the viewer and the artist overlap so as to get the overall view, or the panorama of the scene, while all details visible are submitted to the impressions obtained at this sight point, which, however, is restrained by the ¡°limit of lens¡± in actual operation of photo-taking and a series of interference such as reflected light from the surface of the photo. Traditional photographer¡¯s language therefore has imperceptibly created a violence standard: a good photographer must make the viewer stand at the former¡¯s ¡°subjective center¡±, and a good viewer must make his ¡°best
point of sight¡±, from which the views of the viewer and the artist overlap so