Accomplished adventurer and photographer, Stefen Chow (born in 1980 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) started being interested in photography when he was a climbing member of a team scaling Mount Everest in 2005.At first trained in Mechanical Engineering and then in Photography, this young photographer – based between Beijing and Singapore – has already been awarded several prizes and collaborated with international companies.
Chow has already created a large body of works composed of a variety of genres that he particularly likes to mingle together. His continuous curiosity and desire for knowledge allow him to create each time unique series of photographs. Chow believes in multi-genre photography. He grew up being very influenced clearly by some great photographers (such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Ansel Adams among others) while blending editorial, commercial and other genre together.
Among several series, one is particularly worth paying attention to: The Poverty Line. Started in November 2010, The Poverty Line is an ongoing visual project – in collaboration with the economist Lin Hui-yi – that contextualizes poverty across five continents. At first Chow and Lin expected it to be a one off project. But in light of peoples’ initial reactions they decided to think how they could possibly expand it, and they eventually ended up covering both developing and developed countries. For instance a few months ago Chow covered the United Kingdom.
They have not considered thus far to put a deadline to The Poverty Line for they also see the significance of doing such visual and economic study over time. Although Chow believes this project “has its own agenda”, he never loses track of the main objectives: to maintain consistent methodology in photography and calculations, and create works that are useful, that are beyond being just aesthetic. Nevertheless it seems The Poverty Line series shows strong aesthetic qualities while asking a very simple question: “what does it mean to be poor?”. Between data visualization and photography, Chow’s artworks portray food items that poor people can afford per day.
Thus far Chow and Lin received extensive recognition for their Poverty Line. Among their impressive achievements they participated in TEDxShanghai in 2012, and they recently have been announced as finalists for Hong Kong based WYNG foundation Masters Award and will be speaking at Art Stage Singapore on one of their special programmes.
