HIJACKED: Book Launch and Photo Exhibition

This Friday, June 6, from 7pm to 11pm is the book launch photo exhibition of HIJACKED: VOLUME ONE, AUSTRALIA AND AMERICA (Big City Press) at The Arm (281 N. 7th St., Brooklyn, NY). The book is included 44 photographers and is a survey of contemporary photography in both The United States and Australia. Some of my work is included in the book and I will definitely be there and hope to see some familiar faces, too.

Here is the list of the photographers:

(American - 20 Photographers)

Timothy Archibald | Angela Boatwright | Alana Celii | Nick Chatfield-Taylor | Brian Cross | Todd Fisher | Jonathan Gitelson | Dean Karr | Lisa Kereszi | Jason Lazarus | Suzy Poling | Robin Schwartz | Tod Seelie | Sarah Small | Amy Stein | Jennifer Juniper Stratford | Bill Sullivan | Shen Wei | Grant Willing | Ed Zipco

(Australian - 24 Photographers)

Greta Anderson | Duncan Barnes | Karron Bridges | Sean Cordeiro and Claire Healy | Michael Gray | David Griggs | Caitlin Harrison | Nathalie Latham | Mark McPherson | James Mellon | Graham Miller | Martin Mischkulnig | Fiona Morris | Tony Nathan | Jack Pam | Emily Portmann | Brad Rimmer | Janelle Ryan | Flavia Schuster | Juha Tolonen | Joshua Webb | Toni Wilkinson | Gareth Willis

The exhibition and book launch will also be held in Germany and Australia.

Other, Other...

© InJoo Whang

I have received a 2008 New York City/Urban Artist Initiative Fellowship and will be included in OTHER, OTHER... an exhibition features works by 18 artists and represent a sampling of 2007 and 2008 UAI/NYC recipients visual arts and media. The exhibition will be open on June 4, 2008 and will be view through August 7th at Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos.

PDN 30 & WPA Auction

I am very honored to be included in the PDN’s "30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch” list this year with a group of very talent young photographers. The magazine is out now. I can’t wait to see the issue. There will be a panel discussion in conjunction with the publication of the list on March 10th from 6:30-9 at Parsons featuring 4 of the 30 photographers, Amy Lundeen, Photo Editor at Budget Travel and Fiona McDonagh, Photo Director at Entertainment Weekly.

© Arthur Tress

This Friday the Washington Project for the Arts is holding it's 2008 Art Auction Gala at the Katzen Art Center. One of my portraits from Almost Naked was selected by Sarah Kennel, the Assistant Photography Curator at National Gallery of Art to be included in the auction. Some of my favorite photographers such as Arthur Tress, Duane Michals, Zoe Strauss and Amy Stein are also part of this auction. If you can't go to D.C., you can still bid online.

And, I just updated my website!

February Publications

Chinese Photography February Issue

La Tempestad Issue 55

I am featured in two foreign art magazines this month. The Chinese Photography magazine is the most professional and widely distributed photography publications in China. The February issue featured a nine-page portfolio of Almost Naked, an article by Jörg M. Colberg and an interview with Ren Yue.

The issue 58 (January/February) of La Tempestad has also included an artist feature of my work. This glossy Mexico-based art magazine styles its delightfully literary and its format have a remarkably quality. You can find their fabulous back issues here.

Also, click here you can read an article about a current exhibition entitled Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win: Emerging Artists from the Chinese Diaspora, which is included several photographs of mine.

Grandma's Mugshot...Sort of.

This is a photograph of my grandmother and a policeman. The photo was taken in January, 1947, she was 26 years old.

A few days ago, my mother was watching a TV series at home in Shanghai. The series is called "Unclosed Case of China" which is about all the famously unfinished law-related cases in the Republic of China era (1912-1949). When the show starts talk about a fire case that was happened in the Chinese New Year of 1947, that a lane of houses in downtown Shanghai was on fire, one of them was the house of my grandparents'. The firemen was failed to save most houses. This case later turned into a long and complicated investigation on the cause of the incident. Of course, the result of that investigation remain a mystery.

So, mom was already extremely surprised and excited about this blurry family history unfolding on TV. But not until they showed this above image with a caption of "Wife of the Tongzuo Factory owner Shen Qiuling (my grandpa)", she was totally stunned. Nobody had ever seen this photo, not even my grandma herself, it was digged from the old record for this documentary. According to the decumentary, my grandma was the first person who noticed the fire and call the fire department immediately. Later, after she gave a statement to the police department, Well, I guess she was a hero so they need to take a photo with her. And here it is, after 60 years, this photographs surfaced with so much memories and history. Isn't it just amazing!

She is now 87 years old and rarely mentioned the fire. She doesn't seem to remember the picture moment very clearly, but she sure saved the many lives, I am kind of a little bit speechless...

You can see the entire documentary (in Chinese) here.
PS: She is totally a fashionista, look at that cool coat and the hair!

2008 Manhattan Community Arts Grant

Almost Naked has been awarded a 2008 Manhattan Community Arts grant. This is my second year of winning this grant. Last year, I received this grant award for my series Concubines of New York, a documentary project of Chinese opera in New York City. The grant helped me tremendously on creating and post-production of the project, Concubines of New York has already been collected and published in China. Manhattan Community Arts grant is funded by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and New York City department of Cultural Affairs. The 2009 application for this grant is due Jan. 22, 2008.

0086

0086 (November/December Issue)

My first-time feature in a Chinese publication has hit the newsstand throughout the whole China since last week, which you can imagine the amount of people is reading it by now. The magazine is one of the hippest I've seen from China, it is named one of the best new magazines in 2007. I now totally tasted the new rave of the young China. 0086 is the country code of China as well as the name of the magazine. It is mainly focused on art, photography and fashion, and it is so edge you have to be really cool to understand everything they said. I am so pumped up just looking at the cover of the magazine. Click the images if you can read Chinese and be cool. There will be several more magazine features of my work coming up in January, so stay tuned! And thanks to Jeuce for the fantastic writing!

American Photo - Emerging Artists 2007

The Current issue of American Photo magazine features a portfolio of the top fifteen emerging photographers of 2007. I am very honored to be included in this list of great talented photographers. The portfolio is titled "A New Generation of Photo Pioneers" with a section on each photographer. Also on the list is my dear friend/SVA fellow Amy Stein. Pick up a copy of the November/December issue of American Photo on newsstands now.

America Photo November/December 2007

Emma.

Emma by Shen Wei

Over the weekend, I had a wonderful trip to upstate New York. I snapped this photo with my cell phone while setting up my big camera for a landscape shot. I know everybody says their dog is the cutest, but check out my dog, isn’t she the cutest of all? She just turned 4 last week.

First-time Experience

Zoo Art Fair has been called Britain's coolest art fair. This year’s art fair will be held at London’s Royal Academy of Arts. Since it started in 2004, Zoo Art Fair has been supported by The Saatchi Gallery. So I nearly jumped on my desk when I received an invitation from Saatchi Gallery asking me to participate the art fair with them this year. This is my first time to have my photograph shown in Europe and an art fair, very excited!

Another first time experience for me was to give a guest presentation in college. I have been invited by good friend Amy Stein to present and talk about my work for a photo class in Parsons School of Design. I absolutely loved the experience. It was not only an honor to share my inspiration with others, but also an opportunity to communicate and exchange ideas with the student photographers.

So, if you are in London area, please don't forget to visit the ZOO.