Photo by Jingna Zhang for ファッション誌 (Vogue Japan)
It's not often I'm bowled over by a fashion photographer, but Jingna Zhang's work is grounded in history yet fresh and distinctive—exploring her extensive website is a treat. She obviously has the artistic touch, but she's also a high-level pro whose clients include Mercedes Benz, Montblanc, and Lancome, and she has multiple covers for top magazines such as Vogue, Elle, and Harper’s Bazaar to her credit.
...And that's not the only kind of shooting she's good at. Most fun biographical fact: before becoming a photographer, the 31-year-old Chinese-born Singaporean was a world-class air rifle shooter who represented Singapore at the Commonwealth Games and World Cup.
Want her as your teacher? In case you do, you're in luck—you can sign up any time for an extensive online course at Learn Squared with five hours of lectures, 14 hours of extra content, a prolific community, and more. The lesson topics are: Photography Basics, Equipment and Lighting, Concepts and Casting, Team Building and Planning, The Photoshoot, Post Production, Retouching, and Marketing Your Work.
Here's Jingna's Self-Portrait on her 30th birthday.
Mike
(Inset: Johnannes Vermeer, Girl with Pearl Earring, 1665 [detail])
"Random Excellence" is a series consisting of things Yr. Hmbl. Ed. stumbled upon randomly and liked.
Original contents copyright 2019 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.
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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:
Chris Y.: "Fashion is the Formula One racing of photography. Its advanced technologies and techniques eventually trickle down to us mortals...."
Pierre: "Her work is divine. By the way, she has an excellent article on her blog on making do with what you have. Out of financial necessity, she worked for a long time with one camera, one lens: Canon 350D (Rebel XT for us in the US) and a kit lens. She shows examples of her development as an artist, where one can see she did imaginative work then that most people would be envious of."
Some years ago the girl with the pearl earring, the painting was exhibited in a tiny museum in the centre of The Hague. When I visited there were no crowds, I could approach the painting up to 1 meter and without interuption I could look at it for more than 20 minutes. An onforgettable experience.
https://www.mauritshuis.nl/en/discover/prince-william-v-gallery/
Posted by: Gerard Geradts | Sunday, 30 June 2019 at 05:57 PM
The models mostly look so serious...hardly smiling.
Posted by: Dan Khong | Sunday, 30 June 2019 at 06:22 PM
Jingna Zhang, like many fashion photographers, does exquisite work. Unlike street/reportage, fashion work is often based on real art.
My heroes have always been fashion photographers. Patric Demarchelier http://demarchelier.com/ Helmut Newton—lots of his work on the net NONE SFW. Herb Ritts (video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppg5miLcmqk
Man Ray, and his muse Rrose Sélavy, are what inspired my interest in art. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp#/media/File:Label_for_the_Belle_Haleine_cropped.png
Posted by: c.d.embrey | Sunday, 30 June 2019 at 06:35 PM
There is no denying Zhang's talent, especially when it comes to lighting and posing. To be honest though, her photos leave me cold. They are so flawless (and so heavily retouched toward that end) that they feel drained of warmth and humanity. Of course, that might be exactly what her clients and intended audience find so appealing. Thanks for drawing attention to her work!
Posted by: Gordon Lewis | Monday, 01 July 2019 at 11:26 AM
I sometimes suspect that the circles of sharpshooting and photography can overlap in interesting ways. I surprised myself when I was in the army when I found that I was a natural sharpshooter and even instructed other recruits, in boot camp no less.
Posted by: TC | Monday, 01 July 2019 at 09:13 PM
Time to pitch the movie Tim's Vermeer again?
OK, watch it!
Posted by: Moose | Monday, 01 July 2019 at 11:19 PM
Is it really art to make living models look like dead plastic fashion dolls?
I think it is an insult to Vermeer to compare his painting to this photograph. The pose is not even the same.
Posted by: Henk | Tuesday, 02 July 2019 at 12:57 AM