In honor of International Women's Day I'm looking at the collaboration between MAC and cutting-edge Chinese photographer Chen Man. Based on the dual themes of love and water, the collection features bright pink and blue/aqua hues.
According to The Daily Glow, the Chinese symbol for love appears in Chen Man's calligraphy on the outer packaging, while the "swirls of color in the eye shadow duos represent the opposing forces of yin and yang, reflecting the Buddhist references that are often found in Man's work." Additionally, in a video MAC produced for the collection, Chen Man asserts that water "is the beginning of the earth…just one drop represents life." She goes on to say that "water gives birth to love".
(images from glamfull.com)
Chen Man was born in 1980 in Beijing and studied graphic design and photography at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. What's equally impressive as her skill behind the camera is her mastery of the post-production process – she regularly uses 3-D rendering and other techniques to attain the unique vision she has for her photos. You can read more about her in this Vogue article from February 2012:
Let's take a peek at some of her other work. Chen Man got her start by shooting the very avant-garde covers for Chinese lifestyle magazine Vision from 2003-2007. For me, these were shocking (and I've seen many magazine beauty spreads) and at first I couldn't tell whether I liked them. Then I started noticing the many tiny details and use of color, and decided that Chen Man is indeed quite talented.
(images from insomni-art.com)
(image from chenmaner.com)
For the Chinese New Year Chen Man shot the spring covers for UK magazine I-D, celebrating the diversity of Chinese beauty".
(image from the bohmerian.com)
While Chen Man is known for her boundary-pushing images, she is just as adept at producing simpler, more traditionally "pretty" looks.
(images from mymodernmet.com)
After seeing some of her other photos I wish the MAC collection had been a little more fearless. I guess to appeal to a mass audience they couldn't go quite as avant-garde, but it would have been interesting if Chen Man had done something more along the lines of her Vision covers. I also think the packaging could have been more interesting – while the outer boxes had some design to them, the makeup items themselves could have been more flamboyant and artsy.
What do you think of Chen Man's work and the MAC collaboration?