We are happy to announce the launch of next.kunstlicht, a platform for young, emerging photographers in China. We are now accepting applications from Chinese photographers.

To find out more about next.kunstlicht, please visit the new website. Please also download the application form [PDF].

For three weeks Kodak will show "The New Faces of Photography: 2008 Photo District News Photographers" on their Jumbotron at Times Square in New York. Shen Wei, as one of PDN’s “30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch in 2008" is among the chosen few.

Check it out if you happen to be around!

Times Square, New York City

Yemi by Shen Wei

The roll of honour

In an interview with with the Chinese magazine Magazone, Shen Wei talked about his series "Almost Naked" and about being a photographer in the USA.

All the people in your pictures behave very naturally. They face the camera as if they were facing themselves in a mirror. How do you achieve this? Have you sometimes also encountered difficulties? And how do you deal with these difficulties?

Gaining the trust of my subjects is essential for them to behave natural. Usually, I communicate with them intensively so that both sides do not feel embarrassed. Of course, a few times I have encountered some difficulties but they could all be sorted out.

What kind of people are you interested in for this series? Are there any specific characteristics that catch your eyes? If so what are these characteristics?

I have an instinctive curiosity about people. When I was little, I used to observe people on the bus. My subjects are from different classes, different races and different backgrounds. What I’m interested in is each person’s authenticity.

You are already working on the series “Almost Naked” for five years now. About this series you said: “what I want to analyze and explore is spiritually nakedness rather than physically nakedness.” What is this spiritually nakedness that you’re trying to capture? Can you further explain this?

Even though my subjects wants to reveal themselves and want to be understood through my pictures; in their physical or emotional nakedness they are still instinctively trying to hold back.  I can see this internal struggle in their eyes and can tell from their behavior. Not knowing what they’re hiding, I can see the vulnerability of human nature at this very moment. This is exactly the “Almost Nakedness” I am looking for.

You said: “The more images there are in the series, the clearer the content of the series becomes.” As Almost Naked is now in its fifth year, have you gained some new understanding and reflections upon it?

Nakedness can reveal itself in a direct physical way as well as in more abstract ways, it depends. Sometimes it takes all of my intuition to try to understand the people in my images.

Joey

According to your observation, what are the differences between Chinese and American in human nature, their desires, emotions and instincts?

Due to a different historical background and different conditions, people in China and America have different ways of expressing their feelings. Chinese people are more emotionally reserved while Americans are more open in showing how they feel.

When did you go to America to study photography? Did your understanding of photography changed during your years in America? What do you think is the most important thing in people photography?

I went to America in 2000 for further studies. I was a major in design and besides a personal interest I had little knowledge of photography. It was in my second year in college that I decided to focus on photography. I’m someone who always tries to face creation and the learning processes openly. I must have tried nearly every combination of method and material so my understanding of photography rose gradually. Personally, my favorite people photography is of that sentimental kind that can express reality and nature.

Can you share some of your experience, like some teachers’ words you remember or some masters’ articles that inspired you?

Every teacher gave me some inspiration, some more, some less. Even though some of them could not understand what I was trying to do, I gained some useful insights from their comments. Photography became something special for me after a lesson about Diane Arbus. I was deeply impressed by her pictures. So I made up my mind to become an art photographer, trying to record the significance of life.

Do you have some advices for those who’re planning to study photography abroad?

One should choose a college according to the connection between his/her own style and the style of photography at the school. Every college has different characteristics and goals in its photography major. Extensive research is the key to finding a suitable college.

Jody

Do you have new plans? What are your plans for the future?

I’m working on my new series “Chinese Sentiment”, still in the blueprint stage. I think an artist’s career needs patience and a long term perspective. I hope that more people will see my pictures in the future and that my pictures will touch them.

Do you think a contemporary photographer should manage himself? Or focus on creation?

Creation and management are both essential. Creation is important while management gives creation its full scope.

New trends surface all the time in America. Are there recently some new trends in style and methodology in people photography?

Sure there are trends in artistic people photography, but always inexplicit. In comparison, trends and styles in the fashion photography circle change much more rapidly. Sometimes it even feels like every photographer is creating a new trend.

Thank you very much!

We are proud and pleased to announce that Shen Wei has won the "Excellent Foreign Photographer Award" at the Ping Yao 2008 International Photo Festival.

Congratulations from everyone at the gallery!

Good news!

Do you like the artwork at kunst.licht? Are you about to start collecting photo art? Are you looking for a very special fine art present?

Then we might have something for you. The kunst.licht Mini Open Edition is available now exclusively at kunst.licht photo art gallery shanghai. Each kunst.licht Mini is a hand-crafted piece of art personally selected by our artists, masterfully finished in k.l.sec (Diasec style) quality and available for only 288 RMB each. We are confident that we can offer you with the kunst.licht Mini Open Edition a special experience of fine photo art; be it for your personal collection or as a very special gift for good friends.

Let’s start with a kunst.licht Mini!

See it in the k.l shop

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has published a great interactive feature on Jeff Wall and his photography. You can find it [here].

Joe McNally is described by American Photo Magazine as "perhaps the most versatile photo journalist working today" and is listed as One of the 100 Most Important People in Photography. He was also inducted by Kodak into their Legends Online archive and Nikon honored him by placing him on their prestigious list known as Legends Behind the Lens.

In this 70 minute long video he talks about many aspects of his work and gives insights into his long years of experience as a professional photographer.

In an interview with kunst.licht, Sven Muentel talked about his work and the notion of truth in photography.

Tell us something about yourself.

My name is Sven Muentel, German, and almost 41 years old. I’m not a photographer.

That’s an interesting thing to say, considering the fact that you are showing photographs in a photo gallery.

Yeah, true (laughs). I’m not trying to be especially witty or something. It’s just that I don’t see myself as a photographer. I work in photography but I think that my intentions in working with the medium are different from what a photographer might want to achieve. If visual artist wasn’t such a vanilla expression, I guess you could call me that.

What are your intentions when making photographs?

At the moment my photographs are highly subjective. I’m not interested in depicting the world as it is. I don’t believe in the truth of photographs and rather use the medium to express things that are inside me. Inner landscapes, if you like.

What do you mean by the “truth of photographs”?

Photography is still widely believed to be an objective medium that shows the world as it is. But in fact it is the most widely abused medium of all, not even television is coming close (yet). I think that photography is not so much about truth or reality but about what people want to be true or real.

Can you elaborate a little, give me some examples?

Sure. The manipulation of photographs is almost as old as photography itself. From the very beginning ingenious people have thought of ways to manipulate their negatives. It all started innocent enough with portrait photographers trying to flatter their customers with “fine-tuned” photographs. Since then the manipulation of photographs has permeated all levels of every culture and society ever having taken photographs. And it always was and is popular with the rich and powerful. I’ve chosen some pictures that are of interest in China but these things have happened and do happen everywhere:

The Gang of Four were among those attending the funeral service for Chairman Mao in 1976

After the downfall of the "Gang" (which included Mao’s widow Jiang Qing) they were airbrushed out

But isn’t that more the exception that proves the rule? What about photo journalism and press photography?

Right, that is where the line should be drawn. I think that in the case of a journalistic context where one tries to document and witness something, image manipulation has no place and the image should be as raw as possible. But is this the truth? I think not. It is still just a crop taken from a three-dimensional ever flowing reality, a discontinued moment (think of the recent CNN photos from Tibet). And then there is also the context that gives a picture meaning but at the same time also distorts reality. Have you ever noticed how the perception of an image can change just by adding different subtitles? Or by removing them altogether? And anyway, it seems that the distinction between information and entertainment gets blurrier all the time. The advent of infotainment is something we all have to live with.

Let’s return to your photographs. Your recent series “Hong Kong I” and “Am Meer” are themselves bold examples of image manipulation.

That’s right. I often use digital post-processing to achieve the results I want. It really is a process I’m going through with these pictures. You just have to know when to stop. The computer is today what the dark room was only a few years ago. People have always experimented with dodging and burning, with different chemicals, different papers and film. Just think about Man Ray, how he has pushed photography to completely new heights.
Photographers and artists nowadays have tremendous possibilities to give shape to their individual vision and personally I think that this is a great development. Just go and read Ansel Adam’s “The Print” to get a feeling for how difficult it was in the past to achieve satisfying and (maybe even more important) consistent results. Of course with all these possibilities comes also a big responsibility. Just because I can do something does not mean that I should do it or that I am allowed to do it. Again I draw the line between art photography and documenting photography, between subjectivity and (apparent) objectivity.

The award-winning, and fabricated, photograph
"Qinhai-Tibet railway opening green passageway for wild animals"

A lot of people seem to frown upon the use of digital post-processing.

Yes, I know. I get this with the new series, especially with “Am Meer”. But frowning is good because it makes you think (laughs) and engages you. Nothing is worse than a picture that stirs no emotions whatsoever in you. All the software in the world can’t save you when you don’t have something to say in the first place. Then all you might get is just generic eye-popping effects and a hollow feeling. Digital image processing software is just a tool like the chemicals in a traditional dark room and you should never let the tools make the artistic decisions for you.
However it seems that for a lot of people the dark room with its mysterious smells, odd equipment and red light still conveys a special magic and atmosphere that the computer – because almost everyone has one and because it’s often more a nuisance than a revelation – can’t hold itself up against. But a tool is a tool. Let me and Evgeny Kissin play the same Grand Piano and you’ll immediately know what I mean (smiles).

What future projects are you thinking about?

At the moment I’m very interested in the perception and notion of time, how time flows and what it means. It’s again a very personal thing. When you’re already around for more than forty years these things start to become more important.

Thank you very much!

Check out the 45 minutes lecture by Martin Parr at World Press Photo. Well worth the buffering problems with Microsoft’s Media Player

In a recent interview, Bai Xiaoci talked about the background of his project "I Live In Here" and his approach towards work like it.

1. When did you start to get interested in photography?

Five years ago.

2. What made you start the "I Live In Here" project?

In the last ten years Shenzhen’s population has been expanding rapidly. People from all over the country stream into this city, the city’s population has already surpassed the 15 million mark. This huge population base, together with Shenzhen’s unique location facing overseas, creates a vast variety of different living conditions. Different culture context communities – Hakkas, Guangdong, Central China, colony culture and western culture are all melt together, constituting some kind of giant database of living conditions.

I witnessed the rapid change of Shenzhen’s urbanization and I wanted to record it with my camera. Susan Sontag said that "collecting pictures means collecting the world”. I actually am collecting Shenzhen.

3. Is there a direct link between your "City Capture" blog and the "I Live In Here" project?

I think that the “I Live In Here” project with the variety of living conditions in Shenzhen corresponds with my blog “City and Urbanization in my eyes”. So it is a sub-project of my blog.

4. Is the perspective you take in the "I Live In Here" series in your opinion subjective or objective? Have you added elements of your own to the images or were you trying a more documentary approach? Does that mean that the audience needs to value your work by themselves?

The project can be divided into two phases: the first phase was a down-to-earth documentary style shooting. Under the premise of trying to guarantee quality, I was pursuing quantity. But after documenting 150 households, I started to take into consideration the social status and circumstances of my subjects. So in the second phase, the work is more influenced by my personal views.

Shenzhen – Home to more than 15 million people.
Most of whom are migrant workers.

5. How do you choose your subjects? I have heard that you have asked hundreds of people to get the chance to photograph them at home?

My subjects all have something in common. They are more or less anxious about the transition period China is facing at the moment. They are not sure about the future, even the rich people. Even after they are in possession of wealth and social resources some of them are considering going abroad. It was difficult trying to take their photographs. A lot of persuasion was involved from my side, sometimes successful, sometimes not.

6. Do you have certain degrees of interactions with your subjects? How do you get them to forget about the camera? 

I chat with them before each shooting and I set up camera and tripod at the last moment. I do my homework before I go to see them; I try to find topics and subjects that we have in common. If they are foreigners or local Chinese from Guangdong province who don’t speak mandarin, I bring a translator.

7. What were you looking for, visually and in terms of content?

The visual style can be seen in a pure documentary context. Considering the form, my photos are what Benjamin called “products of an era of mechanical reproduction", but I know that the content of the pictures is of a way more sensual nature.

8. If you were to describe yourself and your work to a stranger, what would you say?

My name is Shen, Xiaoming, I live in Shenzhen. I take photos of Chinese cities and their urbanization.

9. Which of the masters of photography do you admire the most?

Quite a lot, can’t list them all, mostly foreigners.

10. What is next for you? What projects/subjects are you currently working on?

A project about the status quo of Rural Christians in Jiangsu and Zhejiang province.

Thank you very much!

Please also note this article about Shenzhen in The New York Times (published December 19th, 2006)