Jiaxi & Zhe

Jiaxi & Zhe are a still life and architecture photography duo based in New York City. The pair share a profound obsession with the physical form of objects, and the transformative effect that photography has on their personal perception of things. They both believe that photography is the best medium to express their ideas, recognizing it as an unrivaled platform from which to convey their conceptual world to an audience.

位于纽约市的摄影二人组 Jiaxi & Zhe 以拍摄静物和建筑为主，他们都着迷于对象的物理形态，喜欢通过自己的观察和理解，用摄影镜头呈现出事物的不同之面。二人认为摄影是表达他们想法的最佳媒介，是向他人传递他们概念世界的绝佳平台。

Jiaxi Yang was born in Shanghai, and later moved to New York to study at the International Center of Photography; while Zhe Zhu comes from Shenzhen, and graduated from New York’s School of Visual Arts. The pair have both enjoyed successful solo photography careers, but later decided to join forces artistically after working together on a project. Charmed to discover that they have very similar tastes, they view themselves as stylistic soul mates. They describe their creative partnership as being consistently constructive. “We have learned a lot from working together and we continue to learn more,” they say. “But most importantly, we have learnt to respect each other’s ideas and always be open.”

Jiaxi Yang 生于上海，后前往纽约国际摄影中心深造；Zhe Zhu来自深圳，毕业于纽约视觉艺术学院。二人先前各自在个人的摄影事业中如鱼得水，而后通过一个项目的合作，决定在创作上携手并进。共同的审美追求，让二人视彼此为风格语境下的灵魂伴侣。他们表示二人的这段创意伙伴关系向来充满着建设性。“我们在一起工作时都会相互学习，收获良多，并会继续下去，”他们表示，“但是最重要的是，我们学会了尊重各自的想法，也懂得了培养一种更为开放的艺术态度。”

As a duo, they are gradually defining and evolving their style. They have always been interested in design and craft, the rawness of material, and the physical forms of objects, which naturally led them to start photographing still life and architecture with a very distinct design aesthetic. They also admit, “We are both a little shy, so we love being able to spend time with objects to find the best light and angle.” Coming from backgrounds in fine art, they naturally want to maintain a conceptual, minimal approach to their editorial and commercial work. Their sleek, striking images are a stunning reflection of their combined vision.

作为一个二人组合，他们正在不断地确立并发展其风格。他们一直对设计、工艺、材料的原生状态和物体的物理形态充满了兴趣，自然地，他们开始把镜头对准了静物和建筑，表现出一种独树一帜的设计美学。同时，他们坦言：“我们都有点怯生，所以喜欢与物为伴，寻找到最佳光线和角度。”纯艺术的学科背景，让他们自然而然地在编辑性和商业作品里，去保持一种概念性和极简主义的表现方式。他们那些流畅又夺目的影像，正是二人视觉组合的极好映射。

Usually using the same Phase One camera and lens, their creative process is very organic and they regularly improvise on set. Although they do a lot of prep work prior to a shoot they are wary of sets that are too tailor-made or stiff, so try to let things take shape in a natural fashion. They have partially split their roles: Jiaxi is particularly good at art direction, while Zhe is better with the more technical side of things, yet both agree never to rely on post-production to make an image visually compelling or bold.

他们通常使用的是飞思的相机和镜头，创作过程相当有机，常常现场即兴发挥。虽然他们在拍摄前都会做大量的准备工作，但是他们也会谨防拍摄过程变得太过量化和呆板，旨在使作品呈现出拍摄对象最自然的形态。为了更好地合作，他们也有所侧重地进行了大致的分工：嘉茜侧重于艺术向，Zhe更擅长技术性，但是他们又在后期制作上达成共识，认为绝不可依赖其去让一张照片夺人眼球。

Although their work is often conceptual, dealing with block colors, shapes and the interplay of light, they argue that lighting is no longer the most important factor in photography. They take a lot of inspiration from their surroundings in New York City – a place that is full of creative people pushing them to involve themselves in order to be competitive and relevant. They are engaged in a number of interesting projects, such as a recent commission from Fortune Magazine and they also shot a story for Wallpaper last month while visiting L.A. Although they agree that lighting is instrumental in photography for setting the mood, their perception of modern still life photography is much less technical and formal, and much more visually interesting and conceptual. For Jiaxi & Zhe, concept and style is becoming more important today than ever before.

尽管，在处理色彩碰撞、形态呈现和光影交织上，他们的作品常常很概念性；但是，他们认为光影不再是摄影最重要的因素。浸润于纽约文艺圈，他们没少受到启发，这个聚集无数创意人才之地也在不断推动他们的进步和提升，以提升其竞争力和影响力。他们还参与了不少有趣的项目，比如近期来自《财富》杂志的一个项目，以及上个月去洛杉矶时为《Wallpaper》杂志拍摄的一个故事。即使他们认同光影在摄影中对制造氛围的辅助作用，但是他们理解的当代静物摄影中，已经更少关乎技术和教条，更多的是视觉上的趣味和理念的延伸。两人都表示，当前的摄影，理念和风格比以往任何一个时期都要更重要。