[x]

Browse More Like This

More from ~pandastrong

View Gallery

Featured in Groups:

Not currently featured in any groups.

Details

Submitted: October 2, 2010
Image Size: 532 KB
Resolution: 700×700

Link

Thumb

Statistics

Comments: 0
Favourites: 3 [who?]
Views: 406 (0 today)
Downloads: 95 (0 today)

[x]

Couple Clothing 12by ~pandastrong

Photography / People & Portraits / Spontaneous Portraits

You can now buy the magazine on magcloud for $8: [link]
eriknaumann.com: [link]

情侣装 [qínglǚzhuāng] couple clothing

Beijing, China
2010

This photo series investigates the trend of “couple clothing” which is popular in South Korea, Taiwan and China.

I first came across this phenomenon posted on a blog about Chinese culture. I found the concept to be intriguing because such explicit outfit coordination between couples isn’t popular and in many cases negatively received by Western standards of masculinity and individuality. I began to photograph a few couples casually, but the more I saw and photographed, the more interested I became in the different T-shirt prints, variation of outfit co-ordination between couples and the variety of couples that wore coordinated outfits. This is also a look at contemporary Chinese culture and how it’s being influenced by Westernization, rapid growth and an opening up.

The couples are photographed in a style that rests between deadpan and casual snapshots. The framing is consistent and straight-on, similar to street portraits by Joe Sternfeld, Jitka Hanzlova and Mette Tronvall, but spontaneously composed. Also, the expressions and body language of the subjects is not strictly regimented. Some pose as if for snapshots and some emulate the body language they may have seen in similar street portraits. I am focusing on the cultural aspect of the clothing which I’ve seen mentioned on blogs and vernacular photography. I haven’t found any serious, extensive artistic investigation of this phenomenon, which is what I hope to achieve by documenting couples and creating a typology which can provide a focus for deeper consideration.

The street portraits are shot on medium format film, and look much like street fashion photography or typologies, an aesthetic shared with the street portraits of Albrecht Tübke. Although visually similar to street fashion, which is concerned with what people are wearing, my attention is on why people are wearing it and the social and cultural context.

No comments have been added yet.

More from ~pandastrong

Featured in Groups:

Details

Statistics

Couple Clothing 12by ~pandastrong

The Journal Portal

Polls

What is your preferred drawing software?

deviantART [dee·vee·un'nt·ART]

Keep in Touch!

Deviousness

Add Media

Style