Weekly Blog Post #8

Artistic Inspiration: Zhang Jingna ( 張晶娜 )

Zhang Jingna is one of the more recent photographers since she started her first photography career in 2008 at the age of eighteen. In the same year, she photographed for companies such as Mercedes Benz, Canon, Pond's, Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, and Wacom and produced fashion editorials for magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, Elle, and Flare and also held her first solo exhibition, "Something Beautiful" at The Arts House in Singapore. 

Two years later, fifty of her works were showcased in the Singapore's fashion festival; Singapore's first large scale street exhibition featuring fashion photography. Right after this exhibition, she had her second gallery show, "Angel of Dreams" at the Japan Creative Centre which is supported by the Embassy of Japan. The show was noted for her photographs of Sugizo, a Japanese musician.

Jingna is an inspiration to me when it comes to photography because I was really amazed by her first photographs she took with her first camera. Even though she didn't have much to work with at the time, her first pictures still made me go, "How??". At the time, most of her pictures were self-portraits but I was shocked that even though she was a rookie, her pictures looked like they can be in fashion magazines or art galleries.

 Her photos she took in the next two years just amazed me even more. I don't even know how she came up with those photos when she didn't have that many years of experience. In 2007, she experimented with fashion, beauty, movement, gothic Lolita, etc. For the photos she took that year, I liked how they were dark and contrasting, which drew attention to the model. 2008 was when she took the first pictures I saw of hers. That was the year she went on her trip to Japan and started exploring studio photography, shot commercially for companies like Mercedes Benz and Harper's Bazaar, and published her first photobook. I still don't understand how in two years after picking up your first camera, you can have well-known companies like Mercedes Benz wanting you to photograph for their advertisements. 

I admire Zhang Jingna because she accomplished so much in her first years after picking up her first camera and she is still very young. I remember for my photography culminating in grade 11, we had to choose a photographer and copy their style and I chose her but I know I failed in trying to replicate her photos because I was still basic at the time with a DSLR camera. She makes me want to practice more with DSLR cameras and try experimenting with movement and beauty. 

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