Interview | Ci Song
Song Ci is a talented photographer and director based in Beijing, China, specializing in portrait and still life photography. Holding a Master of Fine Arts in Photographic Creation and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Commercial Photography, both from the Beijing Film Academy, Song aims to utilize the two-dimensional plane of photography to cinematically express the three-dimensional complexities of character dilemmas and emotional changes. By capturing moments charged with conflict, Song's work freezes narrative and dramatic tensions within the frame.
Song Ci's distinctive approach has led to exhibitions at various national and international photo festivals, including the 4th National Youth Photography Exhibition and the Pingyao International Photography Festival. Accolades include the Gold Award at Beijing Fashion Week's Photography Competition and selection as one of the top ten outstanding works at the Pingyao International Film Festival. Song has also collaborated commercially with major brands such as Apple, Xiaomi, and Vivo. Through his lens, Song continues to explore and capture the intricate human experiences and stories that resonate across cultures.
10 Questions with Artist Ci Song
May 2, 2024
Q1. Can you share with us your journey into becoming a photographer and director, and what inspired you to pursue such a diverse career path?
For me, this journey began with a deep interest in visual storytelling. I was fortunate to choose a profession that I truly love and am willing to dedicate my life to—photography—starting from university. Taking pictures with a camera has always been a very enjoyable experience for me. You never know what the next shot will capture when you press the shutter button, and that feeling of uncertainty fascinates me.
In the early years of learning photography, the subjects I studied, encountered, and practiced were mainly commercial portraits and still life, which gave me a relatively solid foundation in basic skills. In commercial photography, the world is like a huge canvas, where lighting, locations, models, and so on are controlled. As long as you visualize the scene in your mind beforehand, it's like being a director, gradually realizing and reproducing the images in your mind. I love and am used to the feeling of "having everything under control," and I enjoy the sense of security that this approach brings. I admire the works of Tim Walker, and the feeling of being able to construct my own worldview through directing and realizing it is amazing. So when I was working on my undergraduate graduation project, I chose to use staged photography techniques to create a series of contemporary fairy tales in my mind. During the shooting process, I realized that I enjoyed and appreciated the feeling of being a director, assembling an entire team, controlling all the details of the images, and communicating with the models... I was never tired of it. This planted a seed in my heart, and I really wanted to try directing in the future.
The Fairy Godmother's Rental Shop, Photography, 2020
During my master's degree, I began to explore a completely different direction in photography—documentary. When I moved away from studios, models, and flashlights to the dynamic world and people, when you never know what moment the next shutter will capture, when the subjects change from professional models to ordinary people, the positions and angles of your shots also determine their state when facing the camera. How to capture the most authentic emotions of the moment or how to reflect your understanding of the photo became the primary considerations. Documentary photography made me rethink my understanding of and approach to photography. Initially, I felt a bit lost, but after delving into documentary subjects for a while, I gradually fell in love with this feeling. In my daily street photography, I prefer shooting panoramic views, liking how people become small and quiet in the vast panorama. Often, friends would comment that I stood too far away and captured too much in the frame, but I truly enjoy observing individuals appearing small and calm in the broad view, capturing the feeling of haste in this vast world like me.
However, after graduating from my master's degree, I began to think about the direction of my future work. I was not satisfied with just creating static images. Due to my love for commercial work, I decided to start trying advertising photography, as an advertising director. Becoming a photographer and director is a long journey for many people, involving self-discovery and technical refinement. From early exploration to finally deciding to follow this path, every step confirms my love for artistic expression and visual storytelling.
Today, my primary identity is a commercial still photographer and advertising director, but I have also started to explore more documentary subjects. I believe that documentary photography is a direct dialogue with the real world, while commercial photography creates a new and desirable ideal world. I have deep affection for both forms of photography because, for me, whether it's creating or documenting, it's my way of communicating with the world.
Q2. Your photographic works convey a strong sense of staging and drama. How has your training and experience in film direction influenced your approach to photography and your overall creative process?
In fact, I became a photographer before becoming an advertising director. But I believe that both identities have had a significant impact on my creative process. As a photographer, I pay special attention to composition and overall aesthetics in advertising creation. I pay attention to the sense of order within the frame and have my own grasp of static images and aesthetics. My background as an advertising director has indeed influenced my photographic works. In the advertising field, I learned how to tell a story in a limited time, which made me more focused on capturing moments that can immediately attract the audience and tell a story during photography. This sense of drama and stage presence is a way for me to immerse the audience in the scene, making them feel like they are part of the story.
Dorothy‘s Childhood, Photography, 2021
Q3. You have worked with brands like Apple, Xiaomi, and Vivo. Can you discuss a particular commercial project that you found challenging and how you overcame those challenges?
Collaborating with well-known brands is always challenging, and it has led me to engage in various types and themes of productions, as well as participate in interesting and novel projects in different roles. Although I am a photographer, I would like to share two directorial cases that may seem unrelated to photography. One particularly challenging project was the "Nebula" campaign shot for Apple. At that time, I was still a student, and when I learned that the content I shot would be the first batch of videos to be released when Apple registered its official account on Douyin in China, and "Shot on iPhone" had always been important content for Apple, I was really nervous. And, it had to be completed within a very tight timeframe. I thought about many themes, but ultimately, out of my love for romantic cosmos, stars, and nebulae, I chose to capture microscopic chemical reactions, focusing on a theme of "creating a blockbuster at home." I used various media such as paint, ink, glitter, alcohol, milk, and baking soda to create chemical reactions, resulting in dazzling images resembling cosmic nebulae even in small trays. Strictly speaking, the creation of this video was different from before. In the past, we would collaborate as a team to complete a video, but this video was essentially completed independently by me. Even though I was the director and photographer of this video, I did more art and chemistry experiments, as well as thinking about editing. This honed my comprehensive abilities, equipped me with unique skills, and I learned a lot during this shoot, especially about fluid painting. I still remember that my hands were stained with acrylics, ink, and other pigments, and I couldn't wash them off for a month, and I even ruined several pieces of clothing. But in the end, seeing the finished product being loved by people made it all worth it.
Another project was one of the most important projects for Bilibili, a well-known platform in China—producing a music video for the graduation song, which was a collaboration with the famous Chinese singer Wu Qingfeng. The production time for this video was very short. I came up with the concept within 2 hours, using stop-motion animation + AI + collage to produce this MV, and the client directly approved the proposal. This was my first time working with stop-motion animation, which was really challenging but fun. To shoot the stop-motion animation part of this video, I didn't sleep for nearly 40 hours. During the editing stage, I only slept for 1-2 hours a day, but I finally managed to get the video successfully online. And the video has now reached over 8.83 million views, which makes me very proud.
Q4. Your project "From Now On, They Lived Happily Ever After" (从此，她们过上了幸福的生活) reimagines traditional fairy tales in contemporary society. What motivated you to explore this concept?
Since childhood, I've been deeply fascinated by fairy tales. The positive characters who almost always receive help when facing difficulties, the villains who always meet a bad end, and the mostly happy endings have instilled in me a longing and desire for such a world. However, as I grew older, I gradually realized that the "laws" in these fairy tales are not always applicable in today's society. In today's world, while the beauty described in fairy tales exists, it is also filled with deceit. Not every ugly duckling turns into a swan, and not everyone who eats a "poisoned apple" will be rescued by a prince. This led me to ponder: If the characters from those fairy tales lived in modern times, what kind of lives would they lead? In a society dominated by materialism, would they still uphold the choices of truth, goodness, and beauty as depicted in fairy tales?
Poisoned Apples, Photography, 2020
So, I decided to create a series of fairy tales set in contemporary society, addressing current social issues. By extracting and deconstructing elements and plots from traditional fairy tales, I aim to subvert the notions of good and evil and beauty and ugliness present in the originals. With "From Now On, They Lived Happily Ever After" as the theme, I set out to capture my thoughts and ideas that I had been contemplating for years.
Q5. In your work "Heavenly Craftsmen - Coffin Factories in Cao County" (天堂工匠——曹县棺材厂), you chose to focus on the coffin industry in Cao County, which is a significant exporter of coffins to Japan and other countries. What drew you to this particular subject, and what message did you hope to convey through documenting the workers and their environment in the coffin factory?
I was drawn to the story of the coffin factories in Cao County because it's a world hidden from everyday sight yet an integral part of our culture. This series was my graduate project, and at the beginning of my second year of graduate school, I chose Cao County as my shooting location. Initially, I intended to focus on the clothing factories in Cao County. One day, my advisor sent me a piece of news highlighting how the coffin making industry in Cao County was highly developed, mainly exporting to Japan and other countries. She suggested I visit a coffin factory; she believed it might be a more meaningful topic. Intrigued, I researched and discovered that Cao County was a major exporter of coffins to Japan, owing to its ample wood resources, complete production lines, and efficient workers. More than 90% of the coffins needed in Japan are ordered from Zhuangzhai Town, Cao County, every year. In addition to Japanese coffins, many factories produce coffins for export to Europe, America, and other countries. So, I decided to visit the factory and was immediately struck by everything I saw, thus deciding to make the coffin factory my shooting theme.
A worker who carves wooden boards, Photography, 2023
Through these images, I hope to convey the dignity of life and how death is understood and accepted differently across cultures. Initially, I chose to be a silent observer, quietly lurking in the world of the craftsmen, hiding myself, and capturing many purely documentary images. However, upon reviewing the photos, I felt that pure documentary images were not powerful enough; they lacked a strong sense of form and did not highlight the craftsmen enough. After careful consideration, I decided to invite the craftsmen to stand with the coffins in their work environment, capturing portraits of them alongside their work. Before shooting, I would still observe silently and strike up a conversation when I encountered someone I wanted to photograph. When I felt the timing was right, I would invite them to look directly at my camera for a "group photo." For the sake of consistency and ceremony in the photos, I mostly chose panoramic views to record.
While shooting, as I watched the gentle light caress the edges of the coffins and saw tiny wood chips and dust float in the air, Chinese craftsmen polished portraits of the Virgin Mary, touched the patterns on Japanese coffins, and looked at the quiet rows of coffins in the spacious factory, the woody scent mingling in the air... My mind would wander uncontrollably as I took photos, pondering the final destination of these coffins, what kind of lives their occupants had, and even frequently contemplating the meaning of life itself.
I plan to continue this project as a long-term endeavor, as I believe the photos I've taken so far are still too shallow and not deep enough. Perhaps I won't limit myself to environmental portraits in the future but will delve deeper into communicating with and understanding the craftsmen, capturing more profound works.
Coloring the coffin, Photography, 2023
Q6. The coffin industry is often associated with death and mourning, yet your work aims to humanize the craftsmen behind it. Can you share your thoughts on the importance of showing the dignity and respect these workers bring to their craft, especially in the context of creating the final resting place for individuals they have never met?
It is very meaningful to portray the craftsmen in the Cao County coffin factories through the lens, recreating the story of how they hold the "final ritual" for strangers with their own hands. Death is like a dense rain, and the full feeling of sadness about death always becomes more complete over time. A coffin represents the dignity of the deceased and also symbolizes a family's respect for the deceased and their sincere treatment of life. Whether it's the crosses on European and American coffins or the exquisite embroidery on Japanese coffins, the details of the coffins evoke a sense of solemnity, gentleness, and delicacy in the humanistic understanding of this ritual across different countries. And these Chinese craftsmen in small county towns, through their skilled hands, transcend mountains, seas, cultural differences, and language barriers, using coffins as carriers to provide support for overseas "funeral rituals." It is crucial to show the dignity of these workers because it reminds us that even in such an industry closely related to death, there is still humanity and commitment. These craftsmen serve strangers, and their craftsmanship and commitment to quality reflect how we respect the end of life.
A small cane placed in a Japanese coffin, Photography, 2023
Q7. Your projects often convey strong social messages. Why have you chosen to use your art as a medium to comment on societal issues?
Art is often considered a direct expression of emotion and thought. I choose to comment on societal issues through art because it can transcend the boundaries of language and culture, directly touching people's hearts, and providing a space for dialogue and reflection, which is an essential step in effecting social change.
Q8. Can you share some of the key experiences or influences in your life that have shaped your artistic style, and how do you hope your work impacts or resonates with your audience?
There are many experiences that have shaped my artistic style, from early exposure to movies and photography books to collaborations with various creative individuals. Every trip, every movie, every book has somehow influenced my visual language and the stories I want to tell. My favorite photographers are Tim Walker and Rinko Kawauchi. Tim Walker is the photographer who has had the most profound influence on me. I remember feeling electrified the first time I saw Tim Walker's work; before that, I had no idea photography could be done like this. His work is full of astonishing imagination and beauty. Every time I see his work, the phrase "Tim Walker's fantasy has become an interesting mirror image of the entire fashion industry - capturing the dreams of youth and imagination, a cheeky whistle to beauty, nobility, and maturity" always comes to mind. His meticulous control of the image, his perfect pursuit of detail and light, his perfect presentation of creativity, and the expressions hidden in his works are all areas where I have much to learn. That's also why I chose to shoot fairy tale projects using cinematographic techniques. On the other hand, Rinko Kawauchi's delicate imagery constantly reminds me to view the world with a more subtle perspective, to live more delicately, to have a more unique perspective, and to view every aspect of life more artistically.
Q9. Are there any new themes or concepts you are currently exploring or planning to explore in your future projects?
In future projects, I have three directions I want to try creating. First is fashion photography; I want to shoot a series of large-scale magazine shoots. Second is planning to shoot a series exploring the relationship between dreams and reality, using cinematic techniques for staged photography. Third is to continue shooting the coffin factory project and the dark fairy tale project.
Worker and Coffins, Photography, 2023
Q10. What are your long-term goals as a photographer and director? How do you see your work evolving in the coming years?
My long-term goal as a photographer and director is to continue creating thought-provoking works, inspiring audiences to see our world in new ways, and hoping to maintain my passion for photography. For me now, I can always look forward to the next moment when the shutter captures the image. The genuine love for photography within me fills my heart with strength and joy whenever I lift the camera. I hope that in the coming years, I can use new technologies and media to push my work to new boundaries while continuing to resonate with audiences visually and emotionally.