CHINA ISSUE 765 Sep 2019

Zhu Hai is a freelance photographer with over 15 years' professional experience as a visual artist. His photography is tranquil, suggestive with inconspicuous conflict, influenced by paintings and very often blurring the boundaries between abstraction and realism.

In 1990, Zhu Hai attended Hua Dong Shi Fan University to study Fine Art. During that time, one of his oil paintings was chosen for the Academy Award for the first Chinese Oil Painting Biennale. He has since entered numerous exhibitions and art awards. After his graduation, he taught fine art at Shanghai University for seven years before extending his studies in the UK, majoring in Visual Communication.

He was Creative Director for Travel & Leisure China from 2004 to 2011, during which time he constantly travelled around the world, creating numerous cover stories and radical style reports for luxury resorts, hotels and restaurants. Zhu Hai left the magazine to become a freelance artist once again, mainly working in photography.

His unique pictorial style with mysterious, very often dramatic lighting and unexpected composition has won him major recognition from magazines such as Elle Deco and AD, as well as clients like Four Seasons Hotels.

Zhu Hai is currently based in Shanghai and represented by D'ELE MANAGEMENT.