10 Questions with Man Zhu

A fine-art photographer based in New York City, Man (Jane) Zhu has received wide recognition for her work, including the Top 50 in Critical Mass 2022 of Photolucida, a book prize from the International Photography Awards, and an Editor’s Pick award from Lens Culture’s Critics’ Choice Competition. Her photographs have been exhibited throughout the U.S. and Canada as well as in her native China, and have been published in a number of art magazines. Zhu received her MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design and recently completed her Master’s in Digital Photography at New York’s prestigious School of Visual Arts. Her most recent body of work, Unframe | Relationship, applies the principles of semiotics to explore her own subconscious mind, using outdated films to make statements about memory.

www.manmanjane.com | @manzhu_jane

UnFrame: Relationship | Project Description

UnFrame: Relationship explores my own subconscious mind using an abstract visual language based on the principles of semiotics, the analysis, and the interpretation of signs and symbols. The nominal subjects of its photographs are myself, my family, my boyfriend, and my colleagues, but the final images deconstruct and fragment them sometimes to the point of being unrecognizable, often taking on the character of a collage. This process ultimately makes UnFrame: Relationship a kind of psychological self-portrait.

Part of my approach was to photograph subjects using expired films that date from the year of their birth. The artifacts of the film’s age—discoloration, fogging, loss of contrast and sharpness, and other forms of distress—became a sort of visual comment on each subject, one that usually surprised me. The effects produced by the expired film provided the starting point for each image’s final form. In some cases, I created grids of images that fragmented the original photograph; each frame of the grid might contain internal manipulation that took the portrait even further from its original. I sometimes included imprinted identification along the edges of the film within the image as a way of representing the project’s concept. In other images, two frames from the original portraits were overlapped, sometimes with different manipulation applied to each.

The final images in UnFrame: Relationship are intended to represent the emotions and associations evoked by their subjects in my own mind. Yet because the effects of the expired films were unpredictable and unexpected, there is an element of chance to the photographs. Sometimes the final result is quite different from the notions and feelings I had when I started the portrait. I think this difference corresponds directly to human relationships, in that there is sometimes a disconnect between expectation and reality.

INTERVIEW

Tell us a bit about your background and studies. What kind of education or training helped you develop your approach to art?

I'm Man Zhu, Jane. Compared to a "photographer", I prefer to call myself a creator of art within photography. I focus on fine art photography and conceptual photography, using photographic language as the medium to discuss relationships and reflect on myself. I am currently studying for my second master's degree in Digital Photography at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York. I have just got my M.F.A. degree in photography at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). The learning experiences of these two master's programs in photography are similar and different, but they are both committed to cultivating students to find the artistic expression forms they really love. While teaching art appreciation and technology, they often help students establish their own artistic concepts in the form of critique.

How did you start experimenting with photography? And why did you choose this medium in the first place?

I think it started from shooting portraits. When I was a teenager, I was most interested in shooting pictures with my friends. At that time, my subject matter only depended on my instinct. 
I am a nostalgic person, which is one of the reasons why I take photography as the medium - photography is a technology that can freeze the frame forever. Photography is a medium that pays more attention to and wants to reverse the short-lived situation of art. In fact, my favorite hobby when I was a child was painting, but I never had professional training. Later, when I came into contact with photography, I felt that it was an easier medium to freeze some moments, and it also had many similarities with painting. 

You moved from China to the U.S. and studied at the Savannah College of Art and Design. How did this change influence your work? 

Before I came to the U.S. to study, I usually took pictures by intuition. However, in the atmosphere of SCAD, which is inclusive and carefully guided by professors, I gradually formed the habit of thinking and expressing reasons. Often, the subconscious will provide us with creative inspiration, and the thinking of creation will analyze these subconscious and self aesthetics to support our creative expression. Moreover, after systematically studying some photography history and contemporary art history, my creative thinking gradually opened up, and I understood how to express the theme in the visual language based on photography. 

In your series UnFrame: Relationship, you work with analog photography using expired film. How did you come up with this idea? And how difficult is it to find the right film for the project?

UnFrame: Relationship is my thesis project during SCAD MFA. It is a long-term creation. After coming to SVA, I still continue to make this body of work. I use this project to explore the relationship between the people around me and me, and the root of each object is particularly important. With this reflection on the root causes, I thought of the year of birth of each subject. The film of that specific era can tell the traces of time in the unique language of photography. 
I usually buy these expired films on eBay. The process of collecting these materials is interesting and full of surprises, but many times it also needs to wait. 

What other aspects of your project require particular attention? Do you use any specific technique to develop the film or any type or brand of film in particular?

The biggest surprise of this project is its uncontrollable processing. Due to the long-overdue time of some negatives, I can't develop and scan them with a standardized process. For example, I once bought a Kodachrome film from 1994 (the year I was born). This type of film has long been discontinued, and the development process is too complicated to be developed today. In order to develop it, I use black and white craft. Obviously, it can't reproduce what it should be, but this "mistake" with the significance of the times aligns with my creative idea. 
That part of my relationship with my father is very surprising. My father taught me more about vision and how to see the world, so I chose the window as a metaphor. Since the film roll came from 1964 and had a long history, I "failed" many times in the process of making this work. Every time the film is developed, it looks like there is no image. I almost gave up until one day after scanning. I found that there were still traces of the negative. Perhaps this is a reflection of the way my father taught me to see the world. It seems to be eliminated by the times, but in fact, it has long been the cornerstone of my heart and can never be replaced.

UnFrame: Relationship explores, through a series of self-portraits, your subconscious behavior by showing your relationships with people around you, as you mention in your statement. What are the key elements of this project? And what messages do you want to convey?

Based on photography, UnFrame: Relationship explores and reshapes the relationship between myself and the people around me. The key to this project is the interpretation of various relationships, and relationships are like a frame to me. Factors such as native family, growth environment, and past experience can shape a person's character, define relationships with others, and reflect the subconscious perception of these relationships. For me, some relationships promote growth, some inspire, some provide shelter, and some restrict desire. The process of deconstructing and reorganizing these relationships is like examining and analyzing myself. In a way, they are my self-portraiture. 

Is there any other medium or technique you would like to incorporate in your work or experiment with? 

In addition to photography and film technology, collage (both digital and handmade) is also an essential technique in this series. If the use of expired film shooting and darkroom technology can be understood as the deconstruction part of this body of work, then collage is the reorganization part. When the photographic materials with traces of the times are re-integrated in the form of collages, the meaning of this series is established. 

Let's talk about the future. What are you working on now, and what are your plans for the future? Anything exciting you can tell us about?

At the moment, I am still studying for my second master of photography at S.V.A. After graduation, I will join a company as a studio artist and start a full-time job. The work content is also related to visual art. At the same time, I will not stop creating my own works and will continue to try to participate in the contemporary art market, such as holding some exhibitions and contributing to the photography art awards. In addition, I will have some group exhibitions in succession in the coming months, such as my graduation exhibition at S.V.A. in the fall of this year and the "The Chelsea International Photography Competition Exhibition" held in Agora gallery next January. 

What do you hope to accomplish this year, both in career goals and personal life? 

Speaking of this year's goal, the first thing is to graduate smoothly and show my latest works in the graduation exhibition with a good face. Secondly, I hope to adapt to the pace of work as soon as possible. I've been in the ivory tower of the school for too long. It's time to officially integrate with society. Finally, I hope that in the future, I can still maintain my enthusiasm for visual art as I do now. 

Finally, any shows, galleries, or publications where our readers can find your work?

Up to now, my works have been exhibited in the United States (New York, Savannah, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Middlebury, Tucson, etc.), China (Wuhan and Shenzhen), and Canada (Toronto). The cooperative galleries and art organizations include Agora Gallery, Fotofoto Gallery, PhotoPlace Gallery, Decode Gallery, Manifest Gallery, Praxis Gallery, Crossing Art Gallery, ARTDOC Photography Magazine, and so on. My personal website and Instagram will also continuously update my creation and exhibition information.