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| A Top Ten List of Photographic Works in 2006 |
| By Huang Li |
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 ccording to the “Yearbook of Auctions,” the top ten contemporary Chinese photographic works auctioned in 2006 were ranked as: Wang Qingsong (seizing two places), Zhang Huan (winning 5 places), Chen Jieren, Qiu Zhijie, Wang Jinsong, and Huang Yan. Among them, only Zhang Huan was an old name from the top ten list of 2005. The others were all new. Obviously there’s some change in market’s taste for contemporary photography. Wang Qingsong’s “Follow Me,” (which is pictured up above) sold for a record $318,400 dollars and was the top price in 2006’s photographic auctions.
 Reviewing the top ten list of 2005, “Hushan Landscape,” by Lang Jingshan, was auctioned at Sotheby’s Hong Kong for about $110,000, the highest price of the year. Lang’s works took seven places in the top ten list of 2005 and sold out 34 works, among which 18 were sold at over $15,000 and four over $12,000; given such an overwhelming trend, that none of his works entered the top ten list of 2006 was indeed a surprise. Actually, a number of his works managed to get in the market and remained at a medium price level, but were no longer hotly sought after in 2005.
According to analyses, two factors resulted in that trend. First, the lack of diversified spiritual representations in his works and the visual tiredness from monotony led more or less to possible standstill of sales for his works; short-term market operations are too obvious, resulting in the slowdown of price increases for his works. Second, the rise of Asian contemporary works’ auctions at Sotheby’s New York set quite a number of sales records, and seven of the top-ten contemporary photographic works were sold there. Under New York market inertia, Lang was too strange and his works could hardly become popular with international auction markets like New York. Their prices were highly unlikely to be ranked in the top-ten list. This shows that Lang’s works are popular only in Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan markets, and for him, markets outside these regions are not available.
 Then, Hong Lei, who received much attention in 2005, also fell out of the top-ten list of 2006 too though his performance in 2006 market was pretty good. He met problems quite similar to Lang’s – steady and outstanding performance in regional markets but standstill in international markets, which were all attributed to visions and difficult language translations for their works.
The top ten contemporary Chinese photographic works listed in the “Yearbook of Auctions” are: No.1: “Follow Me,” by Wang Qingsong, at Sotheby New York, at a price of $318,400; No.2: “Family Tree” (9 pieces) by Zhang Huan, Christie’s Hong Kong, $185,000; No.3: Zhang Huan’s “Family Tree,” Sotheby’s New York, $168,000; No.4, “Processing Factory,” by Chen Jieren, Sotheby’s New York, $120,000; No.5: “Tattooing 1 & 2” (2 pieces) by Qiu Zhijie, Christie’s Hong Kong, $116,500; No.6: “Qi-Blood Image,” by Wang Jingsong, Council Beijing, $116,000; No.7: “The Past, Present, Future,” by Wang Qingsong, Sotheby’s New York, $108,000; No.8: “My New York,” by Zhang Huan, Sotheby’s Hong Kong, $95,300; No.9: “Hamburg Seeds,” by Zhang Huan, Sotheby’s Hong Kong, $82,650; and No.10: three works, “Foam,” “To Increase the Water level of a Fish Pond,” by Zhang Huan and “Tattooing Series,” (12 pieces) by Huang Yan, all at Sotheby’s New York and each at a price of $78,000.
Reviewing the market performances of contemporary photographical works in 2006, there was the largest price increases for performing photographic works by Zhang Huan but also the largest hidden problem with his sustainable growth. The second-ranked “Family Tree (9 pieces), which was estimated between $150,000 to $190,000, was sold at $185,000; though the selling price did not jump over the threshold of the highest price, the same work (all are 9 pieces a set), which showed up earliest at Sotheby’s Hong Kong scene on October 31, 2004 and was sold at $43,300, now made an extra gain of over one million after an interval of only 2 years, turning out to be an extreme case in contemporary Chinese photography market. Zhang saw in 2006 both the largest price increases and the unprecedented abortive auctions for his photographical works – particularly his fiasco at the autumn auction scenes of Sotheby’s New York.
 The problem lay in the fact that both the artist and his gallery had a loose control over copies of his works and, particularly copies of different sizes and different perspectives of the same subjects and tableaus could be released into auction markets in great numbers and price-valuations of them were not very reasonable, naturally adding to buyers’ worries. Essentially, Zhang’s classical works were limited; if confused by copies and sizes and the same work’s repeated flow into different auction markets, it might not end up good for artist himself.
Zhang’s problem might be a universal one in photographical markets. Then, questions as to regulating one’s works in markets and ensuring a long-term interest for him might become a realistic and harsh trial for artists, galleries and even collectors.
Performance photography faced with a problem of strong or weak market acceptance. Though it performed very well at auction scenes in 2006, judging by the top-ten list, works of humanities had apparently replaced the traditional excessive performance and impromptu oriented contents, showing that buyers began to focus more on the intrinsic content depths of photographic works. With an ever-present sense of humor of humanities, Wang Qingsong’s works tended to arouse sympathies in intellectuals, and such a theme orientation was sure to catch attentions in the next wave of contemporary photographical trends.
 Chen Jieren’s ascendancy to the top 10 was, strictly speaking, out of expectation. His art was not well received for quite a long time in the Taiwan market, but his works contained poignant social details and provided an in-depth interpretation of Taiwanese culture, which was too bold an attempt in the international market. In recent years, however, Chen showed up frequently in large and small international art exhibitions and possibly became the only one in Taiwan’s contemporary art scene that was favored by international curators; naturally, such a foundation helped to promote his works in markets and eliminate the distance between works and interpreters. Nonetheless, problems involving copies of his photographical works and collections might probably emerge when his works began to draw international market attentions. Then, regulating issues should not be ignored either.
Source: 《News in Contemporary Art》
Translated by Hu Zhu 
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