Zhang Hai'er 张海儿 (born in Guangzhou in 1957) belong to the avant-garde generation of photographers emerging in the 1980s. He entered Guangzhou Academy in 1985 of Fine Art to pursue a masters’ degree in painting. In spite of the disparagement he received, Zhang Hai'er began to evolve a highly personal exploration of photography. In his career, he has worked on assignment for Agence Vu in Paris, as photographer for News Weekly in Guangzhou 1995-2016, and was one of the first groups of photographers from China to be presented at les Rencontres d'Arles festival in 1988.

He has developed a singular “vision of the world through a lens”, in which darkness is a conscious visual code: the defining characteristic of Zhang Haier’s work. Through 35 years, Zhang Haier has continued his exploration of the subject of women and other forms of feminine identity. These works share a common assertion of self, with a force of emotion that alternates between joy, pain, delight and sorrow. Zhang Haier’s work speaks of real people in their natural states.

http://photographyofchina.com/blog/zhang-haier

Featured in Martin Parr & WassinkLundgren's, "The Chinese Photobook: From the 1900s to the Present" (page 286), "Zhang Hai'er's work challenged other photographers to think outside the concerns of conventional documentary photography, demonstrating that photography is never neutral, objective, and free of power."