My name is Dandan Geng , I was born and raised in Beijing, China. I currently study photography in San Francisco at the Academy of Art University.
At an early age, I showed great enthusiasm for art, especially painting. I discovered photography in the first year of middle school. Since then, taking photos quickly became my favorite hobby and consumed virtually all my spare time. Whenever I felt depressed, frustrated or desperate about life, I resorted to photography in order to relieve the uneasiness I have within me. So after graduating from college, I decided to seriously pursue a career in photography. Though I do like use my camera to record whatâ??s happening in the normal life, the mood moment or the little beautiful things, but my favorite style is to create a dramatic scenes .I want use my camera as the writer uses the pen, show the stories of my heart and capture the imaginations of my mind. All of my photos have a story behind, I am just like a director but use my own way show to the viewers. While taking pictures, I carry my passion about life with me. I wish to be honest, creative, and brave in my photography.
Those are two important photographers influence me very much:
Cartier-Bresson(1908â??2004) is the first person to inspire me to take photography seriously. He taught me how to find profound meanings in simple images of everyday life, how to capture true feelings in an honest and candid way, and how to treat photography with a peaceful and persistent mind.
Diane Arbus (1923 â?? 1971) is my idol. Her black and white portraits and her own tragic life have been the major influence to me as a photographer. Different to Cartier-Bresson, who inspires me in a rational and thoughtful manner, Arbus, as a female photographer, is strongly connected with me at an emotional and sentimental level. I still remember the poignant feeling I had when I saw her pictures the first time as if I heard a howl from a desperate woman struggling with her life that cut straight into my heart. She captured the cruelty of life in the most honest and direct way without any filters. The sadness, depression, and craziness in her photos are so powerful that it's almost unbearable to watch. It empowers me to deal with the problems in my own life, because compared to the deviant and marginal people in her photos, the difficulties I have are so trivial. I also admire that despite her lacking of social skills It gave souls to her images.
I really like what Billy Jay and David Hurn said, and I will try my best to get thereï¼?
â??The best pictures, for me, are those which go straight into the heart and the blood, and take some time to reach the brainâ??.
