金酉鸣
我的曾外祖父骆伯年（字筠），1911年3月出身于浙江杭州一户县衙官吏家庭，像中国人取名的习惯一样，“伯”字告诉人们，他是家中的老大。1911年在中国历史上是极为重要的一年，11月辛亥革命推翻了清政府在杭州的统治，不过似乎外界的翻天覆地变化，对曾外祖父的成长没有太大的影响。1932年21岁的他从杭州商业专科学校毕业，顺理成章的考入浙江商业银行，在家乡成为这个新兴行业的一名会计，正式了他银行家的职业生涯。
杭州这个离国际大都市上海很近的中型城市，由于其得天独厚的西湖美景，当时就吸引着诸多民国摄影家们的光临。也许就是从曾外祖父工作那时候开始，英语极好的他，也像我们熟知的庄学本、吴寅伯等民国摄影家一样在银行工作，同时又受到身边金融圈内中产阶级们的影响，开始了“摄影”这一当时时髦又“高消费”的爱好来作为工作之余的消遣。从目前留存的摄影作品来看，当时浙江省内的西湖、兰江、雁荡山、烂柯山等地都是他平时采风摄影活动较多的地方。
1934年，他考入了中国银行杭州分行，并被派往了兰溪支行实习工作。一年后工作表现优秀的他，转正后正式调入中国银行上海总管理处工作。在上海工作期间是其摄影事业突飞猛进的时期，由于上海所处的国际化视野和国际交流的便捷，摄影同好们的交流学习也变得更加便捷和频繁。
1937年代由郁达夫亲自题词的他个人生涯中最重要的一次影展--“联谊影展”在上海举办。现存的银盐大尺寸作品中由郁达夫、陈箓（号止室）、曹熙宇（字靖陶、号看云楼主人）、赵宗鼎等民国时期文艺和政治界鸿儒挚友的题词摄影作品，和一部分他自己的题词作品均为当时影展后留下的。 作为一个银行家，他的大部分业余时间和精力基本上都投入在摄影活动上，据目前可以查阅到的资料来看，其作品《汲瓮》、《兰江晚泊》收录于1936年第十期《飞鹰》，作品《汲瓮》收录于《中华摄影杂志》，作品《任重致远》、《飘萍泛梗》收录于1935年出版的《美术摄影特辑》等摄影类杂志和画报上。
随着抗日战争的爆发，从1938年开始他就随着中国银行辗转工作于香港分行、重庆分行和成都分行，抗战结束后的1946年又重新回到上海。虽然一直身在国统区银行工作的他，在抗战的数年里颠沛流离，但是还是不断的进行着摄影创作。这个时期的创作大部分是以室内静物、抽象摄影和一部分的实验为主。在一家老小七、八口人辗转于全国各地的这八年中，他把自己历年的摄影展览作品、大量的底片和诸多国外摄影资料、摄影年鉴和画册等珍贵文献资料一直视为珍宝的随时保存在身边。
他的摄影风格受国际和国内的多方面影响，一方面他的摄影作品受到了其所身处的国统区沙龙摄影、中国传统古典画意派摄影的影响，另外一方面由于他长期在上海和香港两个国际大都市的工作和生活经历，能够亲自接触到欧美等国的第一手摄影资讯，使其又受到了当时美国、德国等现代主义摄影风潮的巨大影响，其作品极具德国现代主义摄影的风格，在当时民国摄影中也属于较为超前和独树一帜的，有别于我们现在熟知的郎静山等民国摄影家的风格。
1949年解放后，他留在了大陆并参与中国银行总行的重建工作，并调往北京工作。由于经济条件和摄影耗材匮乏等诸多因素的制约，他在新中国成立之后就不再进行摄影活动，并在1951年申请调往家乡杭州工作。曾外祖父的摄影事业一直是作为其爱好进行，在解放后就停止了摄影创作，并且远离了新中国的政治中心而“偏安”于杭州，所有的摄影原作和底片才得以幸运的保存下来，没有在文革等一系列运动中丢失和破坏，也使得保留了他在民国时期摄影完整的第一手史料，从而有机会让我们今天又重新挖掘出一位曾经在民国时期被埋没的摄影大家。
历史在我的身上也许开了一个玩笑，当我大学毕业后阴差阳错来到北京的银行工作，在曾外祖父摄影活动戛然而止的城市又偶然涉足摄影圈。而当我在《中国摄影史1840—1937》（1987年，胡志川、马运增、陈申等编著，中国摄影出版社）一书上发现收录有家传的其代表作《汲瓮》之后，这份惊奇对于我来说是无以言表的，这使我对曾外祖父在民国时期在摄影方面取得的成就产生了浓厚的兴趣。在遇到了该书唯一在世的作者陈申老师之后，认识了更多对曾外祖父作品大加赞赏的摄影界诸多老师，继而也让曾外祖父遗留的这些摄影原作重见天日。
希望我这些年来的一点努力，能够给大家还原一个不一样的民国摄影家、看到一个丰富多彩的民国摄影史。
在此特别感谢毛卫东多年来对这些原作的挖掘整理工作，感谢陈申、赵俊毅、蔡萌、付羽、王征、殷德俭、荣荣等老师和Richard K. Kent教授的大力支持和肯定，感谢高初、董晓安、徐婷婷的支持和帮助，得以让这些摄影原作重见天日。
Jin Youming
My great grandfather Luo Bonian (also known as Luo Jun) was born in a family of country government official in Hangzhou, Zhejiang in March 1911. As the name “Bo” suggested (according to Chinese tradition of naming their children), he was the oldest brother in the family. 1911 was an important year in Chinese history. In November, Xinhai Revolution overthrew the governance of the Qing Government in Hangzhou. However, my great grandfather seemed be immune to the overwhelming change in the outer world. In 1932, he graduated from Hangzhou Business College at age of 21, and then was successfully admitted by Zhejiang Commercial Bank, working as an accountant in this emerging industry and starting his career as a banker.
Hangzhou, a middle-sized city near to the international metropolis Shanghai, attracted a great number of photographers during the period of the Republic of China for its physically beautiful scenery in the West Lake. Maybe it started from the time when my great grandfather begin to work; like famous photographers such as Zhuang Xueben and Wu Yinbo who also worked in bank, and influenced by the middle classes he socialized with in the financial community, he, with his good command of English language, found his after-work pleasure in the art of photography, which was considered as a sort of fashionable, costly activity in those days. Upon reviewing the remaining pictures among his works, it can be calculated that the West Lake, Lan River, Yandang Mountain and Lanke Mountain within Zhejiang Province were his most frequented places.
He was admitted by Hangzhou Branch, Bank of China in 1934, and sent to Lanxi Branch to work as an internship. One year later, he was transferred to Shanghai Administrative Office due to his outstanding performance. During his stay in Shanghai, he received the rapidest progress in the profession of photography. That should be attributed to the international vision and convenient international exchange of the city, which greatly accelerated the mutual communication and interaction among photography enthusiasts.
The year of 1937 witnessed the most important photo exhibition “Friendship” in his life, which was held in Shanghai and inscribed by Yu Dafu in person. In those existing large-sized silver-salt works, some were inscribed by a number of learned scholars and friends in art and political circle during the period of the Republic of China, including Yu Dafu, Chen Lu (also known as Chen Zhishi), Cao Xiyu (also known as Cao Jingtao) and Zhao Zongding, and some were inscribed by himself, which were left from the exhibition. As a banker, he spent most of his time and energy in photography. According to all the available information, Ji Weng and Berthing in Lan River at Night were collected in the 10th issue of Flying Hawk in 1936, Ji Weng collected in Chinese Photography Magazine, New Prospect, Great Ambition and Duckweed collected in photography magazine and pictorial, such as Special Collection of Fine Art Photography.
With the outbreak of Anti-Japanese War, since 1938 he began to be assigned to branches of Bank of China in different regions including Hong Kong, Chongqing and Chengdu, and returned to Shanghai in 1946 when the war was over. Although always working in banks in Kuomintang-controlled areas, and drifting about during the years of war, he never stopped photographic creation. Most of his works during this period focused on indoor still life, abstract photography and some experiment. During the eight years of shifting from place to place around the world with his whole family, he carried along with him his exhibition works over the years, a lot of negative films, foreign photographic materials, photographic yearbooks and pictorials, which he saw as the most precious treasure.
His photographic style received both domestic and foreign influences. On the one hand, his works were influenced by salon photography and Chinese traditional pictorial photography in Kuomintang-controlled areas where he was living; on the other, his long-time experience of working and living in two international metropolises Hong Kong and Shanghai provided him with access to first-hand photographic news in Europe and America, which also brought the great impact from modernistic photography in America and Germany to his works. That’s why his works take on the feature of German modernistic photography. It was quite an advanced and unique style in the period of the Republic of China, which was different from the style of some photographers at that time, such as famous Lang Jingshan.
After the liberation in 1949, he stayed in China mainland and was engaged in the rebuilding of head office, and was transferred to Beijing. Due to the limitation of economic conditions and lack of photographic materials, he quitted from this profession after the establishment of new China, and applied for permission to be transferred to Hangzhou, his hometown in 1951. For all the time, he took this profession as an amateur, and stopped his photographic creation after liberation, choosing to live in Hangzhou, where was far away from new China’s political center. That’s why all his original works and films could be reserved instead of being damaged in a series campaigns in the Cultural Revolution. That’s also why his first-hand historic materials in the period of the Republic of China could be completely reserved, which allows us to resurrect a photography master who lived an obscured life in the period of the Republic of China.
History may play a joke on me. When I graduated from my university and worked in a bank in Beijing by chance, I accidentally entered into the circle of photography in this city, where my great grandfather quitted from this profession. While when I found the hereditary representative work Ji Weng of my family in the China's History of Photography 1840—1937 (compiled by Hu Zhichuan, Ma Yunzeng, Chen Shen in 1987, China photography publishing house), my surprise was beyond description. I immediately developed great interest in the achievement my great grandfather had made in the period of the Republic of China. After meeting Chen Shen, the last author who is still alive, I also got the chance to know many more photography friends who admired my great grandfather’s works. That’s how we could offer his remaining works to this world again.
I hope that with my many years of effort, I could let everyone see a different photographer in the period of the Republic of China and the colorful photographic history at that time.
Here I extend my special thanks to Mao Weidong for his consistent efforts in seeking and sorting these original works, and to Chen Shen, Zhao Junyi, Cai Meng, Fu Yu, Wang Zheng, Yin Dejian and Rong Rong and Professor Richard K. Kent for their support and approval, as well as to Gao Chu, Dong Xiao’an and Xu Tingting for their support and help. They are the people who help bring these works to light again.