Art is a cultural form that human being uses to compress out their permanent spiritual values. As one of the artistic forms, photography is a brilliant human invention and important development. With an over 170 years’ evolution history, photography not only massively creates the visual history of human being, but also indicates its unique artistic value and irreplaceable cultural contribution in improving and nurturing our spiritual life. Since the 1970s, the phenomena of the rise in collecting images around the world by museums and galleries as well as other significant cultural institutions, which is an embodiment of the value of photography as an artistry in the human cultural structure.
　　Stepping out from the winds of the history, and at the second millennium turn of this century, China initiated a process of reform and opening-up. When the big oriental country that with hundreds of millions of people opened the door to the rest of the world, the tides of the radical social changes quickly swept across the ancient nation. However, along the way to modernization in contemporary China, in reflecting macro- and microscopic social changes through, such as reality intervenes of the spectacular social landscape, artistic expression, and social memories; photography becomes inevitably the most powerful approach. Nevertheless, documentary recording and personal artistic expressiveness are always the center value of the art of photography.
　　According to the history of photography，its individual relationship with people, society, and history is inseparable; and it sustains a solid foundation for creating, extending, and exploring the contemporary artistic languages and styles. Taking the period of the past half-century from 1965 to 2015 in China as our background, the exhibition ‘China Event Images’ discusses and sorts the development history of contemporary Chinese documentary photography; and thus it contributes a visual timeline to the fifty years of social development in China.
　　The documentary works presented at the exhibition show us China’s development process during the time in the areas of politics, economics, and social life. Additionally, the photography works reveal that, artistic values (such as the ontology languages, styles, concepts, and etc.) and subjective awareness of artists themselves (such as political system and cultural identity) as well as the process of self-wakening on image conscience, all explain that the whole process is a historical development vein that born with a ‘Chinese mark.’ The historical stories told by these images at the show, offers a visual reconstruction and presentation based on ‘reality’ and brings the audience to a different spiritual feeling and associative memory.  It also grants the audience a chance to experience the historical facts behind the artistic aesthetics in the poetic gloss that accumulates with the time.
　　Henan Province, lies in the center of China and known for its fertile ground, is the one of the cradles of Chinese civilizations. It is where the statement of the twenty contemporary Chinese photographers group exhibition ‘China Event Images' starts. Thus, if the specific period of this exhibition theme we are discussing here occupies an important position in the entire history of Chinese civilization, then surely, the visual documents of our 20 photographers would be equally as important in the development process of contemporary Chinese photography.   
   
   
    
　　艺术是人类表达精神永恒价值的文化形式。摄影作为艺术的形式之一，是人类文化的杰出创造与重要发展。它170多年来的演进历程，不仅极大地拓延了人类的视觉历史，而且在提升与滋养人类的整体精神生活中，彰显出独特的艺术地位和无可取代的文化贡献。自上个世纪的70年代，遍及世界各地的博物馆、艺术馆、美术馆、画廊和重要文化机构，所出现的影像收藏热，即是摄影艺术在人类文化结构中的价值体现。
从历史风烟中走出的中国，在公元纪年第二个千年的世纪之交，开启了改革开放的进程。这个拥有亿万人口的东方大国，国门和思想被打开了，剧烈的社会变革之潮，涤荡着这个古老的国度。对于当代中国在走向现代化之路，波澜壮阔、动人心旌社会景观的现实介入与艺术表述、记录社会进程中宏观与微观的时代变迁，摄影自然是一种最有力的文化方式。而作为纪实的摄影和艺术的个人表现力，历来都是摄影作为艺术的核心价值。
从摄影史看，摄影与人、社会、历史的紧密联系既是无法割裂的，也是一切摄影的当代语言和个性风格得以产生、延伸和拓展的真实基础。《中国视像》以1965——2015半个世纪的中国为主题，从当代中国的纪实影像的探讨与梳理中，为五十年中国社会的发展历程呈现了一道艺术视觉的历史时间之线。
　　《中国事像》在时跨半个世纪的纪实影像里，不仅显见出中国社会在政治、经济、文化以至社会生活的演进、变迁的历程，亦映现出：作为摄影的本体语言、风格、观念诸多方面的艺术价值，以及摄影家主观意识形态由政治体制到文化本体，再及自我苏醒的影像良知、这一带有“中国印记”的摄影发展走向与脉络。这些影像所表现的历史情节，以“真实”的视觉还原与表现，将人们带向了另一个方向的精神感受和历史联想。在时间积淀而耀出的诗意光泽里，去感触艺术审美背后的历史厚度。
沃土中原，是千年中华文明的滥觞之地。也是《中国视像》20位摄影家影像言说的出发地。如果说《中国视像》艺术主题的特定历史时段在整个中华文明历史之中有着极其重要地位的话，那么20位摄影家的艺术影像，在当代中国的摄影发展历程之中，亦同样拥有着这样的重要地位。