is now a professional portrait photographer based in China, but she was once a photography student living in Paris, making barely enough money to cover her tuition and living expenses. That is perhaps why she was inspired to take this image.
After a decade learning the ropes in France, she returned to China to become an imaging product manager for Vivo, a smartphone brand. In 2020, she was working as an art director on an ad shoot. “There was a scene that took place on a bus with our brand ambassador Liu Wen, who is regarded as China’s first supermodel,” she says. “She had just finished her take and was leaving the set with the supporting models when I noticed that one girl remained seated.”
Cheen said the girl looked tired and pensive. It was an expression she recognised from her own past. “She reminded me of my time studying in Paris, when I took part in fashion shows as a photographer. It looked so glamorous, but it was exhausting,” Cheen says.
When I ask Cheen about the second figure in the shot – a teddy bear prop one of the other models had left behind – she tells me that nobody has ever inquired about it before. “Perhaps that’s because you are British. My aunt’s family live in the UK and my cousin has many teddy bears, so I can understand the feelings of warmth they evoke.”
Does Cheen have any teddy bears herself? “One,” she says. “At my home in Paris.”
