The Chicago Cultural Center is exhibiting The Big World: Recent Art from China through August 30th. Liu Bolin's photographs (courtesy of Schneider Gallery, Chicago) present haunting manipulated images of a solitary male figure, presumably the artist, superimposed in various settings that connote a helplessness and vulnerability that is universally human.

Photography is relatively accessible to most people today. Cameras and equipment are affordable, easy to use, and photo sharing sites such as flickr.com host millions of images. These factors raise the challenges for fine art photographers. "My four year old could do that", is a response by some in the dominant culture when presented with modern art of any kind, and it is called to question now with regard to photography because many, perhaps even some four year olds, can take pictures. So what is it then that sets fine art photography apart?

Like some of the work in MoCP's exhibit "The Edge of Intent", certainly scale is a factor. Liu Bolin's work is human size (46 to 59 inches) and so has a physical presence when experienced in person. Dionisio Gonzalez, in the MoCP show, manipulates the imagery digitally as does Bolin, calling into question that which we believe to be real and the unreal aspects of photography, a medium long associated with proof, evidence, and reality. But this too has become more familiar and accessible with easy to use photo editing programs in common use. The challenge then, as always is for the fine art photographer to strike a chord using all the right notes: scale, color, line, content, composition, and other formal and technical elements.

Liu Bolin's work, because of the context of the show, The Big World, specifically addresses issues of China and its people. With Bolin's mastery of his technique this work also rings true to our universal human experience, identity of the individual within society, and its visual representation.