Meet Qing MA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Qing MA.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Qing. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I have been immersed in a prevailing artistic atmosphere during my growth. Since very early childhood, I have been keen on painting under the influence of my grandfather as a painter. My cousin, who majored in Fashion Design for undergraduate program, has also sparked my interest in arts in her practices on fashion drawing. Most importantly, my father, a photography shutterbug, has headed me to the path of photography and gifted me a camera in my fifth grade at primary school. With the camera at hand for shooting casually, I discovered that a variety of shooting angles would create totally different sentiments. With a great affection in photography, I was willing to make friends with a similar interest and keep company to shoot here and there. Once when I took pictures on streetscapes with a friend, I was amazed at his professional equipment. Instead of any explanations, he questioned me; “why not expect perfection since you have spent much time on it?” That, for the first time, inspired me to make extensive and professional explorations on photography.

Correspondingly, I selected a minor in Art Design during my undergraduate period. Apart from devoting myself to the major of Accounting at Donghua University, I also attended a series of artistic lectures including Creative Sketch, Watercolor, Picture Photography, Computer Graphic Design and Illustration. Among these courses, the Picture Photography marked my favorite as I have mastered basic technologies and an overall knowledge framework on photography. In the meanwhile, I accessed to tremendous renowned masterpieces to broaden my insight and began to adopt single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera for professional shooting. Besides, I posted my pictures on the internet with an expectation of getting feedbacks and suggestions to sharpen my skills. With my competence continuously enhancing, there have been increasing people asking me for shooting with payment after having witnessed my products on the internet. This experience has greatly triggered my sense of accomplishment and willingness of developing into a professional photographer rather than an interest holder.

With a clear knowledge on the importance of real-life practice, I took active part in various activities in my spare time, including participation in the Modern Sky, in the MBA Education Center of Donghua University, in the Zhifan Designer, in the Mei.Com, as well as in the Tianjin Tianbing Photography Studio. Here I would like to make a specific elaboration on my experience in the Zhifan Designer, where I have been in charge of the 2015 Autumn & Winter publicity photos and the 2016 Spring & Summer look book on its original designer brands. Actually, I felt nervous facing the invitation on the look book shooting. With little relevant experience and systemic guidance in this area previously, I highly cherished this challenge with great endeavor, covering consulting various experienced photographers on shooting guidance and lighting, discussing the design concepts with designers in order to melt their design inspirations into my products, as well as working out detailed shooting scheme based on tremendous researches on sceneries and angles. Finally, the shooting has been considered as an outstanding success, with many pictures adopted in the poster and published in the Life Weekly.

I have got into the photography MFA program in ASU since 2017. Right now I’m working on a long-term project that has to do with Chinese pop culture and beauty culture. Since China is a country that known for its thousand-year history. It’s such a great excitement for me to explore the cultural possibilities in the future for my mother country.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has never been a smooth road. You have to go through plenty of self-doubt and self-deny along the way of making creative works. Cause I have never felt satisfied with my work and always wanted to push it forward.

At the same time, the conflicting inside me brings the struggles too. Since my work mostly either base on my own story, or the profound humane phenomenon that I really care about. Every time I reflect on creating a new piece of work, I feel so excited and hesitated.

We’d love to hear more about your work.
My determination in pursuing photography as my career has been gradually consolidated in line with continuously stronger competence. As to my future, I have mapped it out clearly. In the short run, I expect to strive for a seasoned and specialized guidance so as to make up with unsubstantial theoretical basis. I firmly believe that a combination between theoretical approach and real-world practice would promote mutual acceleration and make a speed-up progress in photography. After completing my study, I hope to become a commercial photographer with artistic and creative thoughts. In the long run, I would like to turn into a fashion photographer after years of accumulation in commercial shooting.

My diligence in accounting for undergraduate program has equipped me with a rational thinking pattern. Different from most artists, I shall try to combine aesthetic and authentic perspectives in shooting so as to arouse people’s in-depth thoughts on social phenomena via charming and creative element.

What do you love about our city and what do you dislike?
I like the sunset in our city. It’s the most beautiful thing in the world.

What do I like least? The never-ending road work.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.chingchingma.com
• Email: chingchingma94@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chingching_ma/

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