When looking at the photographic work of Liu Shuwei, one is immediately taken back by the painterly qualities of his images, and the way that he is able to capture colors, texture, patterns, mood, and natural lighting. Originally from Tangshan in Hebei province, and now mainly based in Shanghai, Liu Shuwei is preoccupied by many creative endeavors, including poetry, translating texts, fashion design, but perhaps most importantly for him, film photography.
驻目刘树伟的摄影作品时，你可被他画面中的油画质感以及他对色彩、质地、图案、情绪和自然光的捕捉立即吸引住。来自河北唐山、现今常居上海的刘树伟，投身于诸多种类的创作，包括诗歌、翻译、服装设计，然而对他来说，最重要的或许还是胶片摄影。
Shuwei usually shoots his personal work with a medium format Makina 67. What he enjoys most about shooting with film is that it has a certain kind of inaccuracy and roughness, which for him has a warm poetic quality that digital lacks. When asked to describe what his photographic style is like, he prefers just to say that it is eclectic. He strives to be able to master all the different styles of photography that he likes, but feels he has yet to reach that point.
进行个人创作时，刘树伟通常使用中画幅的Makina67作为器材。胶片的不精确和质朴，于他而言有着数码所欠缺的温暖诗意。关于自己的摄影风格，他宁愿用兼收并蓄来形容。他希望可以成为驾驭任何自己喜欢的风格的摄影师，却又觉得自己并未完全企及目标。
There are a few recurring visual elements and motifs in his work. Shuwei likes to shoot in mysterious locations and landscapes that convey an unsettling kind of uncertainty. He is drawn to capturing calm scenes of simple folk life in small rural villages – staged or otherwise. His photographic subjects tend to be a bit cool, or perhaps even cold. Shuwei’s preferred lighting is soft, natural, faint, and as he likes to describe it, “romantic”. He rates JH Engström and Boris Mikhailov quite highly, as two of his favorite photographers ever.
他的作品中有一些反复出现的视觉元素和主题。树伟喜欢在带着不确定性的空间进行拍摄。他喜爱捕捉简单的乡村民间生活的平静场景——摆拍与否。他的拍摄对象倾向冷静，甚至或许是冷漠的。树伟倾向使用柔和、自然、微弱的光，如他所述，“浪漫”的光。他对JH Engstrom和Boris Mikhailov评价甚高，指他们为他最喜欢的两位摄影师。
One of the biggest challenges he believes he faces as an artist is actually internal. Shuwei believes that his introversion and shyness can often be a bit debilitating, especially when shooting and collaborating with others. Because he sometimes lacks initiative, Liu says that he is in a constant struggle with himself. “What an artist needs most is autonomy,” he says, “and this is what I actually lack”.
他认为，身为艺术家，他所面对的最大挑战之一是来自内在。树伟认为自己的内向与羞涩常会削弱他的自信，特别是拍摄需要涉及到他人的时候。因为主动性的缺乏，他说他时常都要跟自己斗争。“做艺术家最需要的一点是自主性，”他说，“而这正是我所缺乏的。”
In addition to his photography, these past few years, he has also been designing his own clothes. It started out as just a hobby making custom clothes for himself, but soon as others saw the pieces that he was making, they also wanted to buy them. He admits that his interests are many and he wants to be able to continue working on all his of art projects and hobbies, not abandoning anything.
除了摄影，近来几年，他也一直在做自己的服装设计。一切均始于他给自己量身定做衣物的爱好，但是其他人一看到他做的衣物，也想购买这些衣物。他承认自己兴趣广泛，并且想要继续他的艺术项目和艺术爱好，什么都不想丢弃。
He has two photo projects that he is currently developing. The first one is related to subcultures in China. The other one is a series about his late grandmother. He is interested in searching for her spirit and follow the trail that he believes she left behind. For him, she is a mysterious and magical figure. When she was in her 50s, she converted to Catholicism. At that time, she was illiterate and couldn’t read. Shuwei gave her a Xinhua Chinese dictionary, and in a very short period of time, she grasped everything and knew the Bible by heart. When he was a small child, Shuwei was often rebellious to her authority. From the start, the two had a rather poor relationship. Through this photo project, he hopes to be able to reconcile his past with her.
目前他在进行的拍摄项目有两个。一个是拍摄中国的亚文化。另一个则是关于他已去世的祖母。他想搜寻她的身影、她存在过的踪迹。他心中的祖母是个神秘又神奇的存在。这位祖母在只字不识的50岁时信奉了天主教，却在树伟给了她一本新华词典后很短一段时间内，掌握了圣经并将其烂熟于心。他小时候叛逆，她又偏执强势，两人之间的关系并不好。他希望能够通过这个拍摄项目得以和家庭的这些过往达成和解。
