Zhang Hai’er was born in 1957 in Guangzhou and graduated in 1982 from the Stage Design Department of the Shanghai Theatre Academy. He worked with the Paris-based Agence Vu and served as a photographer for New Weekly from 1995 to 2016. In 1988, his work was selected for the 17th Les Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles in France. He became one of the defining photographers of the late 1980s and early 1990s, known for establishing a distinctive personal style. Seeking documentary subjects, he turned his lens toward urban landscapes, capturing the shifting cityscape and evolving lifestyles of Guangzhou and beyond.

In 1985, Zhang Hai’er began photographing his wife, Hu Yuanli, along with other women in his life. Over time, he solidified photography as his primary means of self-expression, with Hu becoming his most enduring and intimate muse. For Zhang, photography must be deeply intertwined with personal life. His portrayal of female figures within Guangzhou’s urban landscape became a defining element of 1980s avant-garde art. Zhang prefers to call photography “taking pictures”. In his lens, each frozen portrait of his muses emerges from an extended sequence of underlying images, allowing his work to go beyond surface appearances and reveal deeper social meanings.