Lu's reputation in the photographic field lies not in news photos, or purely aesthetic pictures like postcard sceneries. His works have more artistic creation in them. They tell stories as words do, with emotion.

His ongoing exhibition at the Haishangshan Art Center entitled "Conjoint" makes use of a new form: the pictures are all paired, placed in groups of two. Various connections between the paired photos can be found. Some are easy to see: the movements are continuous, the effects are similar, the images are related, but some are related by Lu's personal experience, in a way that only he himself can fully see.

"I found, many times, each picture has some shortcoming, but also has strong points leading me to keep them," Lu said. "So I came upon the idea of putting them together, with each replacing the missing information in the other."

Lu lives and works in Shanghai. All the pictures - over 50 groups of two - were taken in Shanghai, mainly over the past half a year.

Some depict scenes of everyday life. Old bicycles lined on the street side, a worn-out bathtub on the roof of an old residence.

"They are related to my memories of early ages," Lu said.

But this photographic nostalgia can reach out beyond himself to his viewers.

One picture captured chairs in an obsolete sports ground. Dirt and rainwater had gathered on them. Some are broken. Viewers can't help but wonder why the place was deserted, and imagine the noise and fun of the games before.

The fun and interest of ordinary urban life is shown through Lu's lens: a folding chair locked to a tree at the corner of a park - the owner must come to sit in the park regularly, not wanting to take the trouble of carrying the chair back and forth all the time.

Lu's family members come into his pictures too, together with his colleagues, acquaintances and strangers on the street.

Viewers share his feelings for these characters without thinking about their relation with the man behind the lens.

A white cat jumps from the bed where an elderly woman sits peaceful and alone before a malfunctioning television.

In the next picture, the cat rests peacefully on top of the television, now working properly, while the elderly woman still sits there in the sun. It looks as though time has flown past the woman and her room, no longer making any difference to her life.

"That was my mother, in her old apartment" Lu said, smiling. That explains the woman's ease with the camera. "It was funny that when the cat jumped on the television, it started to display properly. It takes two pictures to show that effect."

January 11-25

Haishangshan Art Center

618 Wuzhong Lu

Tel: 6406-4626

(Shanghai Star January 17, 2003)