Photographer #438: Chen Man

Chen Man, 1980, China, is a commercial photographer who focuses on fashion, beauty and style. In 2005 she received a B.A. in photography and media studio at the central Academy of Fine Arts. It was before she graduated that she had already begun to shoot the covers for the new magazine Vision. The covers she created between 2003 and 2007 were unique within the history of Chinese covers. Her manipulated photography is colorful, lucious, bright and fantastical. The images are often completed in post-production where she goes over the top, creating new dimensions and worlds. Her work has been exhibited throughout the world since 2004. Amongst her commercial clients are companies as Lancôme, Lee and Sisley and her images have appeared in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Elle. The following images come from the series New China, Environmental Protection and Red Beauty.

Website: www.chenmaner.com

Photographer #426: Chen Wei

Chen Wei, 1980, is a Chinese fine-art and conceptual photographer based in Beijing. He builds large installations to photograph. His narrative images show bizarre spaces, scenes and objects that leave the viewer wondering. Chen uses his personal memories, childhood fantasies and combines this with realities found in modern China. He assembles all the required objects in his studio and starts building his scenes. "Chen Wei illustrates an intricate imagination fascinated with the eccentric and fanciful pursuits of early science, mathematics, alchemy, philosophers and madmen." (M97 Gallery) His work has been shown in several solo exhibitions and in a vast number of group exhibitions throughout the world. The following images come from the series Everyday, Scenery and Props, House of Recovery and The Augur's Game.

Website: www.chen-wei.org & www.m97gallery.com

Photographer #421: Luo Dan

Luo Dan, 1968, China, is a documentary photographer based in Chengdu. He graduated from the Sichuan Fine Art Institute in 1992. He works as a freelance photographer after having been employed as a photojournalist between 1997 and 2005. For his latest series Simple Song he traveled to the mountains of the Yunnan province. Using the collodion wet plate process he captured the people of this region where the way of life has remained intact for hundreds of years. His series North, South is the result of extensive travelling throughout China. The large body of work raises questions about the large economic changes in China. On various levels the images show the effects on the Chinese population, from the new wealth, consumerism to extreme poverty. Two years earlier he also traveled across China for his series China Route 318. All three projects have been released as monographs. His work has been exhibited extensively, mainly in China. The following images come from the series Simple Song, North, South and China Route 318.

Website: www.luodanphoto.com

Photographer #416: Chen Jiagang

Chen Jiagang, 1962, China, studied architecture in Chongqing and became a full-time photographer in 2001. His large-scale images, some up to 4 meters wide, are a mix of documentary, conceptual and staged photography. For his series Third Front he visited a large number of abandoned villages and factories. In 1964, due to an unstable foreign policy, China installed heavy industry and factories in the heartland of its country, resulting in the relocation of millions of workers. The third front was born and the region was booming. However, in the early 1980's an economic reform was initiated, the factories were closed and the towns and cities became empty. Chen visited the region on many occasions and photographed the industrial wasteland. Within his images he puts a beautiful woman, often dressed in a Qipao, and sometimes a young girl. They are symbolic and create a reference to China's history as well as raising questions about it. Chen released several monographs and his work has been exhibited extensively throughout the world. The following images come from the series Sample Room, Temptations and Great Third Front.

Website: www.chenjiagang.com

Photographer #389: Lin Zhipeng

Lin Zhipeng aka NO.223, 1979, China, is a photographer based in Beijing who works in a very intuitive fashion. His photography shows the Chinese youth of today with sex and chaotic love as recurring themes. The photographs that are made using a very direct and hard flash, showing a youth culture the way he does, are relatively new to come from a country as China. The "snap-shot" images reveal a new Chinese generation, allowing us viewers to see them while they party, shower, hang-out, kiss and smoke. His work has been published in several books as New Photography in China and in numerous magazines as Vice, S Magazine and Dazed and Confused. He has been exhibited mainly in China, but also in Europe and the USA. The following images come from the portfolios Portfolio 09, Portfolio 07 and Polaroid.

Website: www.linzhipeng223.com

Photographer #379: Zhang Xiao

Zhang Xiao, 1981, China, studied Architecture at Yantai University. Between 2005 and 2009 he worked for the Chongqing Morning Post and has since been active as a freelance photographer. His project Coastline focuses, as the title describes, on the Chinese coastline which is 18000 kilometres long. For Xiao the sea is a place of strong emotions and rich imagery. He states that "the sea is the beginning of lives and dreams." The project also clearly shows how China is changing and has been changing in the last 30 years since it began opening up. This change is also visible in his project They. The project documents the Chinese culture while undergoing a societal change. It shows culture and tradition, but also the youth and their newly acquired culture. Amongst his other projects we find a series called Three Gorges. The Three Gorges Dam was completed in 2006 and presents many economic benifits, however, as the images of Zhang show us, it has also led to a vast amount of deconstruction and demolition. Zhang has exhibited his work in China, Japan, Germany, England and France. The following images come from the series Coastline, They and Three Gorges.

Website: www.zhangxiaophoto.com

Photographer #370: Liu Bolin

Liu Bolin, 1973, China, is a sculptor and conceptual photographer. He received a B.A. from Shandong University of Arts in Jinan and an M.F.A. in sculpture at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. When in 2005 the Chinese government ordered the demolition of the Beijing International Art Camp which housed Liu's studio he created an image as a response. He painted his body against the rubble of the demolished building. It was the first image of the extended body of work entitled Hiding in the City. His entire body is painted to create an effect that makes him fade away into the background. Due to this body of work he is also called "The Invisible Man". Some of his work is a protest against the actions of the Chinese government and other pieces deal with other social issues as the process of urbanization in contemporary China. His photographs always possess a clear thought and statement. He also created images in Milan, Venice and New York. The images have been exhibited throughout the world. The following works come from the series Hiding in the City and Dragon Series.

Unfortunately Liu does not have a website. To see a large selection of his work please visit: www.ekfineart.com & www.boxartgallery.com

Photographer #281: Zhou Mi

Zhou Mi, 1962, China, works and lives as a freelance photographer in San Francisco since 2004. He started out as a civil engineer in China for 13 years before receiving an M.A. in Communication Arts at the New York Institute of Technology. Between 1997 and 2004 he was an art director in New York but left for San Francisco to become a photographer. Since then he has done a large number of projects that have taken him to various places. His homeland China, Cuba, India and Turkey are amongst the places he has traveled for his photography. His series The Earth is a collaboration with fashion designer Ma Ke. It is an impressive mix of fashion, documentary, portrait and landscape photography creating very clear, high contrast b/w photographs. Zhou works with homeless people, photographs lost or discarded items on the beach and focuses on street photography. The following images come from the series The Earth, Lost & Found and Portraits.

Website: www.zhoumi.net

Photographer #244: Zeng Han

Zeng Han, 1974, China, received a BA in International Journalism and Communication at the Jinan University in Guangzhou and attended the artist residency program at the School of Visual Arts, New York. His series Soul Stealer is a four part series of portraits in various landscapes. It plays with modern and traditional role playing of characters of ancient chinese opera's and those of popular culture. The four parts are Landplay, Cosplay, Mulian Opera and World of Warcraft. In his series Hyperreality China Zeng documented the transformation and urbanization of China in which the actual viewsights appear to be somewhat of a "hyperreality", a term that derives from the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, referring to the blurring of the destinction between reality and falsity. The following images come from the series Soul Stealer - World of Warcraft, Hyperreality China and Dizzy City.

Website: www.zeng-han.com

Photographer #239: Quentin Shih

Quentin Shih a.k.a Shi Xiaofan, 1975, China, is a fine art photographer that also focuses on portrait, fashion and commercial photography. Since 2008 Shih has collaborated with Dior which has resulted in several impressive series. He is a self-taught photographer who lives and works between Beijing and New York. His clients include some of the major brands including Nokia and Adidas aswell as editorial clients as GQ and Vogue. In his fine art project Citizen of State he wanted to use a surrealist technique and a precise pictorial composition to depict death of ordinary people in a country fixated on heroism. The following images come from the series Shanghai Dreamers, Citizen of the State and The Stranger in the Glass Box.

Website: www.quentinshih.com

Photographer #205: Yang Yongliang

Yang Yongliang, 1980, China, approaches photography in a very unique way. He studied traditional Chinese art and calligraphy from an early age. He recreated Chinese Shanshui paintings with the use of a camera in order to express himself and the subjects that concern him. It is a combination of the layout of these traditional paintings with images of construction sites, cranes, traffic signs and more which he arranges in a way that from far they look just like an original painting, but when coming closer one can see the detailed photographs. On his website we can see the details of his masterpieces. The following images come from the series Artificial Wonderland, Viridescence, Phantom Landscape III and Phantom Landscape Pages.

Website: www.yangyongliang.com

Photographer #140: Song Chao

Song Chao, 1979, China, is a photographer with an interesting story. He started working in 1997 at a coal mine. While working there he started taking pictures of his fellow workers in 2001. He was uneducated and an amateur. His series Miners has been compared to the photographs of Richard Avedon, but Song was unaware of these images or any western photography at the time when he started taking the portraits. His photography focuses not only on the miners, but also the community that surrounds the miners, their families and the landscapes. His photographs have been exibited around the globe. The following images come from the series Miners I, Miners II and Coal-Mine Community.

Website: www.songchao.cn

Photographer #135: Xing Danwen

Xing Danwen, 1967, China, currently lives and works in Beijing. She has been taking photographs of maquettes since 2004. Xing then takes pictures of herself playing various characters to add them to the image of the maquette. The prints are more than two meters wide, that's when the viewer can see the stories that unfold on the photograph. To see detail examples go to her website. The following images come from the series Urban Fiction, Duplication and Disconnexion.

Website: www.danwen.com

Photographer #127: Li Wei

Li Wei, 1970, China, has exhibited his work all over the world and has been in an amazing number of publications. The photographs are a mix of performance arts and photography where we see people in bizarre and gravity-defying poses. Li achieves these awkward positions through the use of mirrors, metal wires, scaffolding and acrobatics and not through the use of computer manipulation. The following images come from his portfolio.

Website: www.liweiart.com

Photographer #078: Wang Qingsong

Wang Qingsong, China, 1966, makes large, staged images that are printed in enormous sizes. His photograph China Mansion stretches to the length of 12 meters. Qingsong is sometimes described as the 'enfant terrible of Chinese art photography'. He often uses themes as China's consumer culture and materialism. He has described his work as "kitschy, but powerful ... contradictory, but critical." Apart from photography he also works with video. The following images are Safe Milk, Dormitory, China Mansion and Follow Me.

Website: www.wangqingsong.com

Photographer #069: Lu Guang

Lu Guang, China, 1961, started with photography at the age of 20 when he was still working in a silk factory. In 1993 he attended the Tsinghua University in Beijing. In 2003 he won first prize at World Press Photo for his story on HIV. He has covered stories on Golddiggers, the SARS epedemic, the Qinghai-Tibet railway and many more. In 2009 he won the W. Eugene Smith grant for his series on pollution in China. The following images are all from Pollution in China.

Unfortunaly Lu Guang does not have a website of his own. For more images visit: http://image.fengniao.com/vision/content/1/122-1.html