Feeding Stars to Cats

stopwhitewashing:

theaphid:

Another thing I wanted to post while it’s still current—the covers that Chen Man shot for i-D, especially in light of my post about the “paint chip problem” of race in fashion the other day.  I have so many thoughts about these covers and cultural appropriation/commodification/Orientalism/whatever you want to call it in fashion (especially now that models from China seem to be having “a moment”) that I can’t organize and make sense of right now.  My most positive thoughts on these photos at first glance are 1) that they are visually striking, of course (albeit in the near-fetishizing way that much portraiture of people of different cultures is) and 2) I believe that some of these ladies are Manchurian (4-syllable names ftw)—it’s nice to see MY PEOPLES (if indeed they are) gaining visibility in the industry.  That in particular makes me happy.

Background Information via www.i-donline.com:

Chen Man is one of China’s most celebrated fashion photographers. Born in Beijing, Chen Man honed her craft whilst studying at the city’s Central Academy of Fine Arts, where she learned the progressive, digital post-production techniques she is renowned for. Bold and experimental,Chen Man captures colour and sensuality like no-one else in the industry. Her work has revolutionised the way China and the rest of the world thinks about beauty. Her photographs although steeped in modernity are also strongly influenced by Chinese heritage and tradition, with Chen Man confessing to i-D she prefers “authenticity” to “flawlessness”. Working with the likes of Chinese Vogue, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar, Chen Man has also shot for the avant-garde magazine Vision. For i-D’sThe Whatever The Weather Issue, Pre-Spring 2012 Chen Man took The Year of the Dragon by storm shooting a quartet of cracking covers celebrating the diversity of beauty in China today.

(via wickedbadsugar)