What if Lei Feng served today?

Photographing ideas

The 12 photos of The New Story of Lei Feng are on display at MR Gallery in 798 Art District. The exhibition is part of a retrospective show that will last four months through the end of this month.

The Lei in the photographs is a 40-centimeter doll purchased by the artist: Dai’s students, friends and hired models posed as extras. The scenes and the doll were photographed separately and composed in one picture.

Critics dub the work as “idea photography,” as opposed to traditional photograph which records real-world situations.

Dai, 32, a native of Tianjin, has been making composite photographic art using dummies and puppets since 2004. His early works use dolls and puppets from online games. For Dai, the form offers a way to recreate an imagined picture in the real world.

“I like to mix reality and the virtual world in my works,” he said. “After making a digital synthesis, it forms a contrast and conflict between the real and the virtual.”

He completed The New Story of Lei Feng, which tells Lei’s story as he goes from a common soldier to a modern icon in 2007.

“In Chinese, ‘ou’ can mean both ‘idol’ and a ‘terms deeply connected to each other,” he said.