The contemporary art fair in Shanghai is quite small in comparison to its beastly contender in Hong Kong. Although a mere eighty-six galleries, the booths, which primarily showed contemporary Chinese work, were beautifully situated in the colonial-built Shanghai Exhibition Center.
Despite the fair’s compact feel and focus away from the international blue-chip artists that are readily seen at Art HK, I was surprised by the substantial amount of contemporary Chinese photography that caught my eye. In particular six photographers, despite their careers’ varying in establishment, had images that intelligently captured the complex world around them.
Perhaps biased due to my affinity to William Eggleston, I found my favorite booth in the fair to be the Chen Wei solo booth from M97, a photography gallery in Shanghai. Small square photographs in individual frames wrapped the booth at eye-level with a white, square table sitting in the middle of the room. With his bold use of color, Chen is able to capture the essence of the inanimate objects that surround his life and give them a soul beyond that of their innate nature.
Although showing off signature works by their superstars, one end of Long March Space’s booth was reserved for the best video work at the fair: “The Next Round is True Life” by photographer + video installation artist, Huang Ray. In a repetitive fashion, three men of varying middle-age and wearing identical white shirt + black pants, cycle in and out of the video. The task that ties them together: chewing gum. As a new man enters the frame, a single piece of gum is transfered via hand from one mouth to another, and despite the most likely loss of flavor, this continues for the entirety of the 28-minute film. A video not fit for the germ-a-phobe, the lack of a social interaction between the actors creates an intriguing environment that ultimately captivates the audience through the unknown, yet thought-filled emotions behind their faces. 
Another artist from M97’s roster quite quickly enraptured my eye with his bold use of primary and secondary colors in his “Love Letters” series. The flowers photographed in Jiang Zhi‘s work, are captured to represent a beauty, which whether in a physical object, life or love, is more often than not unable to transcend permanence. Similarly to love, this flower’s temporary beauty has been seized and given an eternal life through an indestructible memory created by a photograph. Yet to remain mindful of the transience of beauty, Jiang photographs the flowers while they are set aflame.
Seemingly autobiographical, work by young photographer, John Clang, instills upon the viewer a sense of unease as the artist tries to define his identity. I find Clang’s use of collage to perfectly convey the urban alienation that individuals often encounter when living in and facing the chaos of a developed society. 
Last, but certainly not least, a fashion photographer by the name of Quentin Shih. Despite the obvious fashion + commercial work that seemed to bleed through into his fine art photographs, this series was created in collaboration with Christian Dior as a project to be shown only in galleries. He has a clear facility with fashion photography as he implements these techniques with the models. However, comically he juxtaposes them with rows of Chinese migrant workers, which from a distance looks like a variety of people, yet a closer inspection reveals that these factory workers are but one that has been copy + pasted with the tools of Photoshop. 
Although his message is blatant, I find it intriguing that this was a campaign done with Dior. As the high-end designer brands expand into the modernizing China, it has become apparent that the Chinese are in fact the largest market in the world to be had for luxury products. Yet, it is only one of every hundred-thousand people that is actually able to afford these extravagant pieces for their outlandish lifestyles that set them apart from the giant working class that enables the giant machine of China to keep turning.
ArtConscious 