Photographer Celine Liu Photoshops Herself In Images Of Celebrities Found On The Internet
Celine Liu – is a female Chinese photographer who graduated from the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University. In her series “I’m everywhere” started in 2002, she challenges our global cultural landscape by literally integrating herself in iconic portraits in the history of photography. Moving beyond time and space, Liu is portrayed next to famous figures in history, such as Pablo Picasso, Charlie Chaplin, Mao Zedong, Marilyn Monroe, and Andy Warhol.
Her creative process is twofold: she first searches for portraits on the Internet that appeal to both Chinese and Western audiences; she then edits the portrait by pasting herself in and upload it back to the internet. In doing so, she raises concerns about the irrational worship of celebrities while considering the functions of photographic images nowadays. She won the Jimei x Arles Discovery Award in 2016 and was exhibited at the Rencontres d’Arles in 2017.
“The film “Lucy” conveys the following truth: once a person’s intelligence develops beyond 100%, the body, which serves as the intelligence-bearing vehicle, will turn to ashes. The descriptive capacity of “I am everywhere” surmounts temporal and geographic constraints, and at this point, a person transforms into a “god”. When material media can no longer bear the energy of information, the form of the medium will similarly dissipate. In this way, the image is chock full of “everywhere”—it has immense energy, but is also hugely false; it is the end but also the origin. Every time we take a photograph and share it, it is like a ritual or ceremony. We are lost in this irrational worship, meanwhile emitting an entirely new version of ourselves, or, say we are releasing our pent-up selves; such a process expels the fear and helplessness of the environment, and the original but disordered environment maybe also gives us the freedom and opportunity to reselect our fate,” she said.
