Project LV
December 2008
This is a set of photographs with people carrying / holding / wearing famous French luxury brand Louis Vuitton as well as obvious fakes on flickr. All photographs were taken and uploaded by flickr users.
One thing I’ve recently noticed is that although China is not that a rich country, Chinese people are among the most potential consumers in expensive things, or rather, luxuries. It’s inevitable to see some young pretty ladies wearing the latest Prada shoes or a pair of nice Gucci sunglasses in the street. Also in shopping malls on weekends, there are always well-dressed people queuing in front of cash counters, waiting for swiping their credit cards on a several-thousands Yuan dress. As for people who can’t afford a genuine Gucci bag but still want one, they would probably choose to bargain on fakes. With less than one tenth of the original price, you can get a 99-percent-the-same-in-looking Gucci bag in night markets, so why not? Even my Czech friend bought three "Amarni" suits for himself and his family in his trip to China.
But what actually interests me is the passion people show on luxury goods and brands and material possessions. Thus I started this collaborated photography project to record this whole consumerism thing, and I named it Project LV, as most people regard Louis Vuitton, or in short LV, is a representative of luxury brands.
I have created a group on flickr where everyone can upload photographs of people with Louis Vuitton or other luxury brands. There is no specific rule for uploading photograph, no matter if it was taken with digital or film camera, no matter if it was clear or blurred, as long as there are people with Louis Vuitton goods in the photograph it is fine.
这是一组发布在flickr上的快照，拍摄对象是穿戴法国著名奢侈品牌路易·威登商品的人们，无论真假。所有的照片均来自flickr用户。
最近我注意到，尽管中国并不是那么富有，中国人却是昂贵商品甚至奢侈品最有潜力的消费群体之一。在街上，人们不难看到穿着最新款普拉达牌高跟鞋或戴着古驰牌太阳镜的漂亮女孩。在周末的商场里，收银台前总是排着长长的队伍，穿着入时的人们等待着刷卡后捧回几千元一条的裙子。对于那些负担不起正品古驰包却又特别想拥有名牌的人，他们通常会选择假货。在夜市里，花不到十分之一的价钱就能买到百分之九十九相似的古驰包。何乐而不为？甚至我的捷克朋友也在中国旅游时顺便为他和他的家人捎带了三套“阿玛尼”牌西装。
但真正让我感兴趣的，是人们对奢侈品、名牌和物质所表现出来的热情。 因此我策划了这个基于合作的摄影项目来记录这些消费主义，我把它命名为Project LV，因为大多数人将LV（路易·威登）看作最具代表性的奢侈品牌。
我在flickr上建立了群组，任何人可以上传相关照片。对于照片没有特殊要求，不管相机是数码还是胶片，不管照片是清晰还是模糊，只要其中有穿戴着路易·威登商品的人就可以。
* 翻译：韩见