Peikwen Cheng

Burning Man, Nevada

Peikwen Cheng (b. 1975, USA) is a self-taught photographer and visual artist based in Beijing, China.  His work has been exhibited in Cambodia, Canada, China, Greece, Poland, Singapore, Sweden, Syria, United Kingdom and United States.  He was recently selected for Flash Forward – recognizing emerging photographers from Canada, UK and USA – as well as for Singapore’s photography biennial SIPF 2010.  Peikwen holds a degree in Product Design from Stanford University.

About the Photograph:

“In 2000, I journeyed to the Black Rock Desert of Nevada to a pre-historic lake bed, ringed by mountains.  It is at a strikingly beautiful place, yet incredibly inhospitable place plagued by alkaline dust storms.  Each year a spontaneous community gathers for one week to share, build, participate and then disappear.  Creativity is abound and caution is tossed to the wind.  People realize their random dreams/whims/etc, no matter how nonsensical they may be in the real world. It is this idea of realizing dreams that has been incredibly inspiring to me and has propelled me to tackle challenging projects, including this series Lost and Found (2000-2010).”

“In this image Lamp Mobile, I often get asked if it’s shot in China.  With the filtered light and bicycles, it could be…until you realize there is a cyclist dressed as a cow, a 75 foot long dragon vehicle that shoots fire at night in the background, and a lamp mobile whimsically hanging in the foreground.  This photo was not digitally manipulated and captures the dreams and creations of other people (doctors, lawyers, artists included) being realized. “