Text by Mitchell Paster.
Today the two Shanghai photographers, Song Tao and JI Weiyu, who work together and are known as birdhead came and spoke with us. I had never heard anything about them or seen their work until I was told to look them up and prepare a few questions. Upon looking at their work online I was sort of disappointed; it seemed to be similar to the “I’m going to take pictures of whatever I want and group them together” type of photography that I have been inundated with back at SVA. So, I kind of wrote them off and headed to meet up with the group for the talk.
That they were a bit late was understandable because they had an interview earlier and traffic in Shanghai is pretty crazy. After they arrived they set up their iPad and got to talking and passing around two of their books.
After the lecture I realized that their brand of photography appealed to me more than what I see back in the states. I’m not sure if it is because their subject matter is less familiar to me since it is made predominately in China, or because they are just more thoughtful with the way they make their work.
Birdhead is represented by ShanghART gallery. Their latest body of work will be included as part of the New Photography show opening at MoMA in October, 2012. Be sure to check it out.
You can learn more about birdhead by following some of these links.
