Post human

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5/23

How long have you been a photographer? What pushed you on this path in the beginning?
When I was in college, I bought myself my first camera. It was just a cheap Canon camera. At that time, I like traveling. I shoot everything on the street that touches me. Then I fell in love with photography. I think this is how things happen. It starts from unconsciousness. It was during my master's degree education in Italy that I actually dabbled in fashion photography. One of my courses is Photography and Fashion, which talks about origins, poetics and masters in fashion photography. That is my favorite course. I would say My professor Federica Muzzarelli is the person who led me into fashion photography. I started to reflect on my work, I took a lot of street photography. But to be honest, I think street photography will be replaced by AI one day. I want to do fashion photography. I like art since I was a kid. Then I started to think why not take fashion photography? I like taking pictures of beautiful things. When I pick up a camera, I always think of it as a tool for painting, I mean I try to think I am painting with my camera. I found infinite possibilities in it. I think this is how I start.

Have you always wanted to make art?
I’ve always had a general love for visual art. When I was a child, my mother always took me to exhibitions. I can stay at the exhibition for a whole day. I absorb a lot of art, not only photography exhibitions. I like all kinds of contemporary art, installation art, illustration exhibition.

Tell us about your favourite shoot.
There are too many favorite shoots. I like when working with a great stylist and make-up artist. They inspire me and make shooting become an interesting journey. I remember one project about Fever dream. Me and my friends experiment light and traditional camera, I explored the Solarization techniques in the darkroom and using bodily fluids and other waste products that change the chemistry of the paper and create an almost painted effect on the prints. I feel I am crazy. that is so damn good.


What inspires you?
My inspiration comes from a lot of things. Sometimes is a traditional Chinese fairy tale. Sometimes I imagine what it would be like for humans to alienate into birds, maybe it will be the appearance of humans in the future. Sometimes my inspiration is a person, maybe a dancer, a rock singer, or a poet. From a young age, I would pore old photos of my family. The aesthetic, the colors, and the “snapshot” vibe of found photos have always lingered with me. The Japanese photographers of the 60’s era, especially Daido Moriyama, have been a massive influence. His pictures tend to gravitate toward that raw black and white high contrast impact, which left a brutal beauty. I like pictures that make me feel pain. Paolo Roversi is also one of my favorite masters. The blurring and soft color, I like everything about Paolo Roversi. When I think of a shooting project, I think about how the masters would react to the same topic.

How would you characterize your style?
It’s surreal, fantasy-based, honest, and brutal. I’ve always had vivid dreams and there’s something really special-- lack of logic, rich imagery, and unreality. I was drawn toward surreal and fantastical things. All of the books I enjoyed as a kid included odd bizarre worlds and grand flights of imagination. I've always tried to recreate those leaps of fancy and a sense of sexuality in my work. Photography is my expression; it is how I see women and fashion. Everything that I capture is an extension of my feelings, my words, and my view about everything that surrounds fashion and women.

6. What advice would you give to a beginning photographer?
Networking is important. But it doesn’t means you should build a connection with anyone you meet. It doesn’t make sense. You should go out and make a list of people that are really interesting to you and that you find inspiring, and you present your work, which is to be credible at this point and amazing, the best you can do, and then you hope for a response. And then as soon as there is an exchange, you keep this going. This is how things work.

wardrobe stylist/photographer YUAN YAO
model HU MENGLU @Fabbrica milano
makeup artist/hair stylist LISA LIONELLO
creative director SHUMAN YAO