ExclusiveChen Man: China’s answer to Annie Leibovitz aims to elevate tech to an art form with her Big Shot video app
- Chen’s artistic background has inspired her to develop a video-editing app for China’s middle classes to produce professional ‘life moments’
It is not every day that a founder of a tech start-up lists enlightenment as one of its goals. But Chen Man is no ordinary start-up founder. Not yet 40, she has been China’s top fashion photographer for the past decade and worked with A-list stars from pop diva Faye Wong to actress Fan Bingbing.
Chen was taking a swig of warm water to wash down her daily dose of vitamins when the South China Morning Post visited her two-storey studio on the eastern outskirts of Beijing one recent autumn afternoon. The mother of two had just come back from an assignment in New Zealand.
What followed was not a typical interview with a tech start-up founder by any means.
For one, arranging a photography shoot meant carving out an entire morning or afternoon from her packed schedule, because she needed time for make-up and styling. Ditto the suggestion of doing a video shoot using the Big Shot app. In the end, the timings proved too difficult to coordinate, so we settled on a face-to-face meeting, no photos or videos, and she promised to send some images that could be used.