Lin Zhipeng (林志鹏), aka 223

Lin Zhipeng is a photographer, curator and freelance writer based in Beijing.
He has contributed to numerous popular lifestyle and fashion magazines in China as editor and writer and has produced photo shoots for magazines such as City Pictorial, Men’s Uno, Coldtea, after17, etc and brands such as United Nude, eno, Converse, etc. He also produced video works such as SANSAR, SCENE, etc. In 2007 he published the independent fashion magazine project TOO and in 2005 and 2006  published two volumes of photography entitled My Private Broadway. His curatorial work includes the exhibitions Eco-matter,(2008) at ARRTCO in Beijing and vision music show Time, Dust, Hormone (2009) at Mao Live House in Beijing.

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2008, Me Party, Songzhuang Art Museum, Beijing, China
2008, Composition In Time, GZOP Lab, Guangzhou, China

Selected Group Exhibitions
2010
Box II: The Cruelty of Youth, White Space Collection, New York, USA

2009
LINEART Fair at Flanders Expo Gent , Belgium
China Now –The Edge of Desire, Max Lang, New York, USA
I, I SEE－ Southern Pocket Film festival, Guangzhou, China

2008
Youth Appearance, 4th Lianzhou International Photography Festival, Lianzhou, China
Metamorphosis – New Generation of Chinese Contemporary Photographers, Art Scene China, Shanghai, China
Hidden Life: Apartment Diary, Lin & Keng Gallery, Beijing, China
FotoGrafia International Festival, Rome, Italy
New Photography In China, City Festival, Hong Kong

2007
Sampling: Chinese Young Photographers, Potential Gallery, Beijing, China
Refresh: Emerging Chinese Artists, touring exhibition, ZendaiMoMA, Shanghai, China; ARARIO Gallery, Beijing, China
Get It Louder Exhibition, touring exhibition, venues in Guangzhou, Shanghai & Beijing

2006
Selfhood – Absent Minded , First Lianzhou International Photography, China

2005
Five New Generation Photographers, Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao, China

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Bibliography
223, My Private Broadway, self published, Guangzhou, 2006
John Millichap (ed), 3030: New Photography in China, 3030 Press, Hong Kong, 2006
Jifan Wong & Cong, I like the city with a bit distance, Rice magazine, July 2006
Joe Magliaro, ‘223’, Theme Magazine, New York, issue 11, fall, 2007
Cynthia,  ‘Creative Forces in Beijing’, Milk, August, 2008
Xu Jinglei, ‘Lin Zhipeng Q&A’, Wallpaper.com, September 25, 2008
Nicki Xiao, ‘The Third Eye on Fashion’, Design 360°, Hong Kong, N.20, March 2009.
Joe Magliaro, ‘223’, Theme Magazine, New York, issue 11, fall, 2007

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Lin, a former magazine editor at Guangzhou’s entertainment tabloid Modern Weekly, named himself “No. 223” after the lovelorn cop played by Takeshi Kaneshiro in Wong Kar-wai’s cult classic Chungking Express. A voracity for international fashion mags led No. 223 to begin snapping his own portraits, turning a Lomo on his circle of friends. Their friendship and desire to see themselves as a part of a global youth culture allowed Lin to capture images that would have been difficult to imagine coming out of China in the not-too-distant past. “A lot of my friends do creative things, so they are probably more open than most. This allows me to photograph them the way I do. They understand what I’m doing,” says Lin.

Magliaro, Joe, ‘223’, Theme Magazine, New York, issue 11, fall, 2007

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“Lin’s works typically have a rough-and-ready feel in which photographic technique is frequently neglected for the sake of compelling immediacy. His subjects seem content to reject all responsibility in pursuit of all-night parties and fashionable indolence.”

Ou Ning, “New Photography and the Media Industry in Guangzhou” in John Millichap, ed., 3030: New Photography in China (Hong Kong: 3030 Press, 2006)

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“Lin’s Works vividly reveal the milieu of the present young generation, which is characterized with a kind of imaginary and whimsical self-entertainment. This is a state of life characterized with consumption, in which they consume both fashion and themselves. He likes to snap the “primary beauty”. This highlighted sense of existential beauty of consuming and being consumed, detached from traditional culture and social common value, is both personal and international – like the web, which is both exhilarating and horrifying.”

Li Xianting, Me Party, exhibition catalogue, Songzhuang Art Museum, Beijing, July, 2008.

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归纳出223的作品主题是：私人派对snap shot，朋友之间刻意的凹造型，富电影剧照感的pose与个别躯体特写。在这些照片之中，“演出”的成分极高，被摄者似乎都有渴望被拍的意识，并且会随手拈来不同的现实道具。顾铮曾评价223的作品没有“通过摄影区别自己与他人的野心”，欧宁则评价“他们不太关心外面的世界，只是沉溺在自我的放纵里，甚至有一点点反智的倾向”。但无论如何，他们都不能否定223的重要性。

李照兴，《潮爆中国》，香港，2008
Bono Lee, Chic China Chic, Hong Kong, 2008

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223’s works explore the new Chinese way of life, allowing the viewer a personal look inside the homes and hang-out spots of teenagers and young adults as they song, smoke, shower, get stoned or brush their teeth. Sometimes they’re naked, still something of a taboo here, but because No.223 self-publishes his photo book, he can fill them with whatever he likes.
Sarah Fakray , “New faces of Beijing”, Dazed&Confused Magazine, London, Issue Dec.2008

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Lin's works, talk about the story about young, or should say about emotion. Emotion to a thing, to a person, to a story, brings out the inspiration, and directs his photographing motif. Technique is always behind. The key is the real feeling. If not being loved of doing one thing, one can only make it incondite and apathetic.
Nicki Xiao, “The Third “Eye” On Fashion”, Design 360° Magazine, Hong Kong, N.20, March 2009