Craft and creativity continues to grow in China, none of which would be possible without the inspired and daring minds behind the ideas and production. We are asking the creative community in China five fun questions to learn a little bit more about the people behind this burgeoning industry. Hope you enjoy! If you think you should be profiled or you know someone creative who should be profiled send an email to info@shpplus.com.
中国的优秀作品和无限创意层出不穷，这离不开那些有思想、有灵感、有胆识的人才。为了更好地了解中国新兴创意产业，我们设计了有趣的小问题，请中国创意人才提供五道问题的答案。精彩不容错过！欢迎自荐和推荐，请发送邮件至 info@shpplus.com.
DJ Furth
director
DJ is a versatile director known for genre-blurring films with experimental tendencies, cross-cultural emotional sensibilities and a strong emphasis on intimately surreal visuals and sound in support of human stories.
Whether through documentaries and narrative films or music videos and art projects, DJ is committed to investing himself in projects which explore the potent intersections and nuances of human emotion, culture, consciousness and our relationship to our environment — always pushing creative boundaries and building long-term creative partnerships.
His work has been included in film festivals, art exhibitions and curated video programs globally. Select clients include: Saint Laurent, Celine, Gucci, Vogue, Coach, Nike, Apple, Johnnie Walker, Vice, AirBnb, Jordan, British Airways, Ford, Burning Man, Intel, Jeep and Adidas.
DJ 是一位多才多艺的导演，以具有实验倾向的影片而著名。他的作品讲不同人的故事，同时作为导演DJ有着跨文化的敏感性，通过亲密超现实的视觉和声音的搭配拍摄影片。
无论是纪录片、叙事电影、音乐视频还是艺术项目，DJ致力于探索人类情感、文化、意识和我们与环境的关系。每次项目始终他推动创作边界，并建立长期的创作伙伴关系。
他的作品曾在全球的电影节、艺术展览和视频节目中展出。他的客户包括: 圣罗兰、思琳、古驰、时尚、蔻驰、耐克、苹果、尊尼获加、Vice、爱彼迎、Jordan、英国航空公司、火人节、英特尔、Jeep、阿迪达斯等等。
1.The best way to destress? 对你来说，最好的减压方式是什么？
Breathwork, vipassana retreats, yoga and extended daydreaming in the bath.
2. A book you plan on reading? 打算读那本书？
I’m enjoying re-reading books which have influenced my perspectives considerably these days. Going to re-read Tarkovsky’s “Sculpting in Time” soon. It always makes me wonderfully uncomfortable and challenges me to create authentically and relentlessly.
最近我很喜欢重读那些对我观点影响很大的书。我打算重读塔科夫斯基的《雕刻时光》，这本书总让我离开自己的舒适区，并挑战我去真实而无情地创作。
3.How you discovered you were creative? 你是如何发现自己有创造力的?
I’ve always explored with creative writing, poetry and short stories, but the moment I went down the rabbit hole was when a friend of mine let me borrow his Hasselblad medium format camera one summer after I graduated from college.
我一直在创作、诗歌和短篇小说方面进行探索，但在我大学毕业后的一个夏天，我的一个朋友让我借了他的哈苏(Hasselblad)中画幅相机，这让我“深入兔窝”。
I went everywhere with it, made simultaneously some of the worst and most memorable photos of my life and realized that developing a photographic eye to see the world was something I found deeply satisfying and could no longer imagine being without. It was my gateway…tool for opening my eyes to so many areas of creativity which are so important to my life now.
我走到哪里都带着它，同时拍了一些我生活中最糟糕、最难忘的照片。我意识到，学会从摄影视角去看世界是一件让我深感满足的事情，我再也无法想象没有摄影的生活了。那台相机好像让我大开眼界、通过摄影经验我发现许多其他创造领域，而我所发现的事对我现在的生活依然非常重要。
4.Your main strength as a creative person? 作为一个创意人，你的主要优点是什么?
I’m committed to making films and exploring visual art with a very long-term view. I’m perhaps naive in this way but I have faith it will keep me infatuated with creating and surrounded by inspired people I enjoy spending time and creating with. So I invest a lot of time and energy into relationships with people I work with because that’s where true value is and it’s just what makes me happy and fulfilled. It’s the only way I know to avoid burning out or getting lost creatively and squandering my energy.
我致力于制作电影，并以非常长远的眼光探索视觉艺术。也许在这方面我很天真，但我相信这样的态度会让我继续着迷于创作，并让我周围的人充满灵感并一起创作。所以我在人际关系上投入了大量的时间和精力，对我来说这才是真正的价值，让我感到快乐和满足。这是我所知道的唯一避免精力耗尽、迷失创造性和浪费精力的方法。
5.Your favorite creative project you’ve ever worked on, and why you like it so much? 你曾经参与过的创意项目其中，那个是你最喜欢的项目；为什么你这么喜欢它?
I invest a lot in personal passion films and realizing projects which push at the frontiers of my creative comfort so it’s a tough choice. But I’d say the most important was a series of motion portraits I self-funded in 2019 with an all-star crew called ‘Portraits of Sound.’ The project explored the life-affirming power of meditating on mortality through seven single-take portraits on 35mm/16mm film with seven Shanghai-based musicians.
I wanted to create a collection of films made to sit in a gallery and in digital frames as video art and spent literally all of the money I had at the time to realize it. There was zero creative compromise and it was made exactly as I intended which is so rare.
I think we all need to find our creative family and make things together that nourish the soul as frequently as we can to keep us fresh and inspired so we can create sustainably for a long, long time.
Making that project made me realize the value of fully committing to concepts that come naturally from within us in a way that was unforgettable and has led to so many brilliant connections, friendships, new opportunities and evolution of my own self.
我为很多个人热爱的电影和项目投入精力，我做的好多项目推动了我的创作舒适的边界，所以这是一个艰难的选择。但我想说，最重要的是“Portraits of Sound” (声音肖像)，这是我在2019年和一个优秀团队自费制作的一系列动作肖像。我们邀请了7位上海音乐家，用35毫米/16毫米胶片拍照，该项目通过7张单拍肖像照片探索了思考死亡对生命带来的积极力量。
我想创造一组电影，放在一个画廊里，用数字画框作为视频艺术。为了做这件事，花了我当时所有的钱。没有任何创造性的妥协，它完全按照我的意愿来做，这是非常罕见的。
制作这个项目教会我很多东西。当我们致力于那些从我们内心自然产生的概念，这方面的努力给我们带来的价值无价。那次项目是一个难忘的经历，给我带来许多新的朋友、新的机遇和自我发展的机会。
We invite each of the creatives we profile to tag another interesting person for the series. DJ suggested designer, creative director Vladimir Crevenkovic.
我们邀请创意人士来一场接力赛，每个人都要推荐另一位有意思的创意人士。DJ 推荐的下一个人是：设计师、创意总监 Vladimir Crevenkovic。
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