Applauding an unconventional photo artist

Every September, Shanghai becomes a key destination for the international art world, as the entire Asian contemporary art scene comes together during SH Contemporary for the most dynamic art week of the year. Launched in 2007 and with a growing reputation as one of the most prestigious art fair in Asia, it is now the platform for Asian contemporary art attracting the highest number of collectors, art lovers and VIP's from across the world.

SH Contemporary is the perfect response to the demands of the developing international art market. The combination of explosive growth among the wealthy Asian upper middle class and the trend towards Asian contemporary art, have created a market searching for development and enlargement of offer within the Asian Pacific geographical area.

The fair director Massimo Torrigiani is co-founder and director of Boiler Corporation, a publishing company and creative agency focused on contemporary visual arts and culture, which also produces Milan and New York-based Fantom - Photographic Quarterly.

SH Contemporary’s signature promotion of photography finds its space in a small yet excellent group of dedicated galleries and in the 2nd edition of the Asia Pacific Photography Prize (APPP). The 2nd edition of SH Contemporary’s APPP has been awarded to photographer-artist Wen Ling represented by Star Gallery, Beijing by a jury of international artists, editors, curators and critics, including Erik Kessels, Francesco Zanot, Maurizio Anzeri and Peng & Chen.

Trained in printmaking, he adopted photography as his medium of choice after a job as a photographer atJinghua Daily. The post also inspired him to nurture the habit of never leaving the house without his digital camera. This evolved into a lifestyle, and the basis of a longtime project and obsession: his photoblog, Ziboy.com, China' s first photoblog, where he used snapshots style photography to capture the daily life of the people around him, street scenes, classmates and dinners, outdoor concerts, summer games – anything that crossed his path.

Ziboy.com is a visual record of activities for local friends, and for an international audience the first glimpse of an “average” lifestyle through the eyes of a native.