How daunting it must have been for fine-art photographer Jessica Tan Gudnason to edit the images for Chinese Opera (Abbeville Press $625), an album devoted to the remarkably photogenic traditional art. As the Malaysian-born, New York-based photographer declares in her foreword, she worked her camera overtime to make up for her own 'dwindling memory', capturing special moments she was privy to backstage. Although she limited herself to just three of 300 regional styles - Beijing, Cantonese and Yue - she obviously struggled to patch together a coherent collection, the resulting set a tad haphazard.
In addition, her 'vision' often meant including personal shots that beg for more explanation. The essay by actress Gong Li and the short captions at the back of the book do not suffice; neither do they live up to Gudnason's stated aim of improving understanding of Chinese opera. Outstanding, however, is the verve of many of the 100-odd pictures; Chinese opera's emphasis on costume, movement and song to represent character type, setting and tale lends it a special energy that Gudnason has done well to capture.
