Lang Ching-Shan was born in Jiangsu, China. His father often traveled to Nanjing and Shanghai and brought photos home, helping to cultivate Lang Ching-shan’s interest in photography. He began studying at Shanghai Nanyang High School in 1904, where his love of photography was ignited by teacher Li Jing-lan. When Lang Ching-shan was in his teens, he was able to take part in photography activities that were very popular at the time. In 1912 Lang Ching-shan joined Shanghai's Shanghai Journal newspaper to work in the advertising department, and he would occasionally take and publish pictures of current events. Lang Ching-shan began working at the Shanghai Times in 1926, where he began working as a photojournalist. In 1927 Lang Ching-Shan formed the Chinese Photographic Association with his friends and held his first photography exhibit. In 1931 he opened the Ching-Shan Photography Studio in Shanghai, which specialized in portraits and advertising photography. In 1934 Lang Ching-shan's first photography collection, Mosquito With Flowers, was chosen by the UK Photography Salon. In 1939, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Louis J M Daguerre's invention of photography, Lang held a solo exhibition in Shanghai and published Composite Pictures and Chinese Art by Ching-shan Lang. In 1942 he was honored with Britain's FRPS and America's FPSA fellowships. After 1949 Lang Ching-shan moved to Taiwan and settled there. On March 25, 1953 he founded the China Photographers Association (CPA) and in 1966 he formed The Federation of Asian Photographic Art. After 1981 Lang accepted invitations to visit France and the United States. He held solo exhibitions and was a professor at the Missouri School of Journalism in the US.
The earliest photographic work of Lang Ching-Shan that can be found in an art catalog is a pictorial photograph from 1919. Hermitage, a photo taken in 1963 and collected by the TFAM, is a combination of pictorial photography and composite photography. The work is a combination of negatives of a pine tree and master artists Da Qian. The colors are a natural blend of light and dark. There is the masterly mist effect of Chinese ink paintings as well as elegant and simple scenes that remind one of the Southern Song master, Ma-lin, and his work Listening Quietly to Soughing Pines. It is one of Lang Jing-shan's representative photographic works.
