Lin Ran is considered a master of photographic technique.

Two works from his "Mapping" series. Photos: Li Hao/GT and courtesy of Lin Ran

Heaven and earth stand divided in a large black-and-white print. A river flows through the scene from left to right. The crown of a massive tree embraces the grey sky above it. Animal remains are bolted within the dry desert soil underneath the branches.

The image is stark but beautiful. The mind tries to make sense of it, but perhaps this is not the point.

In fact, it isn't.

"It's best not to understand," says the photographer, Lin Ran, 55. "I bury my own views, so that people will not be influenced. Casual observation is enough."

Though he has been taking photo­graphs for more than 30 years, this is Lin's first-ever solo photography exhibition. Entitled "A Heart Following Nature," the show opened this past weekend (August 3) at Inter Art Center and Gallery in the 798 Art Zone and will run until September 1.

The exhibit features 23 digital prints of Lin's work from four years of travel in western China, in the autonomous regions of Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia as well as Shanxi Province.

Because he wanted to capture the

entirety of the wildness and vastness of the west, he chose to shoot with a 24-inch large-format camera.

The soft, brush-like execution of the shots comes from skill in controlling the focal plane and the depth of field. The black-and-white presentation further heightens the differences between reality and illusion, Lin says.   

Show curator Na Risong, who calls Lin Ran a master of technical photography, describes the experience of seeing Lin's work in large grey-scale prints as "thrilling." The larger the display print, Na says, the more evocative the concepts of space, time and harmony become. Some images in the exhibition are a meter wide; others piece together sheets into a five-meter-long landscape.  

Jin Ping, 53, a fellow photographer, describes these prints as a departure from Lin's previous work. "Before, he concentrated on elegance. Now his work is large-scale and focuses on expressing the concept of space."

Lin describes his photography as mostly a hobby, and his curriculum vitae is certainly not that of a typical artist. After graduation, the Chongqing native worked for the Chinese Air Force maintaining automatic missiles. Moreover, Lin's new perspectives on art have been influenced by his studies of philosophy over the past decade, particularly the works of the German philosopher Hegel.

However, he tells Metropolitan that he prefers that his own views on life not be visible in his carefully composed shots. "I am nothing," Lin says, proving he is every bit the conceptual artist his photographs suggest. He would rather allow viewers to gain a better understanding of the wider world through the photos themselves.

To explain what he means, Lin highlights one image he took of a basketball hoop once used by laborers building a highway on the border of Tibet Autonomous Region and Sichuan Province.

"I happened to see the sun shining on the basketball hoop," Lin recalls of the moment. "And I felt the space the two had created showed a real understanding of the sunset."

"Traditionalists say my work isn't beautiful. So I don't know what I am," he offers. "All I know is that I stand between traditional and contemporary artists."

Evelyn Cheng contributed to this story