Personal Information

Associate Professor

Department of Image and Video Art, Zhejiang Gongshang University

No.18, Xuezheng Str

Hangzhou, 310018 China

Phone: +86 13777866931

Email: zuyuart@163.com

Current Positions

Associate Professor of the Image and Video Art Department

Major Fields of Concentration

Period: Modern

Region: Transnational & International, East Asia

Specialism: History of Art and Photography, Visual Culture,  Media Communication, Cultural Heritage Preservation

Supervision: Master's Supervision

Yu Zu's research focuses on visual culture, media communication, and interdisciplinary approaches to cultural heritage preservation. She currently lives and works in Hangzhou, China. With over 15 years of experience, she has taught art and photography history at various universities. Zu is a Postdoctoral Fellow in art and design at the China Academy of Art. She is an Associate Professor and Deputy Dean of Academic Affairs at the School of Art and Design, Zhejiang Gongshang University. She is Currently as a Visiting Scholar in the Department of History of Art and Archaeology & School of Arts, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

Zu earned her Master's degree in Image and Communication from Goldsmiths College, University of London, where her research into photography's history began. She later completed her Ph.D. in Art History at the China Academy of Art, with her doctoral research focusing on early 20th-century photography, which became the basis for her first book, The Shaping of Photography History: Research on the History of Photography of Beaumont Newhall (2021).

She is particularly interested in the visual history and cultural geography of 19th-century China’s Yangtze River Delta and in photographic heritage conservation and exhibition curation. As a curator, Zu was a curator-in-residence at the nonprofit art organisation No Longer Empty in New York and currently serves as a working committee member at the Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art. She has curated numerous contemporary art exhibitions, including "Time Indexes: Alabaster’s Albumen Prints Photobook China" (Hangzhou, 2020), "This is Our Land: Speaking in Photos" (Farnham, UK, 2019), "Resort: Anna Fox" (Hangzhou, 2017), "Shan Shui Strategy: ZENG Han"(Hangzhou, 2017), "A Space-Time of Transitional Desires" (New York, 2016), and "Light Writers: Contemporary Image Art in China" (Hangzhou, 2016).

Yu Zu has authored several books and essays, including Appreciation and Criticism of Photography (2022), The Shaping of Photography History: Research on the History of Photography of Beaumont Newhall (2021), “A Case in the History of Chinese Photography: Liu Xucang and Chinese Photography in the Early 20th Century” (2016), “The Image-Text Relationship Construction in Chinese Photography within the Context of the Chinese Language” (2016), and “Self-Assessment: A Study of Selfies” (2015). In addition, she translated The Photobook: A History, Volume I (Chinese edition, 2017).

Period: Modern

Region: Transnational & International, East Asia

Specialism: History of Art and Photography, Visual Culture 

Supervision: Master's Supervision

Zhejiang University of Media and Communication: 

World History of Photography(undergrad), 

Photo Management and Curation (undergrad), 

Photography Techniques and Techniques (undergrad), 

Fundamentals  of Photography  (undergrad),  History of Chinese Photography (undergrad), 

Theatre and Planning (undergrad), 

Art Marketing and Curation (undergrad), 

Graduate Creative Practice (undergrad).

Zhejiang Gongshang University: 

Imaging  Experiments  (undergrad),  

Photography Appreciation: Moments and Eternity (undergrad), 

Appreciation of Classic Photography Works (undergrad), 

Graduate Creative Practice (undergrad), 

Photography Techniques (undergrad), 

Moment and Eternity: Appreciation of Classic Video Works (postgraduate), 

Design Critics (postgraduate).

Graduate Supervision

MA Supervisor.

Consulting

Consultant, Yu Design Office, 2010 until now.

Consultant, Light Gallery (Hangzhou), 2016-2019.

Consultant, Quan Shan Shi Art Centre, Overseas Works Liaison Consultant,

2015-2017.

Consultant, Master Craftsman Heart Design, 2015 until now.

Education

Academic and Professional Experience

Professional Service

Member of the China Literary and Art Critics Association.

‘ Professional Member of Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art.

Art Director of Yu Design Office.

Resident Curator of No Longer Empty.

Deputy Director of the Mission Department of Quan Shan Shi Art Centre.

Mid-term Supervision Expert of the National Art Fund of the People's Republic of China. 

National First-class Curriculum Evaluation Expert of the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China.

Community Service

Deputy Director of the Theoretical Committee of Zhejiang Photographers Association.

Conference Organization

Co-Organiser and Academic Host,

‘Photography, Image, and Its History-The Fourth Academic Forum on Urban Culture and Visual Production (2020)’, Advanced School of Art and Humanities, China Academy of Art, November 2020.

Secretary General of the Conference and Academic Host of the Main Venue,

‘Co-Fusion: Reconstruction and Innovation of Art Education Community International Academic Forum (2024)',

Zhejiang Gongshang University, April 2024.

2019.10  The creator of Baoji Changleyuan Anti-Japanese Industrial Heritage Museum Group (Baoji Shenshin Textile Factory Site) planning, exhibition space and visual design were announced as one of the eighth batch of key cultural relics protection units by the State Council

2019.10  Creator's work on display and visual identity design for Jingdezhen Taoxichuan Art Museum and Ceramic Industrial Heritage Museum  won a bronze award in the culture & exhibition engineering category at the China Interior Design Competition

2019  The 9th Top Ten Teaching at Zhejiang Media College in 2019

2018  Third prize in the 2018 Micro-Class competition at Zhejiang Media College

2017  Curated exhibition Image Hyperlink - Sino-British Photography Education Enlightenment was recommended by experts at the Lishui Photography Festival, Lishui Municipal Government/China Photographers Association

2016  Personal article Self-Identification Report - About 'Selfies' won the second prize in the article category of the Second Zhejiang Literary    and Art Review Award, organised by Zhejiang Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles and Zhejiang Provincial Critics Association

Moment and Eternity: Appreciation of Classic Video Works (postgraduate), Design Critics (postgraduate).

Zhejiang Gongshang University: 

Imaging  Experiments  (undergrad),  

Photography Appreciation: Moments and Eternity (undergrad), 

Appreciation of Classic Photography Works (undergrad), 

Graduate Creative Practice (undergrad), 

Photography Techniques (undergrad).

14) Yu, Zu, Bleeding Photos, Chinese Photography 5 (2015): 56-59. This article is also included in the photography book 50 Contemporary Photobooks from China 2009-2014.

15) Yu, Zu, The Origin of Contemporary Photography, Future Communication 3 (2015): 91-95. Outstanding Paper of the Year.

16) Yu,   Zu,   The   Original   Intention of   Documentary   Photography,   Future Communication 5 (2012): 80-86.

17) Yu, Zu, Research on Film Posters in the 1950s-60s and 80s, Packaging World 5 (2011): 32-37.

18) Yu, Zu,  Seeing  'Historical Facts' through 'Reality' - Exploring the Origin of Documentary Photography Creation, Packaging World 3 (2011): 56-61.

(iii) Newspaper Articles

1)   Yu, Zu, Landscape Strategies, Fine Arts News, No. 1256, December 23, 2017. p.15.

2)   Yu,   Zu,   The   End   Point of   Photography is   Photography   Itself,   China Photographers Newspaper, No.49, June 27, 2017. p.3.

3)   Yu, Zu, Viewing Art Life as a Cultural Development Tool - Sketch of the New York Art Map, Fine Arts News, No. 1221, April 22, 2017. p.17

4)   Yu,  Zu,  Photography's  Threshold is High, China Photographers Newspaper, No.67, Friday, August 26, 2017.p.9.

5)   Yu,  Zu,  Natural  Growth  -  Starting from  'TOP20·2015  China Contemporary Photography Emerging Exhibition',  China Photographers Newspaper, No.94, August 2017. p.9.

Latest Publication

Zu’s first book, The Shaping of Photography History: Beaumont Newhall's Research on the History of Photography (2021), addresses the question How does photography make history, and focuses on the first photography exhibition held by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1937. This exhibition resulted in two significant accomplishments: an exhibition titled 'Photography: 1839-1937' and a book titled The History of Photography: From 1839 to the Present. 

Both clearly illustrate Beaumont Newhall's approach to the study of historical photography.

Zu has investigated the divergent viewpoints of Newhall and the photography division at the Museum of Modern Art in the early 20th century, comparing and contrasting the five editions of Newhall's The History of Photography: From 1839 to the Present.