Featured Prints Artist Interview with Zemotion

Mar 10, 200711 min read

Deviation Actions

MidnightExigent

Published: Mar 10, 2007

3.7K Views

Featured Prints Artist: Zhang Jingna

Location: Singapore / Age: 18 / Speciality: Photography, Illustration / Contact: zemotion@zemotion.net

As part of the International Women's Week 2007 interviews of inspirational women are being posted on deviantART. We are proud to feature one of them at this time, 18 year old photographer Zhang Jingna a.k.a. zemotion from Singapore, in a special Prints Artist Interview conducted by chix0r and spinegrinder!

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Hi Jingna! Please introduce yourself.

I’m 18, a deviantART addict, I love photography and art/photobooks. I’m studying fashion design and am also a national player for Singapore’s air rifle team.

Can you tell me a bit about how you first became involved in photography?

When I finally convinced myself to buy a DSLR for my 18th birthday.I'd always wanted to create images whether by drawing or photographing, I guess the hardest was to make up my mind to spend the money as a struggling student not wanting to depend on parents for the expenses. Once that part was over I'd always been photographing.

Do you remember what your first 'real' photograph was?

A shot taken by a point and shoot camera of my younger sister some months before I bought my DSLR. I’d posted it on a local photography forum and somehow it turned into a flame war starting with someone slamming it like it’s the worst shot on earth. Some agreed and criticized along blindly, some good photographers I’d always admired defended me saying it was a good shot, one even said ‘I wish I’d taken that’. I never expected such strong reactions from people over an image… I guess that incident gave me a push to getting my camera and start photography.

What do you think are the biggest issues for women in the world today?

That as much as equality is being emphasized again and again, many careers are still being categorized by sexes and there's a certain amount of discouragements and prejudice towards women taking up "men's jobs".

What are your sources of inspiration for your photos?

The artists around me, sometimes I yearn to create those images and scenes or something similar; hopefully when I acquire enough resources because it stretches a little too much to fantasy.

Music. Sometimes I listen to songs and I stop and they just make me think. I don't necessarily recreate something from the lyrics, but they're always inspiring.

A lot of inspiration also come from just talking to people, I’ll get these really weird and funny ideas that sometimes sits into my mind and stays into my little book of ‘to-do shoots’ post-its. But mostly, my nightmares and dreams. I think it’s what inspires me to create.

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Can you tell us of any other women on deviantART who you find inspiring?

retrodiva88, suzi9mm, cypherx, sinsong, GunnerRomantic... there are so many!

What about outside deviantART, who do you think are good examples of role models for today's young women?

I'm not extremely conscious about the media, but as a competing rifle shooter myself, many people I look up to are athletes I came in contact with during international competitions. Learning about their passion, will, drive and hard work really pushes me forward.

Are you doing your photography on a professional level or is it more of a hobby for you?

Somewhere in between. I’m working on a professional level with professionals right now but I feel like I’m not ready to focus on it as a profession yet because of school and other commitments. I do plan to go into it this year though.

How much work goes into a typical photo shoot of yours?

Depending on how big the production is, I usually try to keep it as simple as possible, although even the easier ones will usually take about 3-4 days to plan, about where to shoot and styling. The more complicated ones take about 2-3 weeks to source for the clothing, props, recce the locations, get assistants, decide on suitable models and make other arrangements that may be involved with the shoot.

Because I handle everything myself, it gets really difficult, stressful and tiring having to run so many errands and speak to so many people to coordinate the timings. Sometimes I get too depressed to even work on anything else during the period before such shoots. The frequency for simple and difficult ones is probably an even 50/50 rate, but whichever the case, for me it’s all worth it because aside from just the results I really feel like I grow a lot with each shoot.

Can you tell me a bit about the background to your 2 favourite deviations from your own gallery?

It's a difficult pick, I usually always only submit my favorites from shoots, if there's none that I like I don't submit at all... I guess Dreamer and The moment after...

Dreamer was a re-shoot with my ex-classmate Viola. The first was for my school project, while reviewing those shots I realized how much I liked some of them and decided to re-shoot with styling and setup done according to my own visions for my Thirteen Tales series, the fragments of my dreams of nightmares and tragedies. The girl was dying, she wasn't dead, she was dreaming her dying dream and there's a little tension for struggle to wake, to try to hold on to a piece of life. She drowned in the cold to her death.

The Moment After... I don't do self portraits often because it's time consuming. The only time I find myself doing them is when I'm extremely depressed and upset. Putting on makeup, setting up, shooting myself quietly in silence calms me down, after removing the makeup and a shower, I'll usually feel a lot better. The session was a lot of silence, just me, and me. There was nothing to be shy about, I posed however I liked and expressed myself however I wanted to.

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What do you feel are your strengths and weaknesses as a photographer?

I’m too emotional. I work based on how I feel and it gets difficult when occasionally I have to work for a client or shoot something that I may not totally like, but I had to do them anyway, whether as favors or for the benefit of my savings. However I always feel the need to connect and feel what I do or I’ll most probably end up not liking the results no matter whether the clients or others love it… it makes me question and doubt myself, my perspectives and works. Also the fact that I’m slightly introvert, I don’t talk much with people on shoots, almost always I get the response that people think I have an attitude problem, they’ll tell me this first impression after they stated knew me well. So for minority that never got to know me probably have a bad impression of me I guess. Haha.

My strength is probably my vision, it’s probably what made me improve much more than most people because it’s something beyond the technicalities. Also, how I can deal with shooting under constraints. A lot of time I do shoots in my room on my bed or my living room or in somewhere that’s really not conducive for shooting, the space is really narrow but I try to make do and move around. As I don’t have a permanent stylist and makeup-artist, I usually have to do them on my own, like buying things or creating props and settings myself because I’ve yet to find an assistant that I feel I can trust the preparation works with. It’s really hard. I’ve also done many sessions which were the first photo shoot ever for inexperienced models. These things helped me to work with the little I have and know that I can pull off good shots in almost any conditions.

If you could photograph any past or future event in history, what would it be?

When the first batch of humans move to stay in space colonies.

How do you think deviantART has benefited you as an artist?

I've grown a great deal from the comments and feedbacks, collaborated with some people I'd became friends with and also received commission works. But the best and most important part is probably the great deal of wonderful and inspiring people I've met. Thank you dA!

Have you ever snooped into other artistic mediums?

I draw! I had been drawing since a kid. Even though it wasn’t really proper drawing or anything. I remember when I was 4 I started piano and had a book for a drawing a day around 5. I had chickens that don’t look like chickens at all but amazingly colored ducklings that my teachers insisted couldn’t be mine... My dad draws realistic drawings really well, I hoped to be like him back then but time has shown I’m a sucker for fantasy-styled things though. I did some digital art when I met noah-kh, slightly discouraging as he was too good, but I’m doing it now again because of the demand of work from school.

I guess music is considered too? I used to play the piano for my school choir in primary school and keyboards in some rock bands when I was about 14 or so, even though the latter was only about a year plus, it was a significant period of my life. Wrote some stuffs then, now I only write a little occasionally by request or for commissions.

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Do you have a particular goal for your photography?

Become a successful fashion photographer, being paid to photograph in my style and shoot what I want to, not just be a button pusher as many are in the industry.

Do you have any hobbies that are not related to your artistic activities?

I guess I can consider air rifle one, even though it’s pretty much compulsory until I stop doing it. I like 'go' (black and white stones board game, also known as 'weiqi') a lot, and reading manga and comics. But I hardly find free time for anything else nowadays other than sewing, drawing, designing for school and photographing things for work and my portfolio.

What advice would you give someone thinking about taking up photography?

Get a DSLR, but don't hurry to get all those expensive lenses and bother about memorizing those technical specs, the kit lens can follow you a long way (it's still one of my most used lenses despite having a couple now). Just experiment and play around with the camera until you get the hang of the basics and what's most suitable for your needs and style.

Do you have a message that you'd leave for the future generations of women?

Learn to laugh, learn to love, learn to love yourselves!

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