Posted on
2012-02-13
Chen Man is one of the most well known female Chinese photographers of the 21st century and leading fashion photographer in China.
Her images play with the juxtaposition of old and new, real and imaginary, ordinary and ideal. She frequently uses modern city landscapes and historical buildings in China as the backdrop for her images and mixes it with street culture, animation, sci-fi and pop references.
Chen Man’s images are often heavily manipulated and involve painstaking and complex layers of post-production. The hyper-real aesthetic of her images alludes to a desire for unobtainable perfection.
Chen Man’s rise coincides with emergence of a consumer culture in China and the desire for luxury consumer goods. The power and poignancy of her work lies in her ability to understand people’s desires and to visualise them through her striking images. A role model for the post-80s generation, her images capture the personalities and attitudes of a new generation of Chinese.
Exhibition runs through to April 7th, 2012
Chinese Arts Centre
Market Buildings
Thomas Street
Manchester
M4 1EU
www.chinese-arts-centre.org