Artist 59
Zhang Peng Lost girls Photography
Zhang has a background in painting but has increasingly embraced photography
When asked why he converted to photography, the artist replied, "There is no special reason. When I changed my genre from painting to photography, many people were just like you. They were curious as to why I changed my media so suddenly and kept asking me why. However, all I wanted was to express many thoughts and emotions in my mind through more diversified means."
His work centres on images of young girls in deceptively innocent settings.
He captured the truths and contradictions of this world in his art.
Zhang Peng uses digital manipulation and distortion to keep you awake at night—or, more specifically, to create engrossing yet extremely bizarre and deeply disturbing images of little girls.
Every ounce of innocence and hope is drained from the girls' artificially-widened eyes, instead they are desperate and sad in mature clothing and sinister situations.
The rich colors, velvety textures, and careful, theatrical compositions create strong visual draw to otherwise horrific scenes.
Peng’s big-eyed, waifish little girls evoke all kinds of cultural baggage: stereotypical Asian kawai (cuteness), the never-discussed reality of childhood sexuality, the way that same sexuality is abused by adults, and the still unequal status of women in China all come to mind.
The use of youth and big eyes are very often used in popular culture yet this artist turns those attributes into contradictions and I like the sinister energy attached. It plays on fetish and I think points out it’s dehumanizing factors.
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