赵羡藻先生是一名美国华裔摄影师，是海外华人摄影师中的佼佼者，他的作品不但赏心悦目，而且是我们研究东西方文化差异、交融和影响的极好素材。
赵先生曾在1968年获得“世界摄影十杰”第二名。然而，二十世纪八十年代初，当彩色沙龙风潮席卷中国大陆和海外华人摄影群体的时候，他却开始了自己创作生涯中的一次华丽转身：他坚持了黑白摄影，转向了写实风景；他在走向简约的同时，也尝试了抽象影像。他是踏入了美国主流摄影圈的东方摄影师之一，他在同代知名华人摄影师中或许是最醒悟的，但也可能是最孤独的。

赵先生曾是美国风景摄影师安瑟·亚当斯的崇拜者，但他作品中强烈的东方韵味却展现了与亚当斯完全不同的艺术哲学理念。在他的作品中，更多的是东方的具有“天人合一”的文人情怀。在赵羡藻的世界中，更多的是空灵。所谓“天人合一”，就是庄子所说“天地与我并生，而万物与我为一”。就是认为世界是天、地、人三方面的和谐统一，人是自然的一部分。在处理景深、前景和背景的关系、地平线和水平线的位置上，赵羡藻的风景作品时常令观众难以判断他所处的位置。作品所强调的往往不是拍摄对象本身，而是摄影师的主观感受。借用亚当斯的区域曝光法，赵羡藻镜头中的景物不是凸显在天地间，而是交融在水天中。摄影师的个人情怀也通过这种交融而达到“物我两忘”的境界。

中国著名画家，清华美术学院教授袁运甫先生1990年曾对赵羡藻先生的作品做出很高的评价：“羡藻先生在自己的作品里力图把大自然升华为情感与装饰融和的诗的境界，揭示了他特有的黑白世界的深沉和宽宏，追求旷然浩气，捕捉落落清姿，在漠漠溶溶的景致里蕴蓄着人情味的真谛。赵先生努力地遵循‘天人合一’为主导的创意精神，这正是他的作品极富魅力并感人至深的原因。尽管他已去国数十年，但是他的作品中仍具有东方艺术家所特有的情味和画外音，这太难能可贵了。”

赵羡藻的作品是我们研究东西方摄影文化交互影响的极好案例。

——石志民

Mr. Zhao Xianzao is a Chinese-American photographer and an outstanding representative of overseas Chinese photographers. His works are not only a feast for the eye, but also very good materials for us to study the differences, blending, and influence of western and eastern cultures.

Mr. Zhao was ranked 2nd in the World Top 10 Photographers in 1968. In the early 1980s, when the tide of color salon was sweeping mainland China and overseas Chinese photographers, he, however, had a gorgeous turning in his creative life: insisting on black-and-white and turning to realistic landscapes. At the same time when he was getting simple he also tried abstract images. He was one of the first eastern photographers to step into US mainstream photographing realm. He may be the soberest among his peer famous Chinese photographers, but may also be the loneliest.

Mr. Zhao was an admirer of American landscape photographer Ansel Adams, but the strong oriental appeal in his works shows a completely different philosophy of art from Adam’s. In his works, there are more emotions of “blending heaven and man”, a kind of emotion of oriental men of letters. In Zhao Xianzao’s world, there are more free and natural qualities. The “blending of heaven and man” refers to Zhuangzi’s words “the heaven and earth were born together with me, and all things of creation are combined with me as one”, which means a believing that the world is a harmony and conformity of heaven, earth, and man, and man is part of nature. In dealing with the relationship of depth of field, foreground, and background, and setting the position of horizon and level line, Zhao Xianzao’s landscapes often make it difficult for viewers to tell his position. What the works emphasize is not the target of photographing itself, but the subjective feelings of the photographer. With Adam’s regional exposure, the landscapes in Zhao Xianzao’s lenses are not protruding between the sky and the land, but mixed with the waters and the sky. The photographer’s feelings also reach the state of “forgetting both the materials and oneself” through this mixing.

Mr. Yuan Yunfu, a famous Chinese painter and professor of the School of Art of the Tsinghua University, highly valued Zhao Xianzao’s works in 1990: “In his works, Mr. Xianzao tries to raise Nature to a poetic level of mixing feelings and ornaments, reflects his special depth and width in the black-and-white world. He persues a wide noble spirit and captures the graceful figures. His vague landscapes contain the truth of human feelings. Mr. Zhao endeavors to comply with the creative spirits controlled by the concept of blending the heaven and man, which is the reason for the appeal and moving quality of his works. Though he has been away from China for decades, his works still contain eastern artists’ special feelings and offscreen voices, which is very precious.”

Zhao Xianzao’s works are very good cases for us to study the mutual influences between Eastern and Western photographing cultures.

——Shi Zhimin