Lu Houmin
| Lu Houmin | |
|---|---|
| Born |
9 September 1928 Yilan County, Heilongjiang, China |
| Died | 9 March 2015 (aged 86) Beijing, China |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Occupation | Photographer of the Chinese government |
| Political party | Communist Party of China |
| Awards | Gold medal in Soviet Union International Photography Exhibition (1961) World's Great Artists by New York Eastern and Western Artists Association (1997) Outstanding Contribution Award from International Federation of Photographic Art (1997) |
Lu Houmin (Simplified Chinese 吕厚民; 9 September 1928 – 9 March 2015), was a Chinese photographer who gained national and international recognition for taking official photographs of Chinese leaders, most notably Mao Zedong, from 1950 to 1964. Lu started out as a teacher, and later switched to photography. He was called Mao's private photographer because many of his photographs were different from the official ones, showing Mao in a more relaxed and personal manner.
Lu maintained a rather friendly and simple image of Mao Zedong throughout his life and China's Cultural Revolution. He received many international photographic awards.
Lu, Xu Xiaobing and Hou Bo have been called the best photographers of Mao.
Lu Houmin was born on 9 September 1928, to a Han family in Yilan County, Heilongjiang Province. Houmin taught in an elementary school in March 1948, and then joined the Communist Party of China. At the age of 21, he was asked to take photos of top Chinese leaders.
Lu started working as the official photographer for the Chinese government in 1950. He was assigned to take pictures in Zhongnanhai of the main Chinese leaders of that time including Chairman Mao Zedong, Premier Zhou Enlai and President Liu Shaoqi. From 1950 to 1957, he worked in the photography section of the Central Garrison Bureau in the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and was hired by the Xinhua News Agency in 1958. Lu continued taking pictures from 1950 to 1964. Lu had to be always ready to take the correct image; in a 2008 interview with the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, he said, "You had to have your camera ready at all times, when the time came you could not doubt for a second, then the leaders would not hold the pose for you".
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