Michael Anti for Deutsche Welle

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to photograph one of China’s leading characters from the blogosphere, Michael Anti. Anyone familiar with this sphere will know about Michael’s writings about freedom of the press in China.

Our shoot was part of the Deutsche Welle ‘BOBs’, the organisation’s blog awards focusing on ‘the world’s digital revolutionaries’ who are writing about freedom of speech in their countries across the world.

The shoot consisted of setting Michael in an ‘urban’ setting, according to the brief. We actually decided to head to the 798 art district which provided plenty of interesting backdrops that we could experiment with. We were looking for a rebellious feeling to the images, hence the inclusion of spray cans and masks into the picture coupled with the ‘rough’ backdrops. The graffiti and paint on the can were added later in post-production, to create the final picture and effect.

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