THE OBLITERATION OF HISTORY.

HISTORY IMAGES

BY SZE TSUNG LEONG

GOTTINGEN: STEIDL, 2006

144 PP./$90.00 (HB)

The cover image of Sze Tsung Leong's thought-provoking History Images, a photograph titled Chunshu, Xuanwu District, Bejing (2004), makes an instant and stark impression, but it takes a few close readings to unravel the complexity of why. At first glance, it would seem to be simply a modern cityscape--albeit an exceptionally well-composed one, set up with perfect symmetry, down to the residually visible scaffolding to the left. Upon closer inspection, however, it becomes clear that the photograph is also a masterful synthesis of form and content. The foreground, in hyperfocus, contains the doomed and decaying remnants of an ancient quarter in the capital city, a neighborhood still inhabited at the time of the photograph, dating back to the thirteenth-century Yuan Dynasty. Looming ominously and out-of-focus in the background are the homogenous high-rise building complexes that one sees in so many "instant cities" these days, from the outskirts of Cairo to the cities-within-cities of Florida.

The recent explosion of development in Chinese metropolises has lead builders to apply such creepily utopian names to their developments as "New World" and "New City." As Leong outlines in his contextualizing essay, when an area is developed, it is almost always cleared of all traces of the past, resulting in an erasure of history. Hence, his photographs are themselves assuming the tasks of charting the dynamism of the historical, the doomed "variety in unity" that Walter Benjamin points out in his The Arcades Project (1927-40):

   Paris now ceased forever to be a conglomeration of small towns, each
   with its distinctive physiognomy and way of life .... where nature
   and history had collaborated to realize variety in unity. The
   centralization, the megalomania, created an artificial city, in which
   the Parisian (and this is the crucial point) no longer feels at home.
   (1)

There is a long history in China of successive dynasties ruthlessly remaking neighborhoods to reflect new political priorities, leading Leong to surmise that the "greatest and most valued power of the state is the authority to erase." (2) Indeed, this again links to nineteenth-century Haussmanized Paris in the quote above, as the "megalomania" is no doubt a reference not just to Baron Haussman himself but to his patron, Napoleon III, who wanted formerly restive neighborhoods cleared of their ability to individually barricade.

In contemporary China, there is more of an "economic conquest" taking place than a military one, as observed by Stephen Shore in "Photography and Architecture," the second essay included in History Images. (3) And as huge residential and commercial complexes arise, they take on the characteristics of other megalopolises all over the world, many of which are developed by the same firms (Arup, Bechtel, and others) which is why Miami can feel like Istanbul and vice versa. The neatly paved and strangely familiar basketball and tennis courts in Leong's "Wangjing Xiyuan Third District, Chaoyang District, Bejing" (2003) or "Taiyangyuan Xiaqui, Haidian District, Bejing" (2004) could easily be the well-fortified condos on the southern-most point of South Miami Beach. We are now experiencing unprecedented levels of dislocation; architecture has no relation to place, which creates an oxymoronic and unsettling reality: Bejing residents "no longer feel at home." (Leong himself is an embodiment of "globalization," being Chinese but born in Mexico City and now living in New York.)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The photographs' large sizes enhance the vistas and perspectival views Leong utilizes so masterfully to present these historical strata; thus, seeing them in a book can be a letdown. However, the lavish printing, for which Steidl is known, compensates somewhat, as does the horizontally generous trim size. It is a great collectors item for anyone who loves photography but cannot afford the increasingly pricey market, particularly for large-scale works. More importantly, it has brought additional attention to an artist who forces the viewer to examine the global ramifications of architectural obliteration.

NOTES (1.) Walter Benjamin, quoting Lucien Dubech and Pierre d'Espezel from the Histoire de Paris (1926), in The Arcades Project fragment E3a, 6. (2.) Sze Tsung Leong, "A History of Erasure," in History Images (Gottingen: Steidl, 2006), 141. (3.) Stephen Shore, "Photography and Architecture," in History Images, 142.

VANESSA ROCCO is an assistant curator at the International Center of Photography and a visiting assistant professor at Pratt Institute in New York City.