Chinese Photographer Maleonn Creates Magical Portraits
I know very little about Maleonn only that he used to be a theatre director, an art director, a graphic designer and is now one of Shanghai’s most famous contemporary photographers. He also produces incredible, magical, surreal, filmic images. Last January he took on a new project that really caught my eye. It’s called ‘Mobile Photo Studio’ and is essentially a travelling photo studio (made into a truck) that the artist will take from Shanghai to 55 cities across China.
The truck will feature 40 pieces of ‘photo studio style’ artworks and will give visitors the opportunity to have their portrait taken in the traditional way. The concept behind the project was to recreate an old travelling photo studio inspired by one of Chinas most famous portraitists, Mr. Liang. However having said that I think the concept is a conceit as Maleonns real name is Ma Liang and I can’t find any other info on it.
Anyway here’s what Maleonn has to say about art and his work:
As I understand it, the ultimate goal of art is to provide comfort and happiness of a certain sort to the audience. I always hope that I am able to do something for the people with my own efforts, to create artworks that can translate into their welfare rather than command high prices at auction houses.
I want to engage further into the reality and let more people enjoy the pleasure of art. I want to help others with my actions and my works, to prevent them from being engulfed in the sea of ubiquitous materialism.
This exhibition features 40 pieces of “photo studio style” artworks that I have done in the past three years. They are all using pose shooting, installation works and a litter of props and costumes. In this sense, this exhibition is also the pilot project of the Mobile Studio.
I’m going to keep a beady eye on Maleonn’s work. It’s wonderful.
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