China has the most profound cultural and artist center in Beijing. The works of Chinese photographers are changing their attitudes towards the country’s traditional values reflected on the modern lives and consumptions on family, identity and the human body. There is no doubt the growing significance of Chinese photography and how it is flowing into the mainstream culture. ‘Cynical realism’ caused the international breakthrough of Chinese art on the international scene at the beginning of the 1900’s. Chinese photography did not exist until the late 1990’s because of it’s misconception of its mystical land. The direction that the cynical realism was also of great importance in the fact that it helped to remove the perception of reality. Most of the photographs are documentary taken in Mainland China. Whereas, in Taiwan and Hong Kong the works of photographs were grasped towards contemporary art built through individual expression, experimentation and commercialism. An eye level point of view was used to sense the actuality of the artists’ own surroundings.

Not only do artists now have greater artistic freedom, during the last two decades Chinese photographers have gained more access to information outside of China. The influence of museums to show digital images has encouraged Chinese photographers to print monumental size murals, which is magnificent enough to impress art spectators. Twenty-five Chinese photographers have devoted themselves to portraying China in a way that illuminates the intimacy and diversity of the vast land.

Quentin Shih was born in Northern Beijing, China in 1975. Quentin is a professional photographer who has worked all around China shooting pictures in the fields of editorial, fashion, commercial, corporate and fine arts. In 1998, after obtaining a degree in engineering at the Faculty of Science and Technology of Southeast University he went to Beijing where he laid the foundations for his later career as a photographer instead of an engineer.

Quentin’s first temporary job was working at “Modern Sky”, a rock ‘n roll magazine, where a number of regional photographer editors and art directors noticed his art work in photography. Being motivated by the attention it brought about he realize the dreams he could achieve working as a professional photographer. After realizing that he wanted to become a professional photographer he concentrated his time on looking at different areas of photography as mentioned before.

Quentin’s works has been seen in leading national and international music and fashion magazines. Some of his clients include advertising agencies, photo agencies, graphic designers, music and fashion magazines in China and some international publications. Some of his regular customers not include not only regional companies but international world-wide known companies such as IBM and Yahoo. Some other companies that are clients of his are China United Telecommunications Corporation, Cosmopolitan, Newsweek, Trends Magazine and much more.

Some of the artwork shown on his official website is of fine art, commercial and editorial. Some of the fine art work expressed is of the human body of the Chinese people living in China. Some of the photographs show the surroundings of the living conditions in China such as close up shots of buildings and landscape photographs. Quentin’s commercial photographs contain colorful close of shots of people, he mainly works on the human expression of a person. With his editorial photographs they are like the commercial photographs but these are for public use and all contain captions.

Most recently, Quentin’s art work has increasingly been acquired by American museums, such as the Danforth Museum of Art and Worcester Art museum. The closeness with which these images express in the mysterious country can create a compelling portrait of a land and its people. The psychological richness of each unique window into a piece of China will leave you wanting to see more.

Description quoted by: Helen Fong

Source: www.quentinphotography.com