Yellow : I heard that you graduated from a professional college; what kind of college was it? And what did you benefit most from attending?

Chen Man : I graduated from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts. It always advocates freedom, freedom, freedom. It is a freedom at all levels, from either learning while sitting on the grass or to choosing your own courses.

Y : Your early publications through Vision caused a great surprise in the Chinese fashion photography. What made you join Vision? What is your personal thought on this? Is the concept of those works more of a natural flow or an elaborate plan?

C : I was a junior in college at that time, when I first worked for Vision. Yifei Chen was a great mentor for our generation. The Big vision, Big art concept he created was very beneficial. At that time, my ex-boyfriend was at Vision, so I tried many cover shots. He is now the editor-in-chief of the Vision.
I was in college, and I did a lot of post-processing in my work. Even now, few photographers process photos that way, but I was a young and passionate photographer, and in challenging my creativity I kept adding things until it turned into cacophony. Then, when I entered in the fashion circle, people questioned my way of processing. They were concerned that my excessiveness in post-processing would demonize my models. That is why I jumped to my next stage to minimalism. The photos were almost composed as enlarged beauty headshots. By doing this, I realized that I am far better than just post-processing. So gradually, celebrities became my clients, which paved my way to become one of the mainstream fashion photographers of today.

Y : I personally think that the complexity of post-processing really symbolizes your work. But in the US, many are against excessiveness in post-processing, for example, when the waistline is too narrow, or the model is too skinny. Does the debate exist in China? What do you think about this?

C : Beauty is defined in two ways: one is natural beauty, the other is mental beauty. The two combined together is the meaningfulness of being human; otherwise, we are just primitive. The inner mindset of environmental protection, which is also a way of protecting it, decides the outer conduct of protecting environment. Materialistic civilization dominates the world, and the world now needs the ancient wisdom of harmony between human and heaven. The great virtue of development of human and earth is to create by balancing the least used resources and the fullest play of wisdom. I am interpreting it with my modern visual language to open another door for readers. In Chinese, it means unity of form and spirit.

Y : Do you think you have changed your idea of photography during the process of your career?

C : By working with celebrities, I gradually started to work on a series with implanted elements of contemporary China. This series means a lot to me, because I am the first, as a mainstream fashion photographer, to portray contemporary China and contemporary Chinese faces in my works. China has always been a follower of Western, Japanese or Korean trends. There was no sign of any backdrop of contemporary China because if done improperly, it would look very old-fashioned. However, I felt I can do this because firstly, I am a truly local photographer that never studied abroad; secondly, I am pretty familiar with the visual industry; and last, I really believe this is something I should do. China should not dwell over its long history. I want to capture the contemporary, the contemporary beauty of China. In this series, the most notable one is taken on the Great Wall featuring Lu Yan. This was the first time a mainstream fashion magazine shot a project on the Great Wall. That project was quite stirrin at that time.
The Mirror also has coverage of this, saying that it is a revolutionary milestone in China fashion. What I am doing now is to combine my understanding of ancient Chinese philosophy together with my application of Western ideas. By highlighting the beneficial part of ancient philosophy, including environmental protection, internal and external peace, I managed to visualize them in a modern language through the eyes of a materialisticperceptualized human.

Y : You are considered as a symbol of China’s new generation; what kind of a generation is it?

C : I am from a typical post-80’s one-child family. I would say the new generation is about to witness the realization of our materialistic dreams.

Y : Vision began the trend in 2002, when accepting western culture was considered to be really cool. What’s the situation now? And for people like you, what is the next step? Would you consider presenting yourself with more personality?

C : The aestheticism in China has gone through many stages, dominated by the Me-tooism after the Reforming and Open-up era. My concept is the combination of my understanding of ancient Chinese philosophy and my application of Western ideas. There will be more professionals with personalities. And I also believe diversity makes a healthy world.