Zhang Haier

In the series, les Dames (1990s-2000s), Zhang expands his representation of femininity by photographing transsexuals and transvestites in their intimates surroundings, further challenging the systemic oppression in the classification of genders.

In Bad Girls, Zhang enumerates the many iterations of the self-fashioning and self-exposition of the identities of femininity and womanhood. Amongst the many portraits of women, including prostitutes, socialites and ordinary women, in the Bad Girls series, the artist’s then girlfriend and later wife Hu Yuanli has always been the protagonist and the archetype of feminine beauty, the muse and ardent supporter of his artistic practice. These portraits go beyond the objective, neutral stance of conventional documentary photography. Half-undressed women, mostly in an indoor studio or domestic setting, stare provocatively at the camera, engaging the viewer and exposing the at times performative presence of the photographer.

In Steam, Steel and the Rail series, Zhang turns his lens to the male labourers in railway stations and steel factories, replacing the metropolitan grace of Bad Girls with the tough masculinity of rural China. Zhang documented the era of economic liberalisation, the open door policy of China, in the late 1980s, at a time of progressive industrial reform dominated by state-controlled plants, driven by the grand schemes of the Communist Party’s Four Modernisations and Ten Year Plan. In the steel factories of Wuhan and the train stations of Shahe County, Hubei, Zhang portrayed the hardship of the labourers at work, as well as the optimism of the nonetheless human individuals. The steam of train engines and steel mills, as well as the smoke of tobacco cigarettes, find their expressive analogy in Zhang’s at times blurry images, while the soot and dirt of coal and factories transpose themselves into the grains of analogue photographs.

There is always a performative dimension in Zhang’s photographs, be it the theatrical presentation of his subjects or the directorial presence of the photographer. This performativity is evident from the beginning of his practice, when he experimented with “selfies” in which he intruded with his face or hand. Zhang chooses to emphasise the subjective perceptions so that one could detect the involvement of the photographer, sometimes achieving a bizarre effect.