Photo Memo (Master Photographers in Shanghai)

PhotoMemo (Master Photographers in Shanghai)

Effy Fay .

Preface

I

talked with them: about their experiences, about how they liked the job of being a photographer, about their connection with the city of Shanghai. They told me their stories: the tough days they had been through and the tricky cases they had come across during their work. Some of the stories were touching and some were amusing. After about 23 hours of interviews with about 20 fashion insiders and photographers, the real world of the photographers was spread out before my eyes like a panorama. I would love to share my delight with you, which is why I did this book. My hope is that at some point during your reading and viewing of these pages this exploration will move you from passive enjoyment to something altogether more directly useful: that it can be a book that guides you to set up a career as a professional photographer. As you mix them together, comparing and contrasting the expert knowledge and experiences contained here, you may not only follow in the path of the most notable photographers in Shanghai, but also consider where to go to strike out in your own direction. Learn from those

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who have pushed the boundaries of study and practice, then stand on their shoulders and see further, which is still a good way of acquiring knowledge.

I have never been crazy about fashion. To me, fashion is just about ‘What should I wear?’ – that question on so many lips. What always attracted me was history, culture, art… everything literary and with food for thought. But I was also a girl who pretended to be a queen, wrapped with a sheet; who stole her mother’s lipsticks and made a messy face; who walked around in oversized high heels at home alone. Yes, that was my childhood. Growing up in a metropolis, with overwhelming homework from school, I had to find some way to get used to solitude and entertain myself happy. There was no female in my family during my teenage years.

I was brought up by my father, a decent but repressive surgeon. You can imagine how far away I was from fashion. I was sent to a boarding school when I was eleven and have lived at schools ever since. No magazines or Internet: everything relating to fashion was simply what we were wearing. Given the small wardrobes in dormitories, creat-

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ing new looks with limited clothing was one of the best things to do for entertainment. I believe that stylishness is inborn. There’s no need to learn it: it is just a sense from blood and bone.

I grew up in Shanghai and have lived in Beijing and Amoy for some years. I found Shanghai to be a peculiar Mainland city with the most connection with the West, materially and spiritually. The culture of the city is seriously influenced by the colonists of the last century, whilst still keeping very Chinese traditions. I became a fashion editor after my graduation and then worked as a stylist in Shanghai, before getting the chance to come to London. It was a good choice for me although I had to quit my job and lost some money. I found so many connections between the two cities, Shanghai and London: some of the architecture, the proportions of the population - both are immigrant cities, the construction of the underground, and the rivers in both cities. There are of course more differences but their common grounds gave me an intimate feeling of déjà vu. Fashion in London has been so advanced that it is just part of life, with no need to be empha-

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sized. Many people here are so sophisticated about fashion that they don’t give a damn about the mainstream but have their own style, which arouses sympathy in me. When I talked about the subject of fashion with the photographers, well, almost every one of them agreed with me.

Fashion in China developed late, not until the 1990s, and it was the same with fashion photography. I’m afraid the idea of fashion photography in China is still different from that in western countries. The pictures are all about looking good – which is the same – but the practice is more about making money than making creations. However, things have changed in recent years. Compared to the West, which has had more than 100 years’ of fashion history, China has made progress extremely fast.

Photography has become the most common language. It is shared by more people, as viewers or originators, than any single tongue that we speak. The language may be composed of pictures rather than words – visual rather than verbal – but there are structures within and across images that are

every bit as significant as making a sentence speak to us. The photographers in this book come from different periods. I put them in a chronological order according to the years of their heyday in commercial/fashion photography. Some of them are no longer commercial photographers and some of them always challenge boundaries and can hardly be categorized. The works range from photojournalism to fine art, from still life to celebrity lifestyle, and from the earliest photographic techniques to contemporary digital methods.

However, if anything unites the group it is that they all contribute to the development of the industry and are all hugely dedicated and hardworking at what they do. After reading the wisdom in these pages, you may have a rough idea of the route of the development of fashion photography in China.

The photographers in the first chapter, ‘The 90s’, are just commercial photographers who do not do fashion photography. However, as the first generation of photographers after the end of Cultural Revolution, I consider them to be the pioneers, and some of their pictures reveal the first budding of fashion photography in China.

The second chapter, ‘2000’, is separated into two parts. The first three names are Shanghai local photographers whilst the next three come from Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.

edited from longer conversations. Most have had the questions removed, as these became only a distraction from focusing on the interesting part: the responses. The photographers and I selected the pictures together.

In every case, choosing just a few pictures The fourth chapter, ‘2005’, consists of five to represent a particular participant’s entire young photographers who are well estabportfolio was a painful pleasure, in which lished with separate and different visual there was never a right solution, just another styles. Some of them have agents or produc- good one. So it is highly recommended that ers, while some are running their own studi- you check their websites and monographs. os as well as being photographers. The inter- The contact information and brief introducviews with these photographers reveal part of tions to each photographer are listed at the the real industry after Vogue China launch. back. I tried to focus on illustrating iconic images or revealing significant lesser-known There is only one name in the last chapter, pieces that in some way worked well with ‘Art’. Maleonn is a very famous art photogra- what was being discussed. I also tried my pher whose works have an aesthetic of orien- best to reproduce the images as faithfully as tal gloom and a nostalgia for the China of the I could.

70s and 80s. His experience is very attractive as well. He is the most romantic and witty I hope the result is an inspiration for the person I have ever met. Although he has not readers and a promotion for the participants. yet done any serious work in the realm of fashion photography, I personally predict that he will some day be invited to do some crossover with the fashion industry.

Effy Fay All the interviews are entirely original and

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Contents

Preface

3

90s Shanfu Zhang (Zhang Shanfu) Frank Chen (Chen Weizhong) Hongbin Zheng (Zheng Hongbin) Gangfeng Wang (Wang Gangfeng)

8 14 20 26

2000 Soong (Song Bo) Forest Fu (Fu Bailin) Hua Wang (Wang Hua)

32 38 44

KK Fong (Fang Yigang) Michael Teo (Zhang Guoguang) Leslie Hsu (Hsu Hsicheng)

50 56 62

2005 Jeff Sun (Sun Jun) Qi Lee (Li Qi) Dean (Ding Li) D.C Zhao (Zhao Dichen) He Lee (Li He)

68 74 80 86 92

Art

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Maleonn (Ma Liang)

98

The Photographers Acknowledgements & Copyright

104 107

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Shanfu Zhang (Zhang Shanfu)

8.

Shanghai photography, compared to that of other parts of China, started early. There were famous photographers in the Republic of China (19121949), when photography was imported from Western countries as a new means of entertainment.

All the film and camera apparatuses were shipped from the West and were very expensive. This meant that at the time photography was just considered as a new form of expression, which could be afforded only by a few educated people from the elite. Early photography in China appeared as a cultural phenomenon and embodied a consumer phenomenon as well. People took pictures as a hobby; they lapped it up. The earliest photographers who took pictures to make a living worked in photo studios. They took pictures to memorize important moments in people’s lives, for example wedding photos, souvenir

pictures or certification photos. When the era of reform and opening-up arrived, commercial photography emerged along with China’s new market economy. As the competition for the market became more and more fierce, the technology and aesthetic of photo studios could no longer meet the demands, so professional commercial photographers were required.

that technology, Shanghai moved ahead. As one of the earliest cities opened to the world, Shanghai was inhabited by various Western colonies and, as a result, the culture of the city expressed rather Western views on many issues.

My father was a hairdresser. In order to record every new hairstyle he created, he needed to take pictures.

There was a simple darkroom in my childhood home. Sometimes I played in my daddy’s darkroom With the improvement in the Chinese economy, people‘s lives got better and better. Photography after dinner, and got tremendously influenced by became more and more popular in cities. Traditional this. So in a way my father was the torchbearer of photographing technology with films came from my later photographic career. I adored painting when I was young and graduated from Shanghai developed Western countries, whilst the invention of digital post-production technology immediately Commercial Professional School’s photography course, which was the first school in China with a narrowed the technical gap between Chinese phomajor in Photography. When I was at school, we had tography and that of the Western countries. As for

Campaign for Chery® A1, 2007 .9

O2 Bar, Campaign for Santana®, 2003

to learn everything about photography, including anaphase revising of negative film, darkroom technologies, photo developing, black-and-white film colouring etc. Boys certainly favoured shooting lessons most, but good command of all of those basic skills would be helpful for becoming a professional photographer. I believe that a photographer can never achieve excellence without basic darkroom knowledge. I am interested in everything about photography and have spent time doing research and learning. I also don’t think people can learn without 10 .

Campaign for Passat®, 2002

a teacher and anybody might be a teacher in our lives.

There were slogans everywhere in China when I was young: “Service the people”, and “Be red* and professional” and others like “One profession and multiple capacities”, which meant to devote yourself more to the country and the people. That was why Chairman Liu Shaoqi established Shanghai Commercial Professional School to meet the demands of the developing market. Commercial photography (*Red symbolised loyalty to the Communist Party of China.

was just one means to build the country at that time.

My starting point as a commercial photographer was ‘what the country needed’, not just for money, like most people today. The times have changed.

At that time graduates needed to take job assignments from their schools and I was assigned to The Chinese Photo Studio. There are only a few old photo studios that still survive today; the reason The Chinese Photo Studio survived was because it

took pictures for the Central Government leaders.

Another famous old studio is Wong’s Photo Studio, which is still open on Nanjing Road*. The Wongs, who were rich, opened this studio for fun. There was a master, Yao, who came back from Japan and worked in Wong’s Photo Studio in the old days. His excellent darkroom skills had a strong impact on me. It’s a pity that the heirs of the Wongs failed to keep pace with the age and the studio is now closing down.

People at that time liked to take pictures in front of a background curtain showing places such as Tiananmen and Yan’an revolution resorts. There was no digital technology, so in order to make the people blend in with the background more naturally, I did many experiments and developed a “directional composing technology”. The essay was published in Science magazine in 1974, and made quite a sensation in China. I was then invited to train other photographers to use this skill.

was no colour film developing in Mainland China at the time, all the colour films had to be sent to Hong Kong. Inventing China’s own colour-film-developing technology was assigned as a political responsibility. I was transferred to a special research group for the task, and kept working at the photo studio as well as participating in the technology reformation.

Towards the end of the 1970s, China had its own colour photography, and soon put it into use and popularized it.

(* A pedestrian mall in Shanghai, which has been well known since colonial days when it was called Xiafei Road.

With more foreigners coming to Shanghai, the need for colour photography gradually increased. There

I was shooting portraits in photo studios in the 1980s, but day-to-day life was so boring that I felt

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as if I was suffering. I am a person who likes challenges. I wanted to be free and to do something interesting, so I quit my job and have been a freelancer ever since. There was no concept of portfolio in my day – all my works and outcomes belonged to the public. Although I had received many awards and taken photos for many celebrities, I still had not made a name for myself. I started as a freelancer from my darkroom, something like today’s postproduction work. The main cases I got were re-shooting the honour certificates of my clients’ products, and taking pictures for illustrated calendars – that was the embryonic form of Shanghai’s commercial photography.

One day, I saw a Das Auto car advertisement in an exhibition; I didn’t like the picture and asked who had taken it. I was told it was a foreigner. Then I looked for the Das Auto Shanghai Company, and told them that I would like to shoot for their advertising and that my photos would be better than the one I had seen. The manager was a foreigner and was quite suspicious. I went home to find some pictures I took for a toy car company, took a picture of the Bund and put the pictures in a folder and went back to find the manager. I showed him the pictures from my portfolio and he liked them and gave me a chance to compete with 4A companies. I was good at darkroom skills and put the car picture and the scene of the Bund together in one photo. For another picture, I dared to go against the mainstream and didn’t take pictures of a car but only of the logo of Das Auto. The two pictures let me beat the other 4A companies, including Ogilvie, and I won the chance

to shoot for Das Auto’s campaign. Later on, Das Auto Shanghai began to collaborate with me more often, and my income got higher and higher, which changed my life. There are many stories about me competing with foreign photographers. Before me, when shooting a car’s interior, the upper side of the car needed to be sawn off for lighting, but I can did it without damaging the car. I solved the problem through a basic physical theory. The first time I practiced it was during a competition with a foreign photographer. My opponent was surprised.

late in China, but because young people became keen to follow fashion, it developed fast within just a few years. The competition among fashion photographers is fierce, which is good to see, as it pushes the industry to grow faster. However, too much competition makes people lose perspective, and there is little time for thinking in the market. It is especially dominant in Beijing, because the people there are good at self-promotion and sensationalism.

People from Shanghai are low-pitched by comparison.

The early car advertisements were always exaggerated and looked fake. People usually said: “It’s an advertisement, it’s fake and we shouldn’t trust it.” But I have always thought that the function of advertisements is to introduce the product. It shouldn’t end up looking like a scam. The value of photography is that it’s real. As a commercial picture, you can emphasize certain aspects, but you can’t fake it. I do postproduction by myself, I am the first photographer who used Photoshop and Apple Mac computers in China, and I am one of the first people to popularize digital technology in China – my darkroom skill was not bad before I used Photoshop, but I still always insist on the fact that photography should be real; I don’t like the strong visual impact achieved by a large amount of postproduction.

I don’t do fashion photography, but I do follow it.

I think today’s fashion is a concept opposite to the classic, and to make fashion classical it needs to stand the test of time. Fashion photography began

Portrait for a paintist, 1999 12 .

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Frank Chen (Chen Weizhong)

Mount Qomolangma, 2002

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I came back from Japan at the beginning of the 1990s. Shanghai Mechanical Metal Company was on course to publish an illustrated book showing all 360 tools that they produce. Twenty years ago, the advertising photography in Mainland China was almost all sent to Hong Kong and the photographers there monopolized the market. The ‘look book’ was originally planned to be shot and made in Hong Kong, and when I heard about this I had an intense determination to take over the case. So I found the company and talked with the manager about my idea, and the manager gave me 3 separate tools for test shoots. I soon completed them and was success-

ful in taking over the case.

In the summer I borrowed a school library to use as my current work studio. I paid great attention to the work, which was strived by myself. In order to shoot higher caliber photos, I introduced some original design of my own into the pictures. During the two months I was just thinking about one thing: how to shoot the boring tools aesthetically and creatively. Among the hundreds of pictures, there was one photo with all 360 pieces of tools, which was the biggest challenge for me. There was no digital postproduction technology at that time

and I couldn’t shoot each product separately, so I had to think through how to organize the 360 pieces with different sizes and shapes all together and still make it look adequately professional. I tried many kinds of compositions but failed. Then, one night, I dreamt of a pyramid; I woke and sat up in bed as inspiration flowed. I was so excited that I worked through the night with my assistants and made a triangular-shaped board. I took all the props and tools onto a roof terrace, and assembled all the tools on the board in a designated order. The temperature on the roof was so high that the glue I used did not work properly, and the tools fell off, one after the

other. My assistants and I were busy rushing from one to another, replacing the tools back on to the board and, finally, the assistants held some of the tools most prone to drop and counted down: one, two, three, go! The assistants quickly left the frame and I pressed the shutter. The pictures that were taken would have been easily executed had we had the technology we so take for granted today – digital postproduction, but it was a real challenge to me in the old days of photography.

The look book of Shanghai Tools brought me a modest fortune. With the money I found a small

room on Fuxing Road*, boasting 24 square meters of space and started my own photographic studio.

An old client of mine, Mr. Liu, was the leader of China State Construction (CSCEC) in Beijing. He appreciated my talent and asked me once why I didn’t set up a company of my own. I told him that I could not make it, as there was no individual enterprise in China at the time; all the enterprises were run by the government. One year later, in 1992, Mr. Liu helped me establish my own photographic company but in the name of a department sub-company of CSCEC. The managers of the companies (* A good location in Central Shanghai.

run by the government at that time could receive a corresponding official title and social reputation.

Since CSCEC was in Beijing – the city with the highest political titles – the leader of the head office was titled as chief of a bureau; I, as the leader of its branch company, naturally relished the title of section chief, which was two levels lower than the boss.

So CSCEC gave me a means to set up my company but it was through my own finances, though the company did own some of the shares. Another year later, I talked to Mr. Liu, bought all of the company, and became the only shareholder. . 15

Gardens of Perfect Clarity, for Catalogue, 1998

Old Station of Fangzi, for Catalogue, 2008

tation of the individual business. After several collaborations I got to know the boss of Xiafei® better and after I had won his trust he left all of the advertisements of their productions to my company. The brand Xiafei® was approved as of one of the top ten famous brands of China the following year. With the expanding of Xiafei®, the busier my company They ran independently and the managing inside their companies was comparatively free. The market became, until, in 1995, the procedure of Chinese was no longer restricted and the businessmen could marketing changed. The individual entrepreneurs occupy the market by all means freely. Xiafei®* was like Xiafei® could not adapt to the new and better my most provocative client; it was also the represen- organized economic market. Xiafei® was purchased

by Jahwa Shanghai and our cooperation ended. (* One of the most famous brands for household 16 .supplies in Shanghai.

Since then I have never approached clients – they have all come to me. In the 1990s, there were very few advertising companies in Shanghai. Along with the just-getting-started market economy in China, many individual entrepreneurs burst into life.

I served in the army for 9 years, and then began as a professional commercial photographer in Shanghai Advertising Co., Ltd from 1977. In 1987 I went to Japan to study, and to work at Asahi Advertising Inc. as a photographer until I returned to my country.

I do commercial photography for money, but what I really want is to do artistic photography. In 2001, when I was almost 50, I suddenly realized that I had to put my dreams into practice. I drove to Tibet with only one assistant accompanying me. I travelled through west China for 3 months, and stayed in no man’s land for around 15 days. I love adventure, so after 2001 I have traveled to at least

one place every year. I take pictures as my personal project on my journeys. Every time I came back to Shanghai, there would be someone inviting me to exhibit my pictures, domestically and in Japan.

Advice to newcomers: I think we need first of all to be prepared with knowledge and skills; secondly, to be confident and challenging. I am a workaholic when I am working, but I totally enjoy my life, and I travel a lot in my leisure. I am a traveller, adventurer and photographer. I think I have been playing throughout my life, and I believe that we should go with the wind. I believe in destiny, but we can seize

our chances.

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Ad for Flour, 2004

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Campaign for Shanghai速 watch, 2005

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Hongbin Zheng (Zheng Hongbin)

Commercial photography is over. The era has ended.

20 .

Nowadays, the 4A companies will not give you cases unless you give them an extra rake-off. Normally, the basic commission is 10%. Otherwise, they will leave the job for foreign photographers to do. I cannot say whether or not they ask for the same rake-off from them, but the price that the Western photographers are getting is at least ten times more than what local photographers are paid. This means that their commission fee will be proportionately higher as well. In addition to these foreign photographers, those from other non-Western countries are getting a ridiculously high fee. This can amount to millions of Yuan for 2 or 4 pictures, whereas local photographers often get less than 12,000 Yuan.

I shot for Spirit® years ago and got only 3,500 Yuan for a single product’s photo. This was considered to be high by the 4A company but they paid 16,000 Yuan to a photographer from Hong Kong for the same case. I did not see much difference between my picture and the Hong Kong photographer’s, despite the significantly higher payment. Additionally, the fee for the Hong Kong photographer covered only one year’s copyright, whereas mine was indefinite. No one talks about copyright with 4A companies in Mainland China. That was the situation years ago.

I have recently heard some of my friends who work in advertising complain that many Hong Kong shooters’ work today is of no better quality than the work of photographers from Mainland China.

Although the latter demand lower fees, the clients still have a blind faith in higher prices and, as such, prefer to hire photographers from Hong Kong.

I do not like to follow the rules set up by others; I have been well known within the 4A circle for my affordable quotes and uncompromising character.

However, I did not want to give the extra rake-off, so I eventually quit. I have since been working on my own projects after saying goodbye to commercial photography.

What I am doing now is taking pictures through a microscope. The photos produce an effect similar to that found in paintings, despite being made by a camera. These three pictures are going to be sent to the French Autumn Salon for exhibition in Septem-

Campaign for Remy Silve, 2004 . 21

Campaign for Sony Cyber-shot, 2006

ber. They are different images of the same crystal found in a specific type of medicine under a microscope.

The process of making these depends on feelings and chance. The successful pictures need to have a sense of a painting, so chance plays an important role. I started these experiments 20 years ago, just after coming back from Japan. The art market in China would not accept this kind of photography at that time, so I put it on hold for 10 years, until some friends came to me and suggested that I restart it. They told me that the art market had changed 22 .

and my experiments might now be welcomed. So I brought back all the equipment and started up again. The process of making these pictures is not easy. I only managed to complete one satisfying picture last year.

I began doing photography and graphic design in 1984 within a trading company. Back then many people wanted to go abroad, and so did I. So after working for 5 years, I went to Japan for further education. Instead of enrolling in a school when I arrived, the first thing I did was to look for a job. I only had $200 in my pocket. When I came back to

China in 1994, I started as an individual commercial photographer. Here I started taking 4A companies’ cases through recommendations by some old friends. I had shot almost every first-level brand in China. My quoting price was quite low: 400 Yuan for one 120-film picture. As I could only raise money by quantity, I did not make as much money as other commercial photographers.

I have never bribed or bought anyone a dinner, ever.

The photographers of my generation no longer take 4A cases.

Campaign for Whirlpool, 1997 . 23

Art Photography, 2008 24 .

Art Photography, 2008 . 25

Gangfeng Wang (Wang Gangfeng)

Documentary works of Wang

I was the first photographer in Shanghai to shoot for fashion magazines, but I am no longer a fashion photographer. I now take more artistic pictures.

Trends change extremely fast in China, depicting the styles within each fashion season. When one idea is introduced, another dogma replaces it.

I started taking photos at the beginning of the 1980s when photography was not yet popular in China.

In 1975, in response to the call of Chairman Mao for 26 .

a move to the countryside, I went to Chongming * and planted trees for 6 years. Living conditions were harsh and without hope. There were a total of eight farms in Chongming at that time, each consisting of around 30,000 people, all of whom were young people newly graduated from high school. One day, there was a political leader flying over Chongming in a plane and he said: “The rivers there don’t look orderly, but like child’s pee.” After those words the local government of Chongming called on us youths (* It was a remote island next to Shanghai and now, after being developed for years, is one district of Shanghai.

to rebuild the watercourses in the winter, during the slack season; it lasted for more than 2 months.

In order to finish the work before the Spring Festival†, we had to work around the clock and sleep at night in temporary tents with about a hundred people together in the same space. It was very cold, and the air inside the tents was foul and suffocating.

With so many people stuffed in the same tents, we could hardly turn around when we slept, so there was always someone counting in order to direct the others: one, two, three, turn! This turning occurred († One of the most important festivals in China, like as important as Christmas in western society.

roughly ten times during the night. The only benefit was that we could sleep together, with the presence of girls somewhere in the same room, and we could sing songs and tell ghost stories.

Chairman Mao believed that the peasants’ thoughts were the most pure and that educated youths should learn from them, but how could the peasants teach without knowing how to write? Mao believed that the only way to be educated was through heavy One day, I was standing on high ground and looking manual labour, that physical labour could educate people. The age of Mao ended at the turn of down at the dense crowd of young people working there and I thought to myself: “If I had a camera, I the 1980s, at which point it became generally acwould take a picture of that, to keep as a memento cepted that the educated youths of my generation of this historical time.” There had never been so in Chongming needed to go back to Shanghai.

Coincidentally, our parents were just about in their many Shanghai boys and girls gathered together building watercourses, but there was not a single camera on the farm.

40s and 50s*, so the government invented the term “replace”. “Replace” meant that we went back to the city to take the place of our parents when they retired. It was the only way that allowed me to get back to Shanghai, so my father sacrificed his career and let me “replace” him to work in his company.

So it was that I went back to the city. It was difficult to transfer my residence from Chongming back to Shanghai.

My father was a captain in a shipping company, but (* Legal age of retire in China is 55 for women and 60 for men.

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I could not take his place as a captain; I started as the most basic locksmith. The salary was low and I could see no future in the position. I had no interest in the work so from time to time I requested sick leave and began to take pictures with my father’s camera. In order to make a successful application for sick leave, I would read professional medical books to find some medicine that would help me raise my blood pressure – I tried many kinds of pills to find a range of symptoms, putting my life at risk.

My despair about my future grew with my passion for photography. I began to love photography, which aroused people’s concern, including that of my parents, as there were no jobs as a photographer at that time. Photography was considered as “a game for rich people” and not a decent career.

To reduce my parents’ worries, I often read photography books in the library during hours when I was supposed to be at work, and went home when I was supposed to have finished working, as if I was working in a company. The time I finished ‘working’ for the ‘company’ was the time when children had just finished school and were playing before dinner in Nongtang. Many pictures of mine, taken in those times, were of children playing games in

Nongtang*, and later became international awardwinning pieces.

I began to raise money by taking pictures and selling them to hotels to be sold in their gift shops. I remember the Huating Hotel – the first and only hotel run by an American at that time – collaborated with me in that way and asked for a high commission rate of 70%, but paid me by FEC † (Foreign Exchange Certification). Even with such a high commission charge, the payment I received was still considerably higher than the average income at that time. The person from the Huating Hotel who contacted me was an American, and then later the AmCham Shanghai (American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai) and the United States Embassy asked me to shoot for their events, which gave me the chance to shoot big names such as Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, President Carter, etc. I then became the first freelance photographer in China. But I dared not to call myself a freelancer, as nobody could call himself “free” in those days.

1986, when Chen Yifei‡ knocked at my door. Mr. Chen was already famous in New York and said he had seen my works in America and had been looking for me for a long time, and would like me to collaborate. His visit rid my parents of their anxiety; they no longer worried about my career but just let me go.

My family was still worried about my future, until

In the summer of 1988 – I remember it was a rainy day – the doorbell of my home rang. At the door was a foreign lady and her interpreter who said they were looking for Wang Gangfeng. I was young and spoke to them directly in English, which made her think I was not the person she was looking for.

She was a Canadian and had bought my pictures to take back to her country. A gallery that had seen my works wanted to invite me to exhibit there and that was the reason she had come to find me. Her first thoughts were that the photographer who shot images of this kind must be an old person, and my youth surprised her. I went to Canada for my first exhibition in the spring of 1989.

I was extremely willing to go abroad when I was young; the possibility of taking pictures of Ameri-

(* Lanes in traditional Shanghai style. († More stable thus more valuable than the US dollar.

(‡ Chen Yifei (April 12, 1946 – April 10, 2005) was a famous Chinese classic painter, art director, vision artist and film director.

Child, in 1980s

28 .

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can icons strengthened my determination. The depressing atmosphere of Chinese society suffocated me and made me feel disheartened, I had lost the sense of belonging to the country. After having been in Canada for just 3 weeks during my exhibition, I decided to stay. To make a living I put my camera to one side and began to work part-time. I worked in restaurants, did ironing, sewed buttons, etc. I tried all sorts of work but none were successful until I found a photo-printing store and worked producing films and occasionally helping the boss to shoot portraits.

I began to gain an understanding of commercial photography and the fashion photography industry in Canada, I learnt a lot and made progress, and even started my own business as a commercial photographer. Finally, in 1994, I received my Canadian residency; having been waiting for it for four years.

When I got the residency, I went back to China to see my family for the first time in 4 years.

my surprise, a copy of ELLE magazine.* I had never expected to see fashion magazines in China. I immediately called the ELLE office in China. They let me to bring my portfolio to the editor-in-chief, who said on the spot: “OK, you do the fashion shoots for our next issue.” I had to prepare everything by myself, including borrowing clothing and finding models. This was where I started my collaboration with ELLE. It was the only fashion magazine in China, and after my first shooting with ELLE, my photographic career began to flourish. Facing a vigorous and fast- developing market, I thought: “Forget about New York!” I moved back to Shanghai and began a career as a commercial photographer in China. (* ELLE was the first international fashion magazine launched in China in 1991. It was launched 14 years earlier than Vogue China.

I was planning to move to New York after visiting in China, but during the 3 weeks in Shanghai I saw, to

for ELLE China, 1998 30 .

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Bo Soong (Song Bo)

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I was born in Shanghai, but I grew up in northern China because my father worked there. I went back to Shanghai when I was in primary school. I liked working with my hands from an early age and I developed a passion for photography from the darkroom. I liked taking electrical products to pieces and doing chemical experiments at home. To me, working in the darkroom was just like doing chemical experiments. I bought a book called The Introduction of Darkroom Tech with 8 Fen*, and began to teach myself. I still have the first black and white picture I produced. After a period of playing around with photos in the darkroom, I lost interest in just producing the film from my parent’s camera and started to shoot by myself with my father’s camera.

China was so insular 20 years ago that normal people were still watching black and white TVs at home. One day, I was visiting my classmate who had a satellite television – rarely seen at that time. It was the first time I saw Channel V† and I watched music videos. I was astonished by the powerful impact these had. I had no idea that there was this kind of visual representation in the world. From then on, I kept thinking that in the future I would make visual works like the ones I had seen. The function of the camera therefore changed for me from supplying films for darkrooms, to creating pictures and memorizing the people and the scenes.

I began to practice my shooting skills with added purpose.

I didn’t stop practicing until I went to college. I tried my best to save money and bought my first single lens reflex camera, with a lens sponsored by my cousin. I didn’t appear on campus during my second year in college as I went shooting all around. When I came to my third year of university, I reached a bottleneck as I didn’t feel I was progressing with my photography and there was no teacher to turn to, so I looked for a job as a photographic assistant. I went to work at a wedding studio for a while. The wedding photography at that time took pictures of people as still-life set-ups. All the pictures looked the same and everything followed a regular formula.

After just one month working there, I realised that it was not what I wanted to do.

(* 1Fen equals 0.01 Yuan.

(† One of the most famous music TV channels in Chinese of southeast Asia.

I was confused about my future at this time but then

Pixy of China for ELLE China, 2005 . 33

I saw an interview on TV with a photographer who had just come back from Canada. I was so excited that I wrote a letter to the leader of the TV channel asking for contact details of the photographer.

I soon received a reply with the photographer’s address and telephone number, for which I was very grateful. As a result, I met my mentor, Gangfong Wang (Gang of One Photography).

Wang had just come back to Shanghai and was looking for assistants to work in his newly established studio. I worked for him as an assistant for four years. My salary was pretty low, but the most painful thing was that I had to finish my university studies at the same time. I went to Shanghai Normal University, which meant that I had to finish my internship as a teacher in my last half year and I had to give lessons every morning. My school was in the southwest part of the city whilst Wang’s studio was at the opposite end, plus working in a photography studio usually means working overnight and irregular hours. My schedule for a long time was shooting until 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning before taking a quick nap on the sofa of the studio. I would wake up and catch the early bus at 6 o’clock to my school and during the two hours on the bus, I would correct my students’ exercises. I would then hurry back to the

studio after finishing my lessons at around midday before repeating the cycle again. I was exhausted every day but some of my best memories are from this time as I thought I had found what I wanted to do. I was very busy but I felt stimulated, which made me happy.

After my graduation, I received some pressure from my parents as a job as a freelancer has not yet been accepted by Chinese society as a good career. My parents had always wanted me to teach, because it is steady work. In order to please them, I tried to be a teacher in a school but managed this only for one month. The teaching conflicted with my work at the studio and I had no choice but to quit the job at the school so that I could keep working at Wang’s. I didn’t tell my parents, so I had to make up stories about my work at the school. I made a note of every detail of every lie I told them in order not to be exposed. This was pretty hard. Two years later, in 2001, I became a little bit famous in Shanghai as there were not many fashion photographers and I had almost no competitors. I was promoted by the media and by magazines and was awarded the title of “New Talented Fashion Photographer”. I exposed the truth I had hidden from my parents for two years through a TV programme. Fortunately, I

received some exposure and fame otherwise I would still have kept my secret and I wouldn’t have dared to tell my parents the truth. I remember that my mum cried throughout the entire programme.

I know there is a great disparity between my own work and work at the international level. I taught myself fashion photography by reading imported fashion magazines and I considered the fashion pictures in respect of the lighting, postproduction, etc.

However, I had no idea how the top photographers worked as a team, on the spot. So I went to the UK to advance my photography skills. Using my broken English, I contacted some UK photographers and we worked together. I learned a lot and gained a lot of experience over several months. The stay in London not only improved my shooting skills and lighting techniques, but also let me see what fashion should be.

Fashion is a concept. The fashion in China nowadays is forged, as it has no live basis or popular support. It is all about wearing nice clothes and brands or looking weird… it is realized by imitation, not by nature. When I was in the UK, I found that the fashion there was just part of peoples’ life, whereas in China, no matter how glamorously someone dresses

Black & White, 2008 34 .

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up in a fashion show, he or she will take off the clothes and dress down once they get back home – that reflects the real China.

You need to meet the demands of the market when you are doing real fashion. You need to be adaptable and able to change your style if required. As a result, Chinese fashion photography is still finding its own character and it is hard to make a breakthrough, which is depressing. I often feel confused.

Having worked for so many years in the industry, I find myself wondering: what am I doing? What are these kinds of fashion pictures saying? I clearly know what ‘real’ fashion is in developed countries, but I just can’t find it in China.

I can’t really explain my style; I’m still learning.

Though I have received praise for my work, I know there is still a long way to go. Peter Lindbergh once said that when he had been doing fashion photography between the ages of 30 and 40, he didn’t take a single satisfying picture and it wasn’t until he turned 42 that he found the meaning of photography in his life. He thought what he had done in the previous decade was all rubbish. They were shots for clients and none of the photos expressed his vision. I was touched when I read his words and I felt

the same. I also kept thinking ‘what is my style?’ for many years and I too had never done a picture representing my own opinions. I am still discovering my style, and I hope I too will find self-acceptance by the time I am 42.

To push the development of Chinese fashion is another thing I am keen to keep working on. From a basic photographer to an advocate of the industry, I made the Creative Industry Park, I set up the Model Institute, and I participated in the planning of the fashion industry with the government, which will lead to a great change in the industry once the plans are put into practice.

Fashion is quite vain and fake. Sometimes I think that I should concern myself more with human beings, from a more humanistic angle, rather than just focusing on the fashion. I have quite a dilemma at the moment as although I am fed up with the industry, I still have to push its development.

I am now studying an MA to become a film director. Maybe movies can express deeper meaning – or more than a simple picture can express. I hope to make a movie someday in the future.

Blood Tears for IIInShanghai, 2009 36 .

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Forest Fu (Fu Bailin)

F: Forest Fu L: Fu’s producer Arlo Luo (Luo Hao)

There are many departments in your company; how do they work normally?

forms a particular role.

F: Luo knows better.

Do you think you have competitors in Shanghai?

L: Most photographers in China work under the structure of a workshop studio, but we turned ours into a company in 2005. We shoot mainly for fashion catalogues and advertising companies – rarely for editorial. The company consists of a shooting department, prop team, model agency, production and creative department. Each department per38 .

F: There are quite a lot, but we don’t care about them.

L: Forest Fu was one of the first photographers to set foot into the fashion area. In the last decade, the Chinese market has undergone extraordinary changes. Many people who started fashion photog-

raphy at the same time as Forest failed to adapt to the changes and got washed out. But Forest survived and has been in the market now for over ten years. We have our own working model, different from the other photographers, which leads to our success. Of course we appreciate that other companies have advantages, but we can’t perform the same way as they do. For example, some of the photography studios can take two or even three cases in the same day and they can do volume production; we can’t do this. We are exigent over our works. If the others are doing ready-to-wear, what we are doing

For FRANCEPAL Catalogue, 2010 . 39

is made-to-measure.

Is the company under an authoritative producer-ship system or photographer-ship?

F: That’s an interesting question.

L: We are under the condition of “half assets integration”. Our advantage is that our photographers know the fashion industry quite well. Chinese fashion has been developing since the ‘reform and openness’, but the consciousness of brands didn’t exist until the 1990s. The need for fashion photography followed that. Forest started working for fashion companies at that time, so he has witnessed a whole host of changes and knows the industry pretty well. He knows what the market needs as well as what the client wants. Another advantage of ours is that we do not copy. Normally it takes us two weeks to do the creation for an advertisement. We need to communicate with the clients several times in order to get the spirit of the brand, then we can develop a bespoke shooting plan.

During a shoot, how involved is the photographer?

F: In western countries, it is generally considered

that a picture should be finished mainly by preproduction with the less retouching, the better. It is good, but I don’t think it suits the market in China.

The situation regarding the respect and protection of intellectual property rights is totally different in China from in the west. Many designs created during the Second World War are still under protection in foreign countries; this would not happen in China. Things are different when it comes to China.

L: China is undergoing rapid development with an increasing population and limited resources. What we care about the most is the outcome. We used to co-operate with an Italian team, who could only shoot six looks a day. The working environment was so relaxed that it allowed the team to find new inspiration during the shooting. They have adequate time to think and reflect. In China it is normal for a client to require the photographer to shoot 30 looks in just one day. As a result, you can always see people shouting at each other during the shooting because everybody is under pressure of time. In addition, Chinese clients usually pay the least but ask for the most. When the Italian photographer saw one of the catalogues in our office, he asked me: “How long did it take you to finish the shooting?” I said, “One day.” “Impossible!” he answered. But in

For FRANCEPAL Catalogue, 2011

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China, it has to be possible.

How do you cope with such contradictions?

L: We have to compromise. For example, this catalogue, according to our own strict standards for quality, if we could have had one more day to work on it, I believe could have been perfect. But today, every time I see it, I feel regret. But there was no time and the budget didn’t allow us to make it perfect. Without adequate time and money, the only thing we can do is surrender.

F: It also depends on the platform given by the clients. The target markets of the clients are different, after all. Some of the minor scaled? companies are not targeting the high-end market and their clothing doesn’t look good and is sold cheap. As a commercial photographer, I need to consider things from my clients’ perspective and I cannot always pursue my own artistic intentions. We shouldn’t do what we want if the vision we create has nothing to do with the client’s brand. In this regard, the photographers in Beijing are happier because they have more opportunities and platforms, whilst those in Shanghai are more pragmatic. The difference

between the northern and southern parts of China is the same as well. Anyway, working as a commercial fashion photographer in China is not easy as we are servicing much more than creating. Only a few clients give us space for creativity; very few.

What do you think about “references”? Is it plagiarism?

L: References are required when making a shooting plan in order to keep the vision outcome unified with the style of the brand. However, the majority of the clients are so new that even they themselves have no idea about their brand positioning. They don’t know the future of their brands and have no idea where to go, which makes it difficult for us to do our job. They usually give us some key words and just leave it to us. However, they will often reject our proposal and we have to forgo our creative side and simply follow the wishes of the client in the end. References can make it safer as it lets clients see the general result of the outcome. Sometimes we meet clients who ask us to shoot the same as the references as they want exactly the same and we can do what they ask.

Since the clients usually reject your ideas, why don’t you skip this stage of creating and just listen to your clients and obey?

L: That would lead to failure. Most of time, what the client says is not necessarily what they really want.

What’s more, they don’t take responsibility for their ideas as they don’t have the ability to see the desired outcome. If we just do what they say, chances are that the pictures won’t meet their expectations. We are the ones that have to take the responsibility.

Is there any experience you can offer after many years in the profession?

L: Photography is an art form but every visual part of the fashion industry is considered marketing.

Our work is to combine art and the tool of marketing. First of all we need to show the clothing clearly.

We are not the owner of the brand and therefore our responsibility is to the visual representation.

Many Chinese designs copy Euro-American styles, which do not necessarily suit Asian people. So a display in our catalogue should be aspirational. Everything is about looking good.

For gxg Catalogue, 2009 42 .

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Hua Wang (Wang Hua)

I have been in the industry for 10 years, however I do not like the title ‘fashion photographer’ because when something comes into fashion it soon becomes outdated; all I wish is that I can do the job throughout my life without becoming out of fashion.

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My major at university was photography; work began as an intern in a photographic company straight after my graduation. My mentor in the company was Mr. Wan Cheng , who had come back to China from Japan. The time when I started the internship was also the start of the golden age for China’s economy. It was about 1999 and 2000; the Chinese fashion photography industry had not yet been unveiled and the market was blank, therefore the need was high and there was not such fierce

competition as there is today. With a limited number of photographers working for a vigorous market, it was a really profitable time for photographers like myself. Earning a living in China was tough, as it still is today; it was inevitably a subliminal goal as a commercial photographer and not the pride and joy later realised.

I have had three mentors throughout my career, all of whom had a substantial influence on me. The first was Jin He; he was not only a teacher but also acted as a life mentor; the second was Mr. Wan Cheng; and the third was Wang Ruyi. There is an old Chinese saying: “A mentor should be treated as a father.” I shall never forget these three mentors.

Had they not been there, I would not be the person I am today.

Mr. Wang was my tutor in my second year of university; it was 1999, and he had returned from Japan full of enthusiasm. Mr. Wang introduced to the whole class the possibility of an internship in his photography company. The work during the internship was so hard that all the other classmates left in the end, except me. After my internship, I worked at Mr. Wang’s place for 2 years. I remember working hard and it was busy every single day during my time there, but the memories of those days are sweet and happy.

Now, everybody knows me as a still-life photographer. I used to be lost for a while before making the decision to just shoot still life – it is well known that shooting people, fashion, portraits or celebrities is an easier was to make money in China and to

For ELLE MAN, April 2011 . 45

get famous. I hovered between still life and people; however, I finally chose my direction as a still life photographer because I was enjoying the fun and happiness that shooting still life brought me. The more fashion photographers, the more the plagiarism. If I shoot still life, there is more space for creativity and less competition. I can shoot portraits as well; as a visiting professor at a university, teaching portrait photography, I can tell my students about my own experiences. However, there is one thing that I always emphasize: never use the back door* in my class – I am now working for GQ and Vogue China magazine, through my strength and my own ability, without any backdoor deals. I educate my students by forbidding them to go through the back door.

Vogue China has been here since 2005 and it brings a lot of advanced knowledge and styles into the industry. Most of the international magazines have been localized, even ELLE China. The average quality of the editors is not high and the management inside each magazine is normally confusing. One example would be that it usually happens that a photographer hardly ever receives his payment on time and could wait for months; sometimes the editors (* An equivoque in as backdoor deals.

may delay the payments for the last collaboration until the photographer collaborates again. Such poorly managed situations never occur at Vogue China and GQ magazine: the payment comes punctually and never defaults. The advertising market is also in disorder and I have experienced too much during my 10 years’ career. After having been put upon several times, I now only take cases from Ogilvy®. If you work directly with a client, they will drive a bargain over your price. But I do not worry about that when I work with Ogilvy®. I am satisfied with my quote now, and I no longer have to sacrifice my dignity for money.

knowledge. When I read fashion magazines, the fashion shoots have almost no difference from one another – no style, no flare and no originality. Many photographers were talented at the beginning, but were soon worn down by the commercial and profiteering environment – that is the current situation of China’s commercial photography.

The salary of a fashion editor in China is quite low compared with those in foreign countries. In such developed countries, the product introduced by an editor is normally what the editor can afford; but in China, given an editor’s normal income, no editor can afford the prices of luxury products introduced in their magazines.

Fashion photography started late in China, which has lead to a nation of young photographers. The whole environment of the country is now too boastful and flatulent; some people think that they can be photographers just with a camera and no technical

For ELLE MAN, April 2011 46 .

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For ELLE MAN, April 2011 48 .

For ELLE MAN, April 2011 . 49

KK Fong (Fang Yigang)

Tony Leung for Mans UNO Hong Kong, 2004

There have been many fashion and commercial photographers in Hong Kong since the 1980s, but the city was seriously hit by the financial crisis in 2002. Other parts of Asia also suffered, but Mainland China was not adversely affected because the financial market there was just starting to gain momentum.

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I was an in-house photographer in South China Media. I spotted how Hong Kong was being affected by the crisis and I decided to move to the mainland and make my dreams come true. The chief reason I chose to come to Mainland China was that my

hometown, Hong Kong, while part of China, does not have as large a market as the mainland. I also wanted to introduce commercial photography to the mainland, both for its commercial operation and for its aesthetic taste. It would also be extremely beneficial for my career to work in a larger market.

Why did I choose the city of Shanghai? I compared three cities*: Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai. I (* These three cities are generally considered as the three fashion centers of Mainland China and thus attract the most commercial and fashion photographers.

felt that Guangzhou was too close to Hong Kong in terms of culture and geography. I therefore had to decide between Shanghai and Beijing. I observed that many people went to Shanghai to develop their career; it was seen as a city in which to make money. Whilst Beijing had a strong cultural signature and was commercial, there are too many rules, which mean you need to build strong social relationships to survive. Shanghai is a more rational city and I love commercial photography, so I picked Shanghai.

Both Hong Kong and Shanghai are commercial

cities. The opportunities to make money and seize chances are quite similar. However, when I first came to Shanghai, the means of conducting business and the ways of communicating were a big shock to me. In Hong Kong, when I had meetings with my clients, I didn’t have to explain much to make sense. But in Shanghai, it doesn’t work like that. I think that in Hong Kong, everybody has a similar cultural background and level of education, which allows quite simple communication. When I show a picture as reference to a client, all I would need to say is: “You got it?” and they would say, “Yes, I got it.” – Deal! That’s what happens in Hong

Kong. When it comes to Mainland China, things are different. You need to do a number of things in Mainland China, such as: prepare an excellent PowerPoint presentation; explain your idea; tell clients where your inspirations come from; illustrate the impression on the audience, etc. You have to be well prepared and you even have to be able to predict everything and anything that might happen during the day of shooting. That was a big challenge for me in the beginning. I had never expected that the client needed to know that much. To me, the process of shooting is artistic invention, and many things are difficult to explain in words alone. The flow

process production can be put into words, but not the photography. I remember the first time I talked to a client in Shanghai; I followed my Hong Kong style and finished the presentation in just a few sentences. The client was surprised and confused. Now I am used to the rules and I am quite experienced in producing quality and detailed presentations.

My first case in Shanghai was to shoot for a charity advertisement. A friend of mine in 4A Company introduced this opportunity to me and I did the shoot for free. It was not a portrait or fashion shoot, but photos of straw. As a photographer, I even had

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Jay Chou, campaign for Metersbonwe®, 2008

to find the straw by myself. I finally found piles of straw in the countryside and the traffic fee costs were much higher than the price of the straw I bought from the farmers --- That was 10 years ago.

52 .

I used to be quite confused about my future when I was 22 or 23 years old. I thought I liked graphic design after graduating but I felt no passion for it. One day, a friend of mine in Hong Kong asked me to accompany him to take a photography class. I was not busy, so I agreed. Ironically, I became a photographer but he didn’t! The teacher of the class was working for a wedding studio as a photographer

Campaign for Sony® mp3, 2008

and he let me work for the studio as an assistant.

the job and started my career as a photographer.

Taking pictures was easy for me and I quickly fell in love with it. I learned so much about photographic skills and lighting. After two months, I wasn’t satisfied with just being a wedding shooter so I studied fashion photography after work and left the wedding photography job a year later. It’s a narrow door to this career, and it’s hard to get in without having contacts in the field. I looked for a job as an assistant fashion photographer in Hong Kong for 8 months. One day, I heard about a vacancy in a studio and I was invited to attend an interview. I got

Many people from Hong Kong said that Mainland China was like going back 10 years and they could not get used to the life there. But I was able to adapt quite easily because it was the place that I chose for myself. I was determined to be a photographer and have my own studio so I was prepared to deal with the lower standard of living and the different culture. I never complained about people spitting on the ground; I would have just felt ridiculous. You have to embrace the environment you find yourself in and I was prepared to do that.

I believe moving to Shanghai was a good decision for me. There were far more opportunities there than in Hong Kong as the fashion industry in China was well established. There were few fashion magazines in Shanghai and the first one I shot for was ELLE. After 10 years’ development, there have been more and more talented photographers emerging in Mainland China. Chinese fashion photography has gone through a period of imitation to the next stage of having its own style. However, the industry as a whole is still at a relatively early stage. Fashion editors don’t usually give creative space to photographers, which is not good for the development of

Chinese fashion photography.

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Yao Ming, campaign for Catorade速 2007 54 .

Maggie Q for FHM Hong Kong, 2001 . 55

Michael Teo (Zhang Guoguang)

I was born to an average family in Singapore. My major in college should have been architecture, but my parents couldn’t afford my education and I had to change to a less popular major, which was cheaper. It was about optic glass design and it had some relation to photography. After graduation I got a job in a Japanese company as a photographer’s assistant.

The company sent me to Japan for further studies in photography, but I had to serve the company for 5 years after that as a form of payback and I accepted this condition. So by chance, and karma, I became a photographer.

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The market in China is so big that all kinds of people come looking to make their fortune. The income level among photographers differs greatly as no matter how high the quoted price is, there

are always people willing to pay. Working in the fashion circle of China requires Guanxi [social relationships]. People bring out the best in each other. Some people gather together and seize the market by means of a team consisting of photographers, stylists, make-up artists and hairdressers, and each member works exclusively with the others. The market is in disorder.

What’s more, the legal system is unhealthy. Chinese photographers can reprove their clients and can quit their job during the shooting, even when a signed contract is in place, which seems unbelievable to someone from Singapore. However, there is no rule about how the clients perform. In Singapore, once a photographer behaves rudely to a client, they are likely to receive a letter from

a lawyer, which usually leads to the photographer losing work. As a photographer, you need to have professional ethics and be respectable. Once a job is taken, you need to finish it. Before you call yourself a photographer you should know what kind of responsibility you are taking on. But things in China are different; many people think of themselves as qualified photographers simply by holding a single lens reflex camera. As a result, a career as a photographer here doesn’t receive understanding, appreciation or respect. In the old days, a photographer was a highly respected job because at that time people were shooting with film and this required technology, skill and experience.

If you can’t speak the local language, it is difficult to survive. However, when it comes to China, if

for 25 AN magazine, 2009 . 57

ShuUemura, for 25 AN magazine, 2009

you don’t speak Mandarin you may develop better because Chinese people still tend to worship foreigners, especially English speakers. I couldn’t speak Chinese well when I came to the mainland, and I thought improving my Chinese would be helpful for communication with clients. In fact, improving my language skills made me look like a local Chinese and this directly interfered with my quoted price, which can be higher if you are a foreigner. There are many foreign photographers in China who take poor pictures but are still well paid.

It is easy to make a fortune in China. For example,

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wedding photography makes money fast. The wedding photo studios run by the Taiwanese, especially, do very well in the mainland. The Taiwanese figured out the mainland’s customers’ psychology. The price for wedding photography can be very high, even higher than commercial photography. Generally speaking, the price of a photo depends on the scale of its audience, but Chinese people would rather pay tens of thousands of Yuan for their own wedding pictures, which entertain only themselves, rather than paying the same amount of money for an advertisement which can help them raise more money. Their logic still confuses me.

for The Bund magazine, 2008

I came to the Mainland 7 years ago. My first station was Beijing, but I found it was too “hard” to work in Beijing soon after I arrived. There were too many hidden rules to follow there, which made me exhausted, plus the salaries are seldom paid on time.

Every time I asked them for my money, they didn’t give me a direct answer but said, “If you are short of money, I can give you some”, which made me seem like a beggar. Or, sometimes, they would just give you part of the payment by cash and offer you the chance to become a shareholder in their company in lieu of the rest. The Chinese are good at playing such games, which I’d describe as covert acts of

exploitation. But I was just supposed to be working for money in exchange for taking pictures – that’s all. Why should I become a shareholder? After several experiences like this, I thought about leaving. It was 2003 when the SARS outbreak happened and I decided to go back to Singapore through Shanghai.

During my stay in Shanghai, I got some work. The working experience in Shanghai was not as bad as that in Beijing, so I thought I’d stay in the city.

Coincidentally, my visa was still valid, so I decided to stay.

I found that there were few still-life photographers

in Shanghai whilst many photographers compete for fashion and portrait work. Since I was still learning the language and shooting models requires communication, I picked up more still-life shooting cases and gradually rumours started that I was a still-life photographer who couldn’t shoot people.

It was my fault as I cared too much about being able to communicate in Chinese. However, it is impossible for a Singaporean photographer to be especially professional for either still life or portrait because they will be rapidly kicked out of the market. Some of the Chinese photographers today only shoot fashion and portrait pictures and reject to shoot still

life.

In my opinion, only when a photographer shoots still life well can he or she take high quality pictures of fashion and portrait. Advertisements rarely contain only people without the product, but that’s how it works in China. No matter how famous the company is, it keeps committing the same stupid mistake by hiring different photographers to do the product and people shootings separately. The reason is that almost every advert has at least one celebrity as their prolocutor. Chinese celebrities always like to have an exclusive photographer who

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normally doesn’t know how to shoot still life. As a result, the client has to have an extra budget for the product shooting.

Many shooters don’t do still life because they are not able to and, what’s more, because still life shootings are worse paid than shooting models. The reason why photographers are crowding into Beijing is that Chinese celebrities and stars are assembling there. Celebrities are very powerful in China; once a photographer sets up a good private relationship with a celebrity, he/she will likely be offered the exclusive rights to photograph that celebrity, which means he/she will shoot almost every editorial and advertising picture of that celebrity. This happens only in China.

the space for creation for our photographers will be narrower. This hurts photographers, as you have no chance to experiment with new things. All you can do is: to create your personal projects, wait to be discovered and then copy what others show you.

It is sad and it damages both future talents and the development of Chinese photography.

During my studies abroad, the photography education in Japan gave me many chances to practice my skills. Students were encouraged to copy a masterpiece and the closer your copy got to the original piece, the higher the score given by the tutor. Such practice is really useful in my work today in China.

There are many references for every case in China and I need to produce similar pictures. I think it is because there are too many retakes in Chinese companies: a decision must be made and fixed. Then

for Target magazine, 2009 60 .

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Leslie Hsu (Hsu HsiCheng)

How long have you been in Shanghai?

Technically speaking, 4 years.

Why did you come?

I was fed up with doing commercial catalogues in Taiwan. I just had no interest any more. The situation was quite different in Taiwan as clients might book you to shoot their catalogue quite early, sometimes even up to 6 months in advance, just in case the photographer wouldn’t be available. Normally, when I finished shooting for the spring/summer catalogue, the client would make an appointment for their next season, so my schedule would be fully booked in advance. The process was like this: when a photographer had just started, OK, you had the talent, people liked your work, and then

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you kept going with more and more cases. In my peak months, I could work for 45 working days per month, calculated by 9 hours per working day!

Is there any difference between the praxis in Taiwan and that found in Mainland China?

In Taiwan, clients rely on you very much. Even though they booked me 6 months in advance, they didn’t ask me anything until the date of shooting.

My clients put their faith in my work – that was the way it was in Taiwan. The collaboration between photographers and clients was usually stable and lasted a long time. In Mainland China, however, the companies are usually much larger, and there are many procedures to go through within their management systems.

It sounds as if Mainland China is more professional than Taiwan.

It may appear that way, but that’s not entirely true.

There are many hidden rules and backdoor games to play during operations, and most rely on “the relationship”.

Why did you choose Shanghai?

It was the wrong decision.

Why? I didn’t know Mainland China well before I came here; there was a friend living in Shanghai who invited me for a visit. Then I arrived and found that the city was prosperous and bustling. But after I’d

for Lohas China, Feb. 2011 . 63

for Isabelle Wen® Campaign, 2011 been here for years, I found that as far as photography is concerned, it is not where I wish to be.

Because it is commercial?

Yes, it’s too commercial. I’m planning to move to Beijing.

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In what ways do you consider Beijing superior to Shanghai?

I think the nourishment I can get from these two cities is different and I might get more from Beijing.

It depends on the character of the city, the transfer of personnel in the industry, etc. There is a sort of power that pushes you to move. It’s like you get into the city, with no real determination, but the atmosphere there automatically pushes you to do something and make progress – at least that’s the way it is for me. Some other Taiwanese photographers came

to Mainland China because of the larger market – the market in Taiwan is limited, with more than enough photographers, so there are fewer openings for them there. But the market here is massive. As the population increases, the chances for the photographers grow. And with more opportunities to practice, Taiwanese photographers develop faster here.

Numerator grows as well as denominator?

Theoretically, yes. But for me, I have left the mainstream market now, otherwise I wouldn’t have needed to leave Taiwan. I’ve always kept some relationship with the mainstream market – I know what they want and I can shoot, that’s enough. But I put more energy into interesting projects. For example, I like taking some quirky and arty cases,

or funky and purely creative cases, which allow me to create freely. Compared with Shanghai, there are more opportunities like this in Beijing.

How do you define your style?

I’m still confused about it. I have always been curious throughout my 20 years of professional experience. Whenever I came across a picture that I felt was original, I would think that I should be able

to take it as well. Then, when I got the chance, I would give it a try. Sometimes, when I saw a new idea from another photographer, I would ask myself why he had an idea that I had never even thought of. Okay, then I got a new way of thinking. I like to try to have fun and to work with a variety of styles.

It is different from foreign photographers. Once foreign shooters decide on or find their signature style, they insist on that style throughout their lives.

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But until now I’ve been playing around; it all comes from my personality. Sometimes, I feel confused and ask myself: is it right? Sometimes, I tell myself that this variety is me. It is tiring because every time I try a new thing, I have to readjust myself, which is exhausting.

Are there many photographers with signature styles in China?

There are some in Mainland China, which is already not bad as there are few in Taiwan.

But Taiwan photographers have a collective style, haven’t they?

Yes, and that’s because of the different culture. To some extent the style of Taiwanese photography is attractive. Many people from Hong Kong like this kind of photography. The Taiwanese have developed their own local characteristics. Though it is also following trends, it always retains certain qualities. I know it is under the influence of Japan.

Do you mean Japanese culture? But it is quite different from Japan, isn’t it?

Yes, it is. But it is definitely interfered with by Japanese culture. When I was young and had just started my career as a photographer in Taiwan, almost all of the references were from Japanese magazines such as ANNA and NONO* . All of them were the mainstream style of Taiwan’s fashion market at that time. Recently the style of Taiwanese fashion photography became softer, though still quite similar to the Japanese style. Japanese photography is more (* Both are names of Japanese magazines.

profound while Taiwan’s is more sentimental – the sentiment of the petit bourgeoisie. Japanese photography is more artistic. Taiwanese fashion photography has been separated into two parties, one follows Euro-America, the other follows Japan.

Which one do you belong to?

I follow myself. I once took a job making a video.

During the month when I was doing it I didn’t look at any videos because I was worried about copying subconsciously and I wanted to find myself – that’s how I always train myself. When I do a shooting now, I most likely haven’t decided how to do the lighting until the last minute, when even the models are prepared. Most of my clients are expecting me to surprise them, as even I myself have no idea what the end result will be.

So normally you get your inspiration after the others are ready, do you?

It always happens. For example, I collaborated with Timmy Yip †. He gave me an abstract topic to express a journey through time by means of pictures. I had no idea how to achieve the effect until the very last minute on the shooting spot, and asked my assistant to buy the prop immediately. I have worked with Mr. Yip for a long time; he always tells me some concepts that I can’t understand, and I usually give him more than he expected. († Works as an art director and designer for fiction films who is best known for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which won an Academy Award in art direction. Yip also won a BAFTA award for the film’s costume design. He is sometimes credited as Tim Yip Kam-tim, Kam Tim Yip, Kam-tim Yip and Tim Yip.

What do you think is the difference between Mainland China and Taiwan?

There is more impetus here. I have always felt like I was being pushed by a power. Everybody is making progress and you have to work hard. The fiercer the competition, the more opportunities there are.

Do you have an agent?

Yes, I have. I leave all the bad things to them and only focus on my photography.

Are there any recent changes in the photography market in China?

Mainland photographers have grown up fast and improved a lot. For example, several years ago, there were many acts of plagiarism. This is decreasing.

They are getting rid of plagiarism and gradually starting to think on their own. There are also fewer artificial exaggerations and less post product. Progress is generally happening fast here.

for Shiatzy Chen® Campaign, 2011

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Jeff Sun (Sun Jun)

Shanghai 100 for Bazaar China, 2010

There are several ways to become a photographer in China. These vary from working your way up from an assistant, to being lucky enough to be discovered through small photo shoots. You might also study abroad and come back with a motivated attitude and a high reputation. I travelled to Shanghai before my graduation, to take part in an internship. I was majoring in visual transmission and therefore started taking pictures while I was studying. By chance I became a fashion photographer.

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I really love my job because I thoroughly enjoy doing what I do. If I didn’t, I would still be at my last

company, working in advertising. My previous boss was very lenient and allowed me to make many mistakes. It’s surprising that he tolerated me for so long and in the end, I quit the job.

My work is reputable and has been described by others as having a distinctly Chinese style. That being said, if you look at my earlier work – between 2003 and 2006 – you will find that it does not have a defined style. In actual fact, I don’t mean to shoot pictures in a Chinese style – I’m a commercial photographer after all. The main source of my income is from advertising and among the 100 advertise-

ments that I have completed, no more than 5 of them required a Chinese style. So, as you can tell, I am still expected to shoot pictures in all different kinds of styles. In commercial work It is always vital that you satisfy your client. Apart from pictures for advertisements, I have not been shooting for magazines as much recently, and I like to take advantage of the extra time to focus on my personal project.

Doing editorials allows you to be creative and get well known, though when you’re already famous, the exposure is no longer so important. I believe there is almost no creative space for photographers in magazines now.

I can honestly say that I adore Chinese tradition and culture. After being in the industry for many years, I have found that the market also likes the traditional Chinese aesthetic. When I first went abroad for a photo-shoot, I found myself attracted to everything exotic and new, but I found it hard to take pictures. I believe this is due to the fact that the architecture and the culture are foreign and this means that it is hard to connect with the heart and soul, compared to someone native to the country.

When I am in the gardens of Suzhou and Shanghai, I can feel my emotions being aroused and bursting into life. In Europe, on the other hand, though

I saw many beautiful and exquisite things, I just didn’t have the same emotional connection with the environment.

Shanghai and Beijing are definitely two of my favourite places. Before 2007, many people thought I was from Beijing because I did a lot of work for magazines in that area. I pushed a lot to make sure my creative side was shown in my editorials, but a lot of the magazines in Shanghai are quite commercial and gave little leeway to do what I wanted. This was the major difference between the two cities.

My work tends to display a situation of solitude. No matter how positive a person can be, it is hard to ignore the fact that solitude is a large inner characteristic of human beings. I believe this theme can often stir feelings of sympathy. Mainstream fashion photography today usually creates a luxurious, nice feeling. Trends come and go fairly quickly and almost no one discusses their effects on the inner workings of people. There is hardly ever any food for thought in most of the work, as it never really portrays what concerns humanity most. The camera is like a language, and to be accomplished in one language is infinitely better than to know several.

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Calendar Girl for La Vie, 2010

Blue and White Porcelain in April for La Vie, 2010 Many masters of photography have their own signature camera language.

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I am currently working on a personal project, where I will shoot 100 different types of flowers alongside 100 different people, with each person holding and representing a different flower. I want the connection between the people and the flowers to be comparable to the natural phenomenon

of inosculation. The project is estimated to last for two years. The flowers have all been sourced from China, with each containing a unique florescence.

The various types will not only contain flowers, but also blossoms from trees; this means they cannot be easily bought from the flower market.

I have been going to nursery gardens every week for the past few months, to chat with the gardeners about what the flowers will look like in full bloom

and when they will bloom. This means I must be patient as the branches of the trees may look better during certain times of the year. I may also be unfortunate enough to miss a certain florescence and have to wait until the following year. Furthermore, I also have to cooperate with the models to find which flowers suit them the most. Sometimes, if the model is not available during the peak of a flower’s blossom, I may have to find them a differ-

ent flower. This would normally seem unfortunate, but I have found that actually the second flower works much better than the first – it is definitely interesting and surprising. The requirements for the models in this project are that they have to be born after 1985 and look fairly young. This is because there has to be a resemblance between the beauty of the flower and the beauty of the model.

They will come from all walks of life, and they can

be anything but ugly; for example: strong but not fat, and slim but not shrivelled.

Before I started photography, I was unemployed for six months. I am a proud person and do not borrow money from others in times of need. For example, I was living in Pudong* at the time and the underground ticket cost roughly 2 Yuan. (* Shanghai district. It is in the east side of the Huangpu River, far from the centre of the city.

However, I only had 1 Yuan left in my pocket. I called a friend and fortunately he had a car and drove me to the west of Huangpu River (city centre). The following day, I found a note of 50 Yuan somewhere in my home and treated my friends to some Da Zha Xie† for dinner. Afterwards I asked († A kind of crab from Yangcheng Lake, not far from Shanghai. It is considered to be delicious and valuable.

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three of my friends to come over to my house and we gambled during a game of mah-jong. Mah-jong has always been a speciality of mine, thanks to my big family in Shaoxing, who played mah-jong as a traditional game.

I haven’t signed up to an agency, but I have many good friends and connections in agencies in Beijing and Shanghai – and they help as “agents”. My advertising clients come to me directly as I don’t like being troubled by 4A companies, which tend to make things complicated and waste a lot of time. 4A companies are known not to consider either your own point of view or that of your clients; they put themselves first and make a balance between the lower cost and clients’ demands. In the end, though, clients are lovely to deal with, as once they trust you they will support your idea and give you the space you need.

I am the only photographer in my studio, as I never allow my assistants to shoot. Unlike other photographers, I cannot keep working over 3-day period. I need to take breaks and my time for work is limited.

I have no interest in fashion, but I still take many pictures for first-class fashion magazines. The two topics I rarely like to think about are, firstly, fashion trends and, secondly, photographic instruments (which I leave to my assistants to take care of). I have never thought about being an artist, just as I didn’t intend to be a fashion photographer. I just enjoy doing what I like, and let it be.

Lan, 2011 72 .

for L’ Officiel China, 2011 . 73

Qi Lee (Li Qi)

I started working in a wedding studio in Xi’an in 1997. The boss appreciated my work and gave me the opportunity to receive advanced training in Shanghai. I met a lot of friends during the training and they recommended working in Shanghai, so I left Xi’an and moved to Shanghai, and as the living there wasn’t bad, I decided to stay. Then, one day, I felt that I had had enough of wedding shooting. I quit the job and, fortunately, soon met my mentor, Christopher Cheung of Cheung Man Wah Studio, and I was admitted as a member of the studio. I worked there for three years and by chance got to know some senior members of this circle; I didn’t make a conscious effort to change my life.

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I have never owned a studio myself. I don’t believe that there is a good photographer anywhere else

in the world who is running his or her own studio.

You can see this in the photography agencies in New York: no matter how famous and powerful the photographer is, he or she doesn’t run the studio.

This is because the market and the labour division there is quite mature and there are professional studios for rent, so there is no need to have a studio of your own. The studios are so well equipped that they have everything you need. In China, on the other hand, most photographers do have their own studios and have to buy a lot of expensive instruments and equipment. They work really hard, spend significant sums of money on rent and paying their staff, and have little time for anything else. That’s not for me: that’s boring! I prefer to learn from foreign colleagues.

The commercial market in America has been in existence for over 100 years but the open policy of China has existed for only a few years. Nothing can be done overnight. Some Chinese have come to realize that we should change: a photographer needs to have an agency or agent; a photographer shouldn’t be a boss as their role is taking pictures; there should be someone else to negotiate and communicate with the clients and get work; all the photographer should focus on is his or her creativity and being an artist. Such changes have only gradually been accepted, not only by photographers, but also by clients. Years ago, the clients took it for granted that photographers should be the ones they negotiate with directly. This is not how it should be done. Once photographers have to think about business as well as dealing with clients, how

Tiger Woods for ELLE MAN China, 2011 . 75

can they have time and energy for creating? The value of a photographer should be in his work, in his pictures, not talking to clients: that’s nonsensical and timewasting.

I am quite lucky. When I was still working in wedding studios, I did some personal projects at the same time. After quitting my job, I met Cheung.

Cheung comes from Hong Kong and people from Hong Kong are very professional and used to international business. Like joining a formal troop, I was trained under an advanced system and this opened my eyes. When I quit the wedding shooting job, and before I met Cheung, I thought a lot about how to set up my business, about how to set up a studio, etc. After I had been working at Cheung’s for a while, I realized that what I was thinking was all crap. People from Hong Kong also learn from the Americans and if it wasn’t for Cheung letting me know what is “right”, and his understanding that as a photographer I should pass on the question “how to run a business” to the producers and agents, as top international photographers do, I would probably have gone the way of many other mainland photographers and struggled to get a studio. I think this is the right thing to do as a photographer can place more emphasis on his shooting and self-promotion rather than on pointless communications.

There are many photographers who are busy trying to do everything and this has meant they have had little success. China needs professionals in this area.

Today, I only concern myself with my photography centre and I leave the rest of my business to my agent. To make it, you shouldn’t be covetous and you can’t always be thinking about how much money your agent will make from you; the money

they earn is a result of the efforts they make. At the same time, I do what I can to ensure that I get whatever proportion of the money I deserve. I think you need a good cooperation model, which will lead to a ‘win-win’ situation and you will go further together.

clarity. I am now working 10 to 15 days per month, as I don’t want to be too busy. It was two years ago, when I was working over 20 days every month and flying all over the world that I decided it was too much. I felt that I was so busy that I nearly lost myself.

I have an agent and a producer now but I have not yet signed with an agency. If I signed up with an agency, as American photographers do, I would be thrown into passivity and be starving. We can use the experience of other countries for reference but we can’t copy them because China has its own unique situations and characters. The agency-signed model in America works because it is based on the powerful backup of a credit system. Every person knows their role and plays their part. The quality of the insiders is at a similar level. But in China, the market is disordered; nothing can be restricted by a paper or contract. Once someone wants to break the contract, the paper doesn’t work anymore. I can’t take the risk of putting all of my eggs in one basket, so my cooperation with my agent and producer are under moral treaties but they are not fixed or signed with any agency.

It is said that I have a bad temper. Sometimes, I can be bad-tempered but it is not foolish anger. I display my temper only when I encounter something or someone unreliable. There are many unreliable clients in China – too many unreliable people. The reason I only work with certain magazines (GQ China and Vogue China) now is because they are reliable and we have collaborated in perfect harmony. I am only angry with those who want to tarnish my work – clients who think that they are the big boss because they pay the money and can therefore do whatever they want. If they think this, they’re wrong. They have no idea about our work. If they don’t respect our work, why don’t they do everything themselves? Why do they hire a professional team like us? If they hire us as the professionals, they should listen to our suggestions, right? I do not give a damn about those who are rotten to the core.

I have a clear place in the market now; clients come to me due to my reputation. I pass them on to my agent or producer and let them negotiate all the details and make the contract. Once everything is agreed, I do the shoot. I shoot for advertisements, catalogues and celebrity promotions instead of editorial shootings. Energy is not limitless, so too many editorials will hollow out one’s soul, which is not good for a photographer. Three to four editorial cases are my monthly maximum. I find that too much work can lead to confusion while less leads to

A mature photographer needs to have a signature style. Being able to shoot any and every style might be good for a beginner, but not in the long term. I am now tending to shoot portraits. I have always liked portrait photography and I started to do my personal projects in collaboration with the models and celebrities I had worked with for several years.

Working for my own interest is my motivation for work. I ensure I take some pictures for love rather than just shooting pictures for money. I like Goro Takahashi, the designer for Goro’s silver jewelry in

Chen Danqing for BAZAAR ART China, 2011 76 .

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Zinedine Yazid Zidane for Y-3, 2010 Japan. The master is still working by himself in his 70s, and he doesn’t use any moulds and has no apprentice. He visited a tribe of American Indians and lived with them for years in order to learn the native skill of silver making. I only wear Goro’s accessories.

This is an age that has no classics. An unstoppable deluge of pictures and information leads to aesthetic fatigue. Too much of one thing is never

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good. Once the quantity increases, the quality often decreases.

The conditions for success are determination and focus: don’t be distracted and admire others. For example, I shoot portraits and I will keep going with portraits; if I do black and white, I will insist on it as my style. This is my original motivation.

Edison Chen Shanghai is a rational city and it is more impersonal than Beijing. Beijing is a symbol of China; you can see many Chinese phenomena there whilst Shanghai is not that “China”. Shanghai has been an international metropolis in Asia for a hundred years, so it is more tolerant and comprehensive. Once a city is comprehensive, it tends to be rational. In Shanghai, only if you are talented will you be seen. It is different in Beijing, which is quite typically “Chi-

nese”, as everything relies on Guanxi, which is very important there. Hong Kong is also rational, but has a smaller population.

I don’t care what others call me; I just consider myself a shooter.

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Dean (Ding Li)

For The Outlook Magazine, 2011

I didn’t work hard when I was young. My parents worried about my collage enrollment but let me learn how to paint*. The teacher told my father that the majority of the Environment Art course would be practical and I would get an income of 10,000 (* Generally in China, parents consider their child’s collage degree as one of the most important things in their life. There is fierce competition in the National College Entrance Examination, which is held once every year. The exam contains three major courses: Chinese, mathematics and English; and six minor courses: history, politics, geography, chemis80 .try, physics and biology.

Yuan per month after my graduation. It was a good wage in those days, so my parents let me study Environment Art. After I finished my college course in Wuhan, I felt that it was so boring that I didn’t want to waste my life endlessly measuring lines and dots and calculations. I saved my pocket money and bought a camera for myself in my second year and developed an interest in shooting pictures. Then, one day, I saw an ad in a newspaper, saying that a wedding photo studio was looking for a retouching man. I was so keen to get the job that I searched online for self-study tutorials for Photoshop and learnt how to use this application in one week. I applied

for the job and got it.

I began working in postproduction but I was absolutely determined to become a photographer. I seized every chance, asking my boss to allow me to assist the photographers and letting him know how very much I wanted to learn how to shoot. In order to get his attention, I decided to work hard on retouching first. This way I made rapid progress with my retouching skills and soon became the best in the company. However, it didn’t turn out as I expected because my boss then became unwilling to let me participate in shooting jobs because he

didn’t want to lose his best retouching employee. I felt cheated and disappointed and left the studio a year later.

I then met the chairman of the Wuhan Photography Society, who was a senior photographer with the best reputation in Wuhan at the time. I worked as his assistant. There was no digital technology for postproduction and he was appreciative of my retouching skills so, once again, my main task became retouching photographs.

About 2000, there were many wedding photo studi-

os in Wuhan province but commercial photography, along with advertising and magazines, was scarcely seen. The government wanted to set a salary standard for the trade* and the job was assigned to the chairman. The chairman wanted me to join this project and help him grade post-production work.

He was so keen to keep me that he made me a lot of promises and treated me like his son. At that time, being able to serve the government was seen as a great privilege but it never appealed to me that (* Before the market economy, the government of China was omnipotent and had its hands everywhere.

much. Although I was still young, I wanted to pursue my dream of being a real photographer and not a “retouching professor”. I thanked the chairman for his kindness but rejected the job. Fashion photography was just beginning to emerge in Beijing. I saw the pictures of the Beijing fashion photographers online and I was amazed. I thought ‘that’s real photography’ and packed my bags for Beijing.

I sent my CV to a Beijing photography studio and they asked me to work for them. When I arrived, I was surprised to find that there was a big lag in taste between the inland and the capital city. The

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For Modern Weekly, 2011

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salary was just 1,000 Yuan for the first month. None of the newcomers could afford to rent a house and so we had to live in the company building. Female staff had a room in which to sleep, but the male staff slept in prop rooms, cleaning rooms, mezzanines, etc; wherever there was space, we slept. We sometimes played video games together or drank throughout the night. Life was a bit of a mess.

Again my stunning retouching skills obstructed me from working with photographers and I ended up spending every day retouching piles of pictures.

Beijing didn’t make my dreams come true, nor did it make me rich. The other city renowned for

fashion photography was Shanghai, so for a change I went there.

My first job in Shanghai was yet again retouching, at Soong Bo’s studio. After a lot of pleading, Soong Bo finally allowed me to assist his shooting. I learnt fast and worked incredibly hard. After several exposures on magazines, my work was recognized and I gradually started getting some clients. After I left Soong Bo, I finally became an individual photographer.

I am a country boy and many people call me naïve.

I am not overly ambitious – I just want to do what I like and make it perfect. I have never had a personal website and I have never owned a studio, but I have affection for every studio that I have used and I can remember every piece of cloth in a studio, even those that are stained, and that’s why I always work in one studio for a sustained period of time.

The studio I mostly cooperate with at present is Red+ and the owner of the studio is also my agent.

I am not a workaholic. My wife and I are enjoying

For The Outlook Magazine, 2011 . 83

a “naked marriage”* and we travel every month.

I know that many photographers are struggling to survive in the city, but it’s the same for everyone and I have also gone through the days of endless working and sleeping in attics with little income. I don’t need to worry about my life, but every achievement has had its price.

confusing!

My main income is from advertisements. Never rely on the contribution fee because most magazines are unreliable. They are in arrears for months on end and there is no law to protect us. Sometimes they pay you for the previous months in one single payment. I am not good at calculations and I couldn’t remember the account so I just let them go; it’s too

My biggest wish now is to see my apprentices growing up and having their own careers. Some of my apprentices can shoot quite well now and I am giving them as many opportunities as possible.

Sometimes I need to “present a gift” in order to give them exposure. I have experienced it so I know how important chances are for a beginner. I treat my apprentices and assistants as friends because I really appreciate their help. I know that in this line of work it is not just about me, but also about those around me. Everybody is helping me and I must work for him or her in return. Sometimes I have to shoot 100 pictures for the clients who just want me to shoot. I may think I’m a creative artist but the clients just consider me as labor. But no matter how reluctant I am, I have to finish the work because I’m a professional. I always believe that the more you lose, the more you achieve.

(* Generally speaking, couples have to own at least one property before they get married in China. A “naked marriage” means a marriage without property, which is becoming popular among younger generations, especially in metropolises, as they are under severe pressure from incredibly high property prices.

Fashion is always full of glamour, with endless parties and social events. However, this is not for me – I would rather stay at home with my family. I don’t know too much about the outside world, but I like Shanghai because it’s now my home. I hope that I can travel around the world with my wife some-

It might be because I did too much postproduction work earlier on that these days I don’t rely on retouching but try my best to make the preproduction perfect.

day and bring my daughter to shoots, just as Annie Leibovitz does.

For The Outlook Magazine, 2011 84 .

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D.C Zhao (Zhao Dichen)

for So Cool magazine, 2011

Do you like the things you are doing?

I like what I am working on at present otherwise I wouldn’t do it.

Approximately, how many days do you work every month?

I normally work every day.

Do you have time to work on your own creations?

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Rarely. I don’t think I have made anything that truly satisfied me in the past year. Everything I have been

working on recently has been commercial, commercial, commercial. But I don’t dislike this side of the business; making money makes me happy.

Do you think that creativity is not a necessary requirement for a photographer?

Of course we need creativity. But the first thing we have to do is make ends meet. You need to feed the people who work for you. If the pictures can’t make money, the survival of the company will be under threat; that’s my understanding about commercial photography in China. Creativity is not fully respected and everybody bows to money.

How did you get started as a photographer?

That’s a long story. I was an animator after my graduation. I developed so well that I founded my own studio. However, I sustained a defeat in the year of the SARS outbreak* – the newborn studio had to be shut down. I had devoted my youth, since (* In 2003, SARS burst out in China. In order to prevent further spread of the disease, the government put a curfew in place to keep citizens at home and not in public places. Many schools, companies and factories were forced to temporarily stop running. Many companies and enterprises suffered.

I was a teenager, to animation and I really didn’t know what to do next. I was so depressed and felt confused about my future. I just hung around in bed for six months. I used up all my savings until the money left would buy only two baozis* . I knew I had to move on. So in the beginning it was simply about making money in order to survive. I made my first money using a borrowed camera but once I had enough funds, I set up my own company. There is a big difference between an individual photographer and one who owns a company as a boss. There are more duties and responsibilities when you are (* A kind of dim sum.

the boss.

What kind of responsibilities are you taking on?

For your company’s sake, you need to consider more about how to keep the company going. There is a limit to one person’s energy. When you have to be the boss, there is little time available to be creative. It is difficult to do both. That’s why I call myself ‘not only a photographer’.

Not only a photographer but also a boss?

Well, the thing is: I’m quite confident with my skills as I can shoot both still life and people quite well.

Clients usually advertise that they require shootings for both celebrities and products. In China, the clients need to hire two shooting teams: one for portraits and one for still life. However, if they hire me, I can take charge of both so it is more economical and easier for the client: that’s my advantage. There have been no well-established photography agencies in China, so the only way to get more business was to have a company.

Then why didn’t you just focus on running the com-

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for Smart She magazine, 2007

for ShuZiJiaTing magazine, 2008

pany and quit photography?

I also love shooting. It was photography that made my dreams come true, so to me photography is everything.

Are you enjoying being a boss?

I’m not really ‘a boss’, but I love being a manager.

How much of your time is taken up by being a photographer?

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Previously I was an animator. After breaking with animation, photography is now my passion and takes up most of my time.

How long have you been a photographer?

I started in 2003. My first job as a formal photographer was working in-house on a tech-magazine.

When I left that job, I worked as a freelance for one year before I could afford a studio and form my own company. I have moved my studio three times since the company was formed. Everything is getting better and better.

So you mean you were an individual photographer at the beginning?

Yes, but it wasn’t a nice experience. At the beginning, I left a steady job and became a freelance photographer for weddings. My parents were so upset about it and thought it wasn’t safe and that I wouldn’t be able to make a regular income. But I knew what I wanted and that was just a path to my goal. In order to make enough money for setting up a company as soon as possible, I worked so hard that I spent every day shooting photos of the newly

married.

How did you become a fashion photographer?

A friend who was a fashion editor recommended me to shoot for her magazine and they liked my pictures. Then, one after another, more and more magazines were asking me for shoots.

How do you describe your photographic style?

I usually say: ‘You need to consider yourself as water; your clients who are the container should

decide the style.’ If you can adapt to all different kinds of clients, you should be a good commercial photographer. If you’re unable to adapt, you will lose the market.

Do you consider yourself an artist?

I don’t want to say I am an artist. I graduated from a school of fine art. Being an artist was a dream for me. But when I began to work and get into society, I was faced by the reality and discovered that it was not easy. The value of art is measured by money. So now, I would call myself just a commercial shooter

rather than a photography artist.

Have you ever thought about doing some personal projects?

I think about it every day but I’m very busy at present.

How do you like fashion?

Fashion tends to be monopolized by developed countries and areas. Fashion in China today is still blindly following the others; I feel it’s fake and contributes nothing. The main reason western

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countries are interested in China is for the massive potential market, not for Chinese fashion.

So what you are doing is also ‘fake’ fashion?

Yes. Then what do you think is ‘real’ fashion photography?

everything we do is just about making money.

Do you feel happy?

My happiness comes from other people’s recognition of my work.

They lead trends and tell people what fashion is. But what we are doing currently is copying, which happens everywhere in the industry. Editors show you some pictures as a reference and ask you to shoot like that. Local fashion brands copy the big-name designers. The owners plagiarize from the western runways. All we’re going to do is translate the blondes into black.

So there is little room for creativity from editorial?

There is almost no room.

What should a piece of real-fashion photography work be?

First of all, it should be original. It should be created by a creative team and it should be brand new, without any references. It should be created purely for beauty. It would be different from what we do, as

for Yoho magazine, 2008 90 .

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He Lee (Li He)

There are few photography agents in Mainland China and it is quite different from many developed countries. Photography in Europe and America has been around for over 100 years and they have built their own systems. Photographers there work under a well-systematized procedure and most of them have an agency. Chinese fashion/commercial photography began later and most of the photographers are still working on their own and a photographer is often performing as a producer and managing his studio at the same time, which is an unprofessional division of labour.

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I think the reason for it is that photographers are not paid well, so they need to save money in order to pay make-up artists, model agencies, hairdressers and stylists, as well as the rent for a studio and

retouching payments. Every possibility is exploited and taken advantage of – this happens not only to photographers but is a general phenomenon in various walks of life.

Photographers put a lot of emphasis on business rather than on their art creation, which leads to a short professional life as newcomers are quickly replaced. I don’t want to be like that and I hope I can stay as I am for a good while. People are eager for money, which is very unhealthy. Few people live and work for dreams or for love. If you live for dreams, why don’t you make your dreams bigger and nicer; if you work for love, then keep going and keep your love longer. For my dream, I hope to become the first photographer in Mainland China who is signed by an agency. No matter how it

comes, I would love to try it.

It is hard for an individual to change the rules, especially when many others have followed those rules and are under a set formula. But the world needs heroes to try to change things. After one or two sacrifices, when a third person come to follow, more people will keep an eye on it and come to understand what is trying to be achieved. I thought for a long time about signing with an agency, but I didn’t find a reliable agent until six months ago. When I found one, I signed. It was a tough experience during the first half year, but I never gave up. I believe this is the right thing to do.

Signing with an agency is like this: say I previously used to give a cup of coffee to you directly, now I

For U+ Magazine, 2010 . 93

need to pass the coffee to you via another person.

It seems more complicated but it is actually more reasonable, because I don’t need to think about how to pass the coffee but just focus on how to make coffee well. If the labour is properly divided, everybody can simply focus on his or her own job. Once the system is built, the services become more efficient.

Today, most Chinese people still enjoy a traditional way of living, like grinding soybean milk and passing it in person; they can’t imagine the convenience of an advanced new system. The convenience of the old system is OK when selling small quantities but how about a large sales volume? You can’t even afford the cost of grinding. Thus the only way is to make changes, no matter what obstacles stand in the way, as we need to step forward rather than stand still, otherwise it is total tragedy.

The market has a unique Chinese character. Everyone is eager for money and everyone is overstating his or her own value to transfer it into cash. The value itself exceeds what it deserves as people are adding value by any means possible; I think this is wrong. Generally speaking, owning a luxurious studio with hundreds of people working for you sounds “right” for a photographer, but you shouldn’t be selfish and be divorced from the whole financial body. You are in the system and playing a part. Just like an adult who needs to have work and produce to pay for things to stay alive. You can’t live like a baby who only eats and sleeps, you also need to do something for the outside world. In my opinion, the “right” thing to do is to keep up with contemporize social division?? and keep a good circulation within the system, thus pushing the whole body forward – that’s it.

Everybody has his or her own comprehension. I have met many photographers who are satisfied with the old ways of working without an agent.

They think that it would be better to work without an agent who divides their income. I respect that.

I am not scared of being a hero, but I just want to increase my own benefits. I don’t want to work for only three or five years; I want to take pictures when I am old as well.

There are a few opportunities in China: model agencies, actor and actress agencies, but not yet photography agencies.

Fashion photography in China had just got started when I graduated and it has developed further over the past decade. The only way to get into the industry at that time was to start as an assistant, but there were not many studios that advertised publicly for staff. It is not like today, where photographers are everywhere and everybody is looking for assistants.

This is a good phenomenon, which shows that photography has developed and continues to develop.

I worked as an assistant for seven years with all kinds of photographers: portrait photographers, still-life photographers, foreigners, and some who shot worse than me! I also had the opportunity to take pictures during the seven years but I was too shy to tell others that I was a photographer. I did not want to promote myself like today’s young men.

Then a photo company saw my work and liked it.

They let me work for them and after a few years, they let me be the manager of their shooting department.

In my opinion, the market for Chinese commercial

photography developed quite well during 2008 and 2009. Many talented photographers appeared in this two-year period and made great improvements. The market developed rapidly. Ten years ago, there were only a few people working as photographers but then photographers from Hong Kong and Taiwan came to the mainland and they forced local photographers to raise their game and make progress to keep up with developments. Some of the local photographers survived but most of them didn’t. The ideas brought in by photographers from Hong Kong and Taiwan were quite advanced and much better than those in the mainland. When we look back ten years, the pictures taken by local photographers don’t look good to a contemporary audience. There has never been a policy to protect local photographers and this has allowed foreigners to become powerful in this industry. It is pathetic.

There should be some media representing a nation’s conscience. When it comes to fashion, there should be at least some magazines that say, “You can’t repeat others’ ideas”. I often see pictures on Weibo * and many people comment and say, “Oh, it is so beautiful!” I just wonder where the beauty comes from. I don’t think it looks nice at all. Recently, Chinese fashion insiders have started to employ young people without an inspirational leader, one with strong, original ideas, which is a cultural phenomenon as well. For example, when UGG boots first came out, the US media criticized them as the ugliest boots ever made. But in China, no one comments like that; they simply say they look good.

I bought a pair of UGG boots for my wife and she didn’t say how pretty they looked, but how warm they were. (* A micro blog widely used in China.

For U+ Magazine, 2011 94 .

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for Modern Weekly, 2009

What is fashion? When you talk to an outsider, you will normally be surprised. I used to talk about this topic with a mentor on painting and he said that “fashion is a character”. I couldn’t agree more.

I don’t care whether fashion photography is art or not, I just like taking pictures and that is where my energy comes from. Love is art, and I love what I do. Every piece of work is a container and once the container touches and inspires your audience, this is art.

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I like Shanghai, but I also keep thinking about moving somewhere else. Shanghai is too new; it is like

a city piled up by plastics. It is crowded and everything is durable, but I can’t find the feeling of my childhood. Once a place touches you, it must arouse the memory of your teenage years… and I can’t feel it here in Shanghai. But I can feel it in New York, in the narrow and poor lanes; and in the countryside, with its wide, broad landscape.

For U+ Magazine, 2009 . 97

Maleonn (Ma Liang)

from Maleonn’s Photo Studio, 2011

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I have been planning a project recently that involves driving a lorry around China. The lorry is a floating photography shop and we take pictures on the way.

I just posted the idea on Weibo and it evoked a strong response from followers, which made me decide to do it. The project is very artistic as it shares the basic elements of art: beauty and happiness.

Everyone to be shot is an ordinary person who has signed up in advance. I won’t ask them for money and I will give them a copy of their picture after the shooting. If I charged them, they might not be able to afford my pictures and couldn’t share in my art, which is what motivates me as an artist. Nowadays,

people are keen on talking about the price of works, or which gallery one’s works is going to be exhibited in, but I am thinking about the basic aim of art: to make the world a nicer place. If I draw a picture and hang it at home, than the room will be nicer; if I take a picture for you, then you can look back into your youth when you are old. These are the most romantic things an artist can do. Next year is 2012, which sounds cool. If the world isn’t destroyed, I will continue doing my romantic performance; if it is the end of the world, I will finish my life with the best ending possible. Can you imagine if I am driving the lorry with the earth quaking behind me:

how romantic would that be! That’s the most beautiful way to die I can imagine.

I went to art school when I was 12. Normally, students go when they are 16 years old but I went 3 years in advance. The reason was that I was one of the last junior middle school pupils of Huashan Art School before the government stipulated that art schools could only start from high school age. As a result, I started drawing at 12 years of age, without learning English or mathematics, and I studied fine art until I was 23. In total, I spent 11 years in art schools. When I finished my bachelor’s degree, my

tutor recommended me to go on for a master’s degree, but I was so bored after 11 years of sketching and studying fine art that I started to do advertising, which lasted for around 10 years.

Starting advertising was a deviation in my career.

I loved movies and even applied to the Beijing Film Academy (BFA) when I graduated from high school, as BFA was the only film college in China.

But at that time, there was “party strife” between the north (Beijing) and the south (Shanghai) in art circles. I was an elite student of typical southern style (Shanghai style), which was delicate and min-

ute and not rough enough. When I came to apply for BFA, the Beijing teachers looked down on my portfolios. They gave me a note saying: “Your works have not qualified so you cannot attend our test.”

And that’s all! The proportion was something like: 10,000 people applied for BFA; BFA would give out 1,000 certifications for attending their test; and only 30 students would be enrolled following the test. I was sacrificed due to the stupid “party strife” and I was very angry about it because I had always been one of the best students in drawing. As a result, I lost my chance to learn about movies.

After graduating from college, I remembered the movie dream and I thought: “How can I learn it?”

My mother was an actress and when I was young, I used to go to her workplace and see where the TV dramas were recorded by digital camera, whilst the adverts were filmed by movie cameras. Advertising had more money, it used the best cameras and it invited professional staff from the Shanghai Film Studio. I thought that maybe advertising would teach me how to make movies, so I became an apprentice. First I worked for the prop department, then the art director, then the director, and finally I set up my own advertising company.

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I did advertising for 10 years until I was 30, when I suddenly realized that I had not yet made one movie. I couldn’t keep pursuing my dream for another 10 years without getting any practice. I closed my advertising company and devoted my time to film. This broke the rhythm. The previous 10 years I had been very busy as I had adverts to film every day and I had to raise money as well. There were accomplishments today, and new challenges tomorrow. I could only see 3 days forward and 3 days back and I was very short sighted and stuck in a routine. When I suddenly stopped that rhythm, I found that I could see further ahead. I remembered that I had been a fine art student 10 years earlier and I adored making movies and I was an artist, so why had I done nothing about art in the past decade? I decided to start over and make films; it was a slight ‘spur of the moment’ decision. The tragedy was, however, that I failed in my attempts to make movies and I lost all my money. My life became a mess and everything changed.

Why must an artist be rich? Being poor shows you what you need to survive. After my dream was shattered, I decided to pick up my old career as an artist. I rented a tiny room in the best location in Shanghai and I bought some canvases and planned to start painting again. But I felt so lonely when I faced the canvas that I felt panic. I couldn’t get into

the mood to work as I had been used to a crowded team environment for many years. It took a long time to get used to working on my own. Now I can paint again and while I am now used to working alone, at that moment I just couldn’t motivate myself to paint. But I had to do something to express myself and there’s plenty of ways to do this other than painting. I arranged for some people to work together and looked for a different way of expression. I put the film to one side and I began to take photos.

I was so happy at the beginning and I soon found myself in a condition where I could dream again. I also discovered my ego, which never existed during the years I was working in advertising because no matter what you say in advertising, the sole aim is to promote the product. I was so excited. Maybe because I had been used to filming adverts, I was generous with my money and I didn’t care about budgets when I was shooting my own projects.

One day, when I finished shooting and came back to Shanghai from Xinjiang, I found there was only 20,000 Yuan left in my account, which was too little to pay the rent on my house. I had to borrow money for a year and I had to cut down on expenses for almost a year until I did my first exhibition and sold my first photo. I was then able to start to make a living by taking and selling pictures.

My first photo sold for over 200 American dollars, and I received 125 dollars of that (only about 1,000 Yuan in RMB). It was not a good price but it was a start at least. I called the set of photos ‘My Circus’.

They sold out within 3 months because of the low price. After that, more and more galleries wanted to collaborate with me.

Ego was the only topic in my early works. ‘My Circus’ reflected how I felt at that moment. I was making an important statement at that time. I wasn’t living well but I still wanted to follow my dreams. ‘My Circus’ showed a clown in a lane and reflected my own life. I was a clown in my own life: from being the most popular director in Shanghai’s advertising circles, who was notorious for his bad temper – I was a respected style director who scared the competition – who suddenly one day announced that he would quit his job and devote his time to art, and one year later he had failed, thus he became a joke as he could never go back to advertising (advertising was a popular career and very practical and within two years of leaving, your position would be filled by newcomers). You have to become a new man, focussing on art, without a relationship, without money or experience: if successful, he could talk about ‘the bitter old days’ with animation; if he fails, he would be a big joke.

from My Circus, 2004

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They say it is the things that we don’t do that we regret. Whether we achieve our aims or not depends on destiny. If I failed to become an artist, I could still work on many other things; it is not hard to survive. However, everything I have done is an experience and, without them, I would feel regretful today. The dream of making a movie tortured me a lot as every day I kept thinking: “I should make a film, I should make a film.” If I didn’t give it a try, and kept working as normal, I would have been very angry with myself when I turn 40. I would hate myself if I didn’t try. If I failed, I would know that I was not born to make movies and I would stop dreaming and I could focus on something else.

In the beginning, I was like a young man who was impatient for success and I eagerly expressed opinions. But I have calmed down over the years.

I lost my feverishness and I feel disappointed with the art I used to believe in. During the 10 years when I was working in advertising, I used to look upon it as sacred and at a level that I could never reach. Art was like the peak of Qomolangma and I was a Tibet resident herding sheep at the bottom of the mountain for ten years. When I got into the art scene, I discovered that the peak was just décor and was fake. Art is not as interesting as I had expected and neither are the people. Society’s idea of art is also incorrect: not everything is lovely and pure. So

I cooled down, and changed to another way to keep working on my art. The main topics of my work now are no longer focussed on me: they discuss topics such as the sense of happiness and the nature of art.

As a creator, creating is sharing your idea with the world. I am a mirror and I can reflect the world; I reflect an angle and let you see; then I turn a little bit and you will see something different. My body reflects just one angle of the world and, if I break, the angle no longer exists and no one can see the world from Maleonn’s point of view any more. This is the reason for my existence, whether it’s good or bad. When I thought this through, I found that reflection was the most important thing and that there are many ways to reflect. There are many preposterous things in society but I could talk about a serious event by an absurd means; there are many ways of expression. This is an idea from a mature man who is thinking, rather than just relying on impulse.

There are only two parts of the world to me: one is inside me, and the other is outside. What I am doing is to move my inside world to the outside.

Our inside world is influenced by the outside world and changes as a result. It gets more and more complicated as we grow older and experience more

and more things. However, the world has never changed; the only part changing is the inside world.

If we can express our inside to the outside world, it must have an impact on that outside world. The feedback during the time I have been following this practice strengthened one opinion of mine: photography is not the only means of expression and I should follow my own path.

Caring for your parents is one virtue of Chinese children, and I am a traditional person. My parents are very old, since they gave birth to me quite late.

They are now in their 80s and both of them are artists and even more romantic than me. They spend 8 months of every year travelling. This is the benefit of living in an artistic family; many choices my parents make are viewed as abnormal. The average old couple dare not go anywhere, but just stay at home and watch the kids, but my parents never controlled us as children. My dad is one of China’s a leading theatre directors. I often dream of making a play with my dad but there is not much time left if I am to make this dream a reality.

from Chinese Story, 2005

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Photographers

Shanfu Zhang Born in 1948, Zhang is widely recommended as a pioneer of Chinese commercial photography. He is one of the first people who used Photoshop® and the earliest to use Apple® computers for postproduction. He is not only a photographer, but also an expert at color management, printing technology, film producing, etc.

He is most famous for shooting cars and has collaborated since the 1990s with many car brands, such as Das Auto®.

Email: sanweishanfu@21cn.com *

Frank Chen Born in 1952 in Shanghai, China, Chen joined the Army of PRC and initially became a news and documentary photographer. His early work took him on travels around the world, and he is one of the photographers who went to Japan during those years. After he returned to Shanghai, Frank set up his own advertising company, which is still flourishing.

He became a scenic photographer in his 50s and enjoys adventures with self-driving tours in remote areas. He claims to be an adventurer, a traveller and a photographer.

Email: frankcwz@163.com *

Hongbin Zheng Born in 1959 in Shanghai, Zheng went to Japan after working in a local advertising company for some years. He became a freelance photographer after returning to Shanghai and took pictures in the 1990s of almost every first-line brand, from Coca-Cola® to Philips®. After murmuring for a couple of years against the hidden roles of the industry, Zheng finally retired from commercial photography and turned to work on art.

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Email: zhbimage@126.com *

Gangfeng Wang Born in 1956 in Shanghai, Wang experienced the Cultural Revolution and was sent to the countryside in Chongming.

He was considered to be the first freelance photographer after the Revolution and was invited to Canada for an exhibition of his work in the early 1990s. Wang was best known internationally for his documentary photography. When he returned from Canada with permanent residence status, he started to shoot for ELLE China and became China’s first fashion photographer. Over the past ten years, Wang has stopped shooting fashion and is now mainly focusing on his documentary photography. www.gangofone.com.cn www.gangofoneshop.com Email: gangofone@263.com *

*

Forest Fu Born in 1971 in Zhejiang, Forest started as a commercial photographer early in the 1990s. He rarely does editorial shoots and is not well known to the public but is famous within the industry. With many years’ experience, he has a good command of the Chinese market and the requirements of clients at all levels. www.rayicc.com Email: arlo.luo@gmail.com *

Hua Wang Born in 1977 in Shanghai, Wang is now one of the most popular still-life photographers in Mainland China. He is also well known within the industry for using excellent cameras and equipment.

He runs a professional photo studio on his own and works with a team called Wanghua Team.

Email: wanghuateam@sina.cn

Soong

Michael Teo Born in 1966 in Singapore, Michael has been in China for seven years. He was major in optic glass design at school in Singapore before being sent to Japan by the first company he worked for to promote photography. He worked in Singapore as a full-time in-house photographer for the same company after he returned from Japan. In 2004, Michael quit his first job and came to China to seek his fortune. The first city he went to was Beijing. However, he was shocked by the typical “Guan Xi” culture of Beijing and felt suffocated. Then he went to Shanghai.

Since Shanghai is not that “Chinese” but has more common ground with foreign countries, he quickly got used to the city and stayed. He is now well known for still-life photography and his works are on show in many first-class fashion magazines. www.quartzphoto.com Email: micatoll@yahoo.com *

*

Born in 1974 in Shanghai, Soong graduated from normal school, and then worked for four years as an assistant at Gangfeng Wang’s studio. He has been to Japan and to the UK in order to learn and promote his skill in commercial photography. He was the first person to help to import the international model agency Elite Model® to China and to set up IIInShanghai® Creative District, which is considered as the first creative district in Shanghai. He is now much more than a photographer: his business dabbles in real estate, creative industry, media, film production, etc. www.iiinshanghai.com Email: soongbo@iiinshanghai.com *

KK Fong Born in 1972 in Hong Kong, KK got in touch with the fashion industry earlier than any other fashion photographer in Mainland China. Working as an in-house photographer in Hong Kong at the beginning, KK went to Shanghai for further development in 2003. Before he went to Mainland China, he was already experienced and had cooperated with many celebrities in Hong Kong. When he arrived in Shanghai, he quickly got into the industry and acquired a reputation for his experience and his professional attitude. www.kkfongphoto.com www.i-gcn.com Email: kk@kkfongphoto.com

Leslie Hsu Born in 1964 in Taiwan, Leslie arrived in a family full of photographers, from his father to his older brother. He tried various careers but finally accepted his fate and became a photographer. I would like to say that he is playing with cameras rather than doing the job of a photographer. He insists on creating visual art and considers creative space to be higher than commercial benefits. He is modest and has the curiosity of a child. www.moko.cc/baboo Email: baboo12345@sina.cn *

Jeff Sun

Dean

Born in Pisces, and reluctant to reveal his age, Jeff is considered to be a poet by many of China’s fashion insiders. Majoring in traditional Chinese painting at art school, Jeff leaves a strong signature on his visual works: a combination of the poetic and a traditional Chinese aesthetic. Jeff comes from a highly literate family with literatural atmosphere in Shaoxing, Zhejiang. In addition to his photographic skills, Jeff is also a good writer whose blog attracts a large number of fans. With an intimate personal relationship with Ji Cheng, the chief designer of La Vie®, Jeff is also the only photographer for La Vie®’s Campaign and catalogues.

Born in 1982 in Nanning, Guangxi, Dean got interested with photography when he was at college. With a strong desire to become a professional photographer, he started his career with postproduction in a wedding photo studio in Wuhan. With skillful postproduction ability, he soon became a manager within the studio, but the dream of being a photographer continued and, in order to make this dream come true, he quit the job and finally left Wuhan and went to Beijing. With a portfolio of postproduction, Dean found a job in a studio in Beijing, again as a post-producer. After rough years as a beginner in Beijing, he moved to Shanghai and finally became an assistant photographer in IIInShanghai® at Soong’s. With a combination of ambition and hard work, Dean made progress fast and soon became famous in the industry. He is now working with a producer.

www.sunjunphoto.com Email: jeff_sun78@hotmail.com *

Qi Lee Born in 1977 in Xi’an, Lee is generally considered to be the coolest fashion photographer in Shanghai, or maybe in China with a sexy, wild charm. He likes wearing silver accessories from The Goro’s, and Harley-Davidson are his favorite. He started as a wedding photographer in Xi’an and then went to Shanghai for further development. When he decided to put himself into the field of fashion photography, he luckily met and was then mentored by Chris Cheung (Cheung Wenhua), a famous Hong Kong photographer in Shanghai. Lee got the opportunity to shoot first-class celebrities and made quick progress, soon becoming famous within China’s fashion circle.

He is now focusing on shooting portraits, and is building a new portfolio consisting of portraits of the celebrities with whom he has worked.

Liqiphotography.com *

*

He Lee Born in 1976 in Henan, Lee started as a photography assistant at an early age.

With no confidence in his own ability, he put off starting his own career until recent years. However, he claims to be the first Chinese photographer to sign a full contract with an agency, and decided to devote every effort to revolutionizing the photographic market in China. www.yyo.com.cn Email: lihepicture@gmail.com *

Maleonn

Born in 1980 in Shanghai, D.C went to art school as a teenager. After graduation, he set up an animation studio and worked as an animator. However, the studio went bankrupt in the year of SARS. The failure hit him hard and he didn’t recover until six months later. He picked up a camera in 2004 and started life as a photographer. In 2005, he set up his own company, OCC Image, in Shanghai and has his own studio. The visual style of his works contains a sense of Japanese aesthetics; he is adept at both an extremely clean style and a colorful image with a sense of flirtation. A talent for capturing a momentary expression was evident in many of his earlier portfolios.

Born in 1972 in Shanghai, Maleonn comes from an artistic family – both of his parents are well-known performance artists. As the only artistic photographer in the book, Maleonn rejected my invitation at first because he felt he would be isolated from the other photographers.

However, after two other artists have done crossover cooperation with the fashion industry – Quentin Shih with Dior and Yang Fudong with Prada – I personally predict and wish that Maleonn will be the third artistic photographer to have a flirtation with the fashion industry. And that’s how I persuaded him to accept my interview. Having grown up in an artistic family, Maleonn is the most witty and romantic of photographers and has a fine sense of humor. His works perfectly reflect his character and contain a hint of nostalgia. Having been a successful director in the advertising industry for ten years, Maleonn turned back into art in his 30s. He is not only good at visual art but is also a skillful writer. His micro prose attracts many readers on his micro blog.

www.moco.cc/zhaodichen Email: dustchenchen@hotmail.com

www.maleonn.com maleonn@maleonn.com

www.moco.cc/dean Email: dean527527@yahoo.cn *

D.C Zhao

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Acknowledgments & Copyright

I

would like to extend a big thank-you to every

photographer who agreed to my interviews.

They unselfishly extended intellectual and emotional openness, invariably when they were navigating packed schedules.

Many thanks go to my sub-editors, who helped me by checking my English and offering comments during my writing. The book could not have happened without every one of you. Martin Solgaard Anderson checked the texts of Shanfu Zhang, Hongbin Zheng and Leslie Hsu. He volunteered to help me after we had met only once. Sherman Wong, who was introduced to me by my dear friend Stephanie Fu, corrected texts of Frank Chen, Gangfeng Wang and Hua Wang. We have not yet met and all communications took place online through emails.

He not only corrected my writing, but also gave me many valuable comments, which I much appreciated. Jeff Sun’s text was corrected by Paul Evans, who was also intro-

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duced to me by Stephanie. Special mention is due to Adam Smith, who during the summer happened to be almost a tenant of mine, and who checked all the remaining pieces.

Adam is himself a professional wordsmith, and kindly helped me as my chief sub-editor.

Their generosity of time and effort and their patience in reading my original scripts made this book come true.

Andrew Tucker, who was my tutor at the London College of Fashion, inspired me with the idea of doing this book. I owe him thanks for his kind guidance. And dear Catherine Lamb, who proofread every piece of the articles and being, literally, my first reader.

All texts are based on original interviews with the author and all images are copyright of the individual photographers whose text they accompany. Images cannot be copied or otherwise reproduced or used in any form without the express permission of the copyright holders.

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