韩磊近期完成的摄影棚及在民间拍摄的肖像照片和他在80年代经历的人物有关。这些照片统一在一个幕布前拍摄。这位艺术家之所以选择这个主题，意欲捕捉人物肖像背后的社会心理层面，他记录了这些脸孔的怪诞特征来突出人物性格的类型，宛如一个现代版的算命师，或是时空错位的面相术士。
　　促使这位艺术家完成近期肖像系列的动力，也似乎是对于原始影像的迷恋。他对人物脸孔的兴趣有两种类型，第一种是早期对心理失衡的人物的好奇，韩磊认为这种失衡折射了社会大环境的心理状态，接着他的兴趣转向科学性的探索形式，籍特殊的脸部轮廓指出了人类个性的原型。但无论在哪一个阶段，韩磊的肖像照片都是艺术家看似随意的竭力刻画，每一张脸孔必须是独一无二的，但同时也代表了决定性的心理或性格类型。第二个阶段的作品将怀旧的心情赋予对历史的参照。

　　Han Lei’s Portrait Gallery
　　Chang Tsong-zung
　　Han Lei is no stranger to the world of false history; the early works that helped to secure his reputation had intentionally created a view of Chinese sceneries as if seen through the eyes of early foreign travellers. The slightly washed out tone, the distance and the immense stillness of the landscapes bring forward the enormity of history, and hint at the rich details encased in the vast unknown being left out of the scant documentation bequeathed to us. As moments rescued from the tides of time historical photographs are precious, and they carry more weight than other moments left unrecorded. Of course the pictures created by Han Lei are neither old nor rare, nor does the artist intend to deny the contemporary date of their making. What he does suggest is that these images are just as evocative and rich as their predecessors, and that we should scrutinise them equally intensely for traces of time that escaped the photographic lens.
　　The overwhelming mood in Han’s work is nostalgia. In nostalgia Han finds timelessness. He loves images that freeze mobility, images that become immutable and lasting representatives. He presents us with the typical misty Chinese mountain we imagine from our knowledge of classical paintings, he seeks out the beautiful female profile we seem to remember from old photographs. While the camera is a most democratic instrument, equitable in granting significance to any living moment, Han has used this instrument to create a hierarchy of types. He is interested in images that can be greater, more permanent and more typical than other images of their class. With these images Han constructs a world that bring alive an order and an aesthetic that is both familiar and distant in time.
　　The studio portraits Han recently completed refer to a project he first conceived in the mid 1980s, as the artist explains. These photographs are uniformly taken in the studio with the same drapery background. The artist explains his choice of subjects to be discerning, made to capture characteristics that underlie a social psychology. He takes note of quirks and special features in the faces to highlight an assortment of character types, as though this was a modern version of fortune-teller’s manual, or an anachronic physiognomy.
　　What motivated the artist in the recent portrait series seems to be the same fascination with archetypal images and a comparable brooding nostalgia that produced the “historical”  landscape pictures. From his own description there seems to be two stages in his interest in people’s faces; first there was the earlier fascination with people whose dream world indicated a psychological imbalance, and the artist thought this reflected the mental state of society at large; later his interest was diverted to a form of scientific curiosity, when special facial features suggested archetypes of human character. At neither stage of Han’s portrait photography was the artist random in his endeavour; each face had to be unique and special, but also representative of certain psychological or character type. The latter stage’s evolvement into a pseudo science gave Han’s work a nostalgic mood and a reference to history.
　　Perhaps the artist does not truly believe his own claim that his portraits may be a key to face-reading, as he would then be producing a working manual. Han is too engrossed with each character he invites to the photography studio to believe each can be reduced to an abstract marker. For Han the scientific reference is a guide to ensure each person’s uniqueness, and to see more into their significance. The reference to the 19th century European science of physiognomy puts the collection of images into a time capsule, and adds an aura of romantic fantasy to the artist’s schematic project. As a science physiognomy has been totally discredited today, just as face-reading is generally regarded as a pseudo science. However, the failure of scientific support does not prevent people from believing in them and making use of their systems. People continue to believe the face betrays the inner workings of the soul, therefore, if ever there was an art designed to record this phenomenon it would have to be photography.
　　n this capacity photographic portraiture may lay claim to a higher stature, a more significant role in the quest for truth. But both Han and we know this not to be the case; the age for faith in this type of science has past us. Hence Han retreats into the nostalgia and the magic of the dark photo studio. He believes in the dignity of the profession of studio photography, and he knows the audience is equally fascinated by its magic without knowing why. Resolved in this faith he has produced these fascinating pictures for us to moot on.

作者：张颂人（香港）