The 24-year-old photographer Li Qihang thought his work would be popular, but he didn’t expect it to be so popular. What surprised him even more was that his 68-year-old grandmother would become a “senior face” model sought after by Shakyin netizens. Since he started learning photography, his grandmother is the most important object of photography, large and small cameras, he has left more than 10,000 images for his grandmother.
The first to become popular is a shake called “my grandmother”. The old lady with short floppy hair and a red sweater did not hide every line on her skin when she stood on the rooftop. The video received more than 260,000 likes, some netizens said “beauty never asks for it”, boasting that the grandmother was a person who walked out of a high-fashion show, while others boasted that Li Qihang’s composition and color scheme were all Some people praised Li Qihang’s composition and color scheme as subtle, real and advanced.
Looking back on the inspiration for that shoot, Li Qihang still feels that it was a magical moment – because it was precisely from the moment he realized that “grandma was cool” that he discovered that “grandma was cool”. From the moment he realized that “grandma is cool”, he discovered that family images are not only a kind of record, but also a kind of artistic expression. So, when more young people left home and traveled far away, Li Qihang opened another kind of warm and tender return.
The following is his self-description.
“That second hit me.”
The photo of Grandma wearing a red sweater was taken after New Year’s Day. It was a beautiful day and Grandma had dried vegetables on the rooftop, so I went up to give her a hand. She was walking in front and I was walking behind her, and then when I looked at her through the V-shaped staircase, I suddenly thought her pose was very handsome. It was a subtle feeling, like taking one more look at the crowd. People who do photography are visually sensitive, and I had a strong urge to create at that moment.
Before my parents took me to elementary school in Dongguan, I lived with my grandparents and great-grandmother in rural Huaiji County, Guangdong. As I remember, it was always a quiet summer in the south, and at night, my grandmother would fan me to cool off and tell stories. When the moon was brighter, she would spread the mat on the balcony, and then we would look at the sky and talk there. I don’t remember what was said at that time, but I always remember the feeling that the moon set the night into a cool tone and we were surrounded by warmth.
Later I went to elementary school in Dongguan, and every time I came back from summer and winter vacations, my grandmother would help me make local specialties like pickled beans and pickled radishes, and then take me to pick mountain fruits to eat. Grandma has been farming all her life, and she likes this simple, rustic rural life. After I graduated from the Guangdong Institute of Science and Technology, I worked in the county of Huaiji County and went back to see her from time to time, she always said she wanted to go back to the countryside – my junior year due to school registration back home to junior high school, the family moved to the town. The town was not big, but grandma still felt the noise. She wanted to go back home to plant flowers and vegetables, to have a more leisurely state, not to think too much about material things, and not to communicate with many people. So I later said in the shake, to accompany my grandmother to live the life she wants, is this meaning.
After the video of Grandma wearing a red sweater received unexpected attention, the inspiration for the balloon series soon came again.
Balloons aspire to the sky, a symbol of freedom, and I thought both old people and young girls would be able to collide with it. I ordered the prop first. One day I was riding my motorcycle from town to the countryside, and suddenly I saw a yellow wall next to the sorting center of a vegetable base. I immediately felt that the balloon could be used.
I told my grandmother not to feel that I was shooting her, but to feel that it was my eyes that were looking at her. Sometimes I would show her the moves, sometimes I would compliment her on walking with the wind and making her laugh. In short, it was a companionship first and a photo shoot second.
Grandma knew that these photos would be posted on Shake, so at first she was a little shy and unsure of herself, but I told her that she now has this calm and collected quality that many people don’t have, and that in itself is worthy of confidence. Grandma was convinced by me, and then the shooting straw hat and little red flower series went well.
My grandmother and I received a lot of praise in the shake, but what makes me happiest is that some people say he was healed and inspired, and others say to do what they love, love the people they want to love, and not to hesitate in the future.
“Why not live a more free creative life?”
My decision to go do what I love and love the people I want to love stems from a trip I took in November 2019. At that time in western Sichuan, I thought I was in good physical condition and must not have high reflexes, but I did not expect that in the Milk Sea scenic area in Aden, my headache suddenly intensified and my limbs were so weak that I could not walk one step. I instantly felt the threat of death and began to recall the good things I used to do: the art creation I wanted to do was not yet finished, the people I wanted to take care of were not yet properly cherished …… A scene flashed through my mind, and later when I returned to Guangdong, I did have a great transformation.
I felt a certain calling. At that time I was working in a rose-themed scenic spot in the county, and every day, in addition to taking pictures of different varieties of roses, I was reading a book. Feng Tang’s small poem, “Things That Can’t Be Found,” had a great impact on me. “The courtyard with trees in the back of the sea, the jade with work in the summer generation, the clouds at this moment, you in your twenties. “I thought to myself, yes, I’m in my twenties now, why not live a more free creative life?
Like photography is a high school thing, the initiation from the senior classmate. She was an art student, and once I saw her works in her QQ space, flowers and plants and old people at home, I was shocked at first glance: how can such a messy scene produce such a high level picture? I dove into the world of photography, reading textbooks and masterpieces, and gradually formed my own concept: I do not want too much post-production, what I see, what the work presents; compared to pure documentary photography or art photography, I prefer to do a combination of the two, both in line with the desire to record, but also to express the feeling of the sky inside.
On March 24, I uploaded a video of a grandmother and a swimming ring on ShakeYin, which took this middle path: the swimming ring is very common, but when it is combined with the sky, it can produce the effect of a person swimming in the sky; in addition, the swimming ring is mostly associated with young models, so shooting a grandmother will also have a different tension.
The video received more than 1.19 million likes, and musician Chang Shi Lei left me a message of “Grandma’s love” and added four gestures of hearts. So I think there is no clear standard of beauty, what is in every woman is invisible, it has nothing to do with looks or age, the key is how to discover and how to pass this beauty out in a pleasant way.
“Every family should have its own image of love.”
The success on Shake Shack did bring me some offers for commercial shoots, but I only accepted that one cell phone collaboration. Last December, I decided not to accept any more shooting assignments that were not in my original creative plan, and I stuck to this point on ShakeOut: only share basic photography insights and decline private appointments. So after becoming popular, my grandmother and I have not changed much in our lives. When we woke up this morning, we went to the countryside to sort out the tiles until noon.
Our original idea was to renovate the yard on the farm and move back in. After more than two months of renovation, I finally found out that the village could not be connected to the Internet, so I had to live back in town. Grandma now goes to live in the village for a few days from time to time. She likes to work on the farm, and she is uncomfortable if she doesn’t go to the field one day. She and grandpa are two very different people. He focused on dressing and enjoyment, but she was not. I think the stubbornness and ego that Grandma presents in the camera were also formed in the long collision with Grandpa.
Although Grandma only went to the second grade and did not have too much life experience, she knew how to understand others.
Last summer, when I had just returned from my job, neighbors would ask her, “What is your grandson doing? Loafing and doing nothing all day! ” Grandma would defend me every time: “Everyone has something they want to do, so you should stop talking about him. “
Grandma was such a person, calm on the outside, kind on the inside, with her own ideas. After becoming a “model” for my camera, she became more willing to try new things. She didn’t play with her cell phone or watch TV much, and she was either working alone in the field or silently getting food for the chickens. Now that I am with her from time to time, I have noticed subtle changes in her. For example, when she goes out to meet her relatives and friends, she always chooses her clothes first and matches them well before going out. She has a new understanding of beauty, and I am now helping her to realize that beauty.
My biggest wish now is to give my grandmother a photography exhibition, one because she deserves it, and two because I don’t know which day she will leave and which day I will leave. As I said in my Shake Shack profile, “Every family should have its own image of love”, without a record, there is no existence.
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