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Beauty captured in the eyes of Man

By Meng Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-11 09:49

Colorful and playful, the work of photographer Chen Man reveals the beauty of women and the changes in their lives

Photographer Chen Man (right) at work in her Beijing studio.

Apart from all being celebrities and some of China's most attractive and desirable stars, Fan Bingbing, Zhou Xun, Li Bingbing and Zhao Wei have one other thing in common - they all trust their photo shoots to the lens of Chen Man.

Beauty captured in the eyes of Man

An Esquire cover of actress Fan Bingbing by Chen Man. Provided to China Daily

An iLook cover of model Du Juan by Chen Man.

Chen's work is full of surprises and her highly personal style, which uses a broad vocabulary of techniques and influences combined with personal memories, has produced a growing body of evocative and highly memorable images.

Chen's photographs of female celebrities are usually both offbeat and sexy, and they are often simultaneously assertive and tender. Chen herself cannot explain how she links these seemly-unrelated qualities together, only admitting she knows how to bring the best out of her models at first sight.

As, Yoyo Maeght, the manager of the Paris-based Maeght Gallery, said in a media interview: "Everyone can be a photographer, as long as he or she can use cameras. But to be an artist, you have to produce your own style. Chen Man is a very talented artist and her works are characteristically distinctive."

Her success and talent often gives people the wrong impression. Most people who see her photographs for the first time assume the photographer is a Westerner. But as the publisher, Hong Huang, once said: "She is just an ordinary Beijing girl."

In fact, Chen is a post-'80s generation woman born and raised in a Beijing hutong. In person she is a small and skinny woman. She arrives for the interview without make-up, wearing loose-fitting Puma sportswear and a pair of Ugg boots.

Without saying anything she smiles to show she is ready to answer the questions. As she says later, "I never take the initiative. I never planned to be a fashion photographer. It is those around me who pushed me here."

At the age of two, Chen started painting lessons after her mother found she had a gift for it. "I found a mouse in my house and I painted it. My mother believed the picture was great," she said.

After winning countless awards during her childhood, she attended the elite Central Academy of Drama to study stage design, but dropped out after just one year. "I couldn't stand it. I had to get up on time and go to sleep on time," she explained.

That was to prove the turning point for Chen. In 2001, aged 20, she started four carefree years at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) majoring in photography. Although she claims she mainly chose to just "hang out".

Two years later, while still a student, she made a successful debut on the cover of the Chinese fashion magazine Vision, and she was soon offered assignments for the Chinese editions of Vogue, Elle, Bazaar, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, as well the overseas publications Preference, US Unlimited and British Nylon.

Her growing reputation and striking images also attracted prestigious advertising clients, such as Lancome, L'Oral, Pepsi and Panasonic. Her collaboration with David Beckham on his Motorola MOTO campaign in 2006 cemented Chen's position as one of China's premier photographers.

However, Chen refuses to define herself as a professional photographer. "I like taking pictures. I'm good at what I like and it's lucky that I can earn money from it," she said.

A woman of few words, no one can deny that she knows how to express herself visually.