Limited-Edition Photograph by Shen Wei

"I have created a series of still-life photographs depicting fruits and vegetables bought from the Green Carts, focusing on the simple beauty of the food along with the labels, boxes, and other packing. My idea is to show how produce sold in a humble way on the street is equally enticing to that which is bought in expensive stores with cleverly designed marketing."
—Shen Wei

Aperture is excited to offer this limited-edition print by Shen Wei, one of five emerging artists selected by Aperture for the NYC Green Cart Photography Commission. These photographers were given the opportunity to document the NYC Green Cart Initiative, a program that provides fresh fruits and vegetables to underserved urban communities. Each photographer approached this project from a different point of view, offering a unique perspective of the Green Cart program. The images have also been curated into an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York titled Moveable Feast: Fresh Produce and the NYC Green Cart Program. Both the exhibition and the commission were made possible with the generous support of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund.

Shen Wei (Born 1977, Shanghai, China) is a fine art photographer currently based in New York City. Shen's photographs have been widely exhibited, with venues including the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Massachusetts; the Australian Center for Photography, Paddington; the Seattle Center on Contemporary Art; Kunst Licht Gallery, Shanghai; and the Saatchi Gallery for the Zoo Art Fair, London. His photographs have been featured in various publications, including American Photo, Chinese Photography, Photo District News, Photo Review, Life Magazine (China), China Photo Press, and La Tempestad. Shen is a recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Creative Artist Residency, the 2007 Griffin Award from the Griffin Museum of Photography, the 2008 Urban Artist Initiative New York City Fellowship, and Manhattan Community Arts Fund Grants in 2007 and 2008. Shen was named one of the fifteen "new generation of photo pioneers" by American Photo in 2007, and was also part of PDN’s annual "30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch" list in 2008. Shen holds an MFA in photography, video, and related media from the School of Visual Arts, New York; a BFA in photography from Minneapolis College of Art and Design; and a BA in decorative arts and design from Shanghai Light Industry College. A solo show Chinese Sentiment will be on view at Daniel Cooney Fine Art, New York, through June 4, 2011.

>Visit Wei's website

>More info

>More about Green Cart

>Visit the Green Cart exhibition