On a sunny sunday. Scooter ride in Shanghai. Listening to some remastered hip-hop, “Afterlife” by Gayle Moran & Dr. Dre

Do you ever think, what life would be, where will you go, after you die ?

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

nothing else to say.

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

For 3 years, I have been shooting Chinese people sleeping during the day on the streets of China ..  I collected a few hundreds of them between 2005 and 2008. This project is entitled ‘Day dreamers’, it was exhibited in a few festivals in Asia (Lianzhou, Angkor) and published in a few magazines in Europe (like VSD in France). As I decided I had now enough ‘dreamers’ in my collection, I could finally build the ‘final product’ of this series: a 4 meters long composite image made of 100 ‘day dreamers’.

You can enlarge the photo by clicking on it.

Original single images are viewable here: http://blog.ericleleu.com/2008/04/08/day-dreamers/

One of my recent work is called ”C(O)C(O)TV”. It is a series of images of the China 60th anniversary ceremony broadcasted on China Central Television (CCTV1). The images were shot with my iPhone camera and then rearranged on photoshop to build my own vision of this ceremony. I actually do not have a TV at home so I went to a Chinese neighbour’s place to share a seat on his sofa and watch the ceremony with him. I was quite surprised that he did not know the world-famous ‘tank man’ photo (shot in black and white in 1989 on Tiananmen square) where that Chinese student tried to block the tank. So i decided to record the military tanks passing by Tiananmen in… 2009.

The last photo of the series (“C(o)C(o)TV-12″) was published in Newsweek’s annual special edition magazine, Issue 2010, produced in conjunction with the World Economic Forum. The article is about ‘why China will NOT rule the world’… Also published in Newsweek Japan (January 2010).

]]> http://blog.ericleleu.com/2009/11/01/newsweek-magazine-lik/feed/ 0 http://blog.ericleleu.com/2009/10/20/need-subtitles/ http://blog.ericleleu.com/2009/10/20/need-subtitles/#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:29:38 +0000 Eric Leleu http://blog.ericleleu.com/?p=300 Need subtitles ? is a post from: My photo laboratory

Need subtitles ? is a post from: My photo laboratory

This is a series called ‘subtitles’. It presents red banners with Chinese characters on them, and the translation below… Something I always wanted to understand since I am in China. What messages the Chinese government actually deliver to its citizens ? It is a work I started recently but that I decided to stand-by for a while, it is not going the direction I wanted, it is too dark and ‘photojournalistic’ to my taste… I want to follow it in different cities in China to make the work more global and comprehensive.

Under progress…

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I was lucky enough to introduce my favourite photographer to a gallery I knew in Beijing. Lucky because I could meet him and accompany him for 3/4 days when he was in China. You can browse more information about Martin Parr – english social documentary photographer – here and about the gallery here. I like the portrait I did of him in his own style – the ‘Parr style’. This portrait was published as the cover (of the cultural section) of Time Out Beijing in September 09.

Yangshuo is one of the most famous landmarks of China. It deserves it.

We went there with a friend (Nicolas) to shoot reference photography (to build 3D environments) for a videogame company…

Here are some randoms snaps.

The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, seen from Ditan Park very close to the Bird Nest stadium. I like the photo besides, very symbolic, a Chinese on the shoulders of a foreigner… China finally ranked first – and USA second – for the first time in the history…

I have a brother and a sister. Difficult for me to imagine what this generation should feel like to not be able to have brothers/sisters. Resignation ? This wide topic would require more time and effort to be properly covered. I shot those images (4×5”) in the early morning, kids going to school.

Since my first trip in China (2004) I have been shooting Chinese people having a nap on the streets during the day. Over the months and years, i have been collecting hundreds of them. Here are my favorites. To me, those ‘dreamers’ embodies the blurred inter-relation between private and public space in China. Those ‘dreamers’ photos also show the opposite side of the cliché presenting Chinese people as really hard-working people… This series had been shown in festivals around Asia (Lianzhou, Angkor and Rangoon), published in magazines (VSD in France or Axel Springer in Germany)…