Ongoing Projects

    About
    Email
    Instagram
    Give  Me 1 Minute
    给我一分钟

    Gao & Wang，2019春，北京，选自“给我一分钟”系列
    Gao & Wang, Spring 2019, Beijing, from the Give Me 1 Minute Series


                
           
     Give Me 1 Minute is an ongoing photographic project initiated by Joy Island Lei in 2009. During her years living in Beijing and traveling to different cities, she has photographed over 100 Chinese young people born between 1980 and 2000. They came of age during a period of rapid social transformation in China and live in major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, navigating changing social structures and urban landscapes as they grow and search for their place in the world and pursue their ideals. Her subjects include supermodels, fashion industry professionals, artists, white-collar workers, freelancers, and the photographer herself. Supermodels Liu Wen, He Sui, and Ju Xiaowen; actors Yin Fang, Zeng Meihuizi, and Li Manxuan; and musicians Momo Wu, Zhu Jingxi, Tian Yuan, and The Big Wave have all been photographed for the series.

    Using a 35mm film camera and direct flash, Joy captures intimate, absent-minded, and drifting moments. She describes her process as “shoot fast, develop slow”: pressing the shutter quickly, sometimes even impulsively, in moments that move her, only to leave the negatives undeveloped for years before returning to them. From her personal perspective as a woman, she explores how time reshapes images and emotional memory. Spanning more than fifteen years, Give Me 1 Minute has gradually evolved into an archive of faces representing Chinese urban youth, reflecting their self-perception,

    desires, and sense of identity amid the social and cultural transformations of China since the turn of the millennium. The intention behind Give Me 1 Minute is “forgetting.” Joy hopes her subjects can temporarily forget their social roles and the pressures of everyday life, revealing a more vulnerable, less guarded, and less predictable side of themselves within that single minute. For her, exchanging one minute of loneliness with her subjects during the act of photographing is a form of empathy, as well as an exploration of photography’s potential for healing.


    In 2019, the series was published as the photobook Give Me 1 Minute and presented in a solo exhibition of the same title at White Field in Beijing. In 2020, the project was shortlisted for the Three Shadows Photography Award and the International Festival of Photography in Padova, Italy. It was later selected for the Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival Photobook Exhibition and PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai, and was shortlisted in the self-publishing category at the Wuhan Art Book Fair. The series has been featured by Vogue Italia, Jiazazhi, Beijing Youth Weekly, Marie Claire NOW, Guyu Images, WWD, BIE, MStudio, Artfor, and other media outlets and cultural organizations. The work is held in the collections of Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Direct Photography Space, and private collectors.

     《给我一分钟》是欢岛始于2009年、至今仍在持续的摄影项目。在北京生活及各地游历期间，她持续拍摄了超过100位出生于1980至2000年间的中国青年。他们成长于中国社会急剧转型的年代，生活在北京、上海等大都市，在不断变动的社会结构与都市景观中，经历着各自的成长，寻找自我的位置与理想。被摄者包括超模、时尚从业者、艺术家、白领、自由职业者，以及摄影师本人等。超模刘雯、何穗、雎晓雯，新生代演员尹昉、曾美惠孜、李蔓瑄，音乐人吴莫愁、朱婧汐、田原、大波浪乐队等都曾是她的拍摄对象。

    她使用135胶片相机与直闪闪光灯，捕捉人物私密、出神而游离的瞬间，并以“快拍慢冲”的方式延迟影像的显现：在被打动的瞬间迅速按下快门，甚至即兴拍摄，却将底片留存数年后才冲扫。她从女性的私人视角出发，探讨时间如何重塑影像与情感记忆。历经15年以上的持续拍摄，《给我一分钟》逐渐形成一组关于中国城市青年的面孔档案，并映照出千禧年后中国社会文化变迁中这一群体
    的自我认知、欲望与身份意识。此系列的创作意图在于“遗忘”：欢岛希望被摄者暂时忘却自身的社会角色与现实压力，在那一分钟里，显露出更脆弱、更松动，也更难以预设的一面。对她来说，在拍摄过程中与被摄者互换一分钟的孤独，是她创作中的共情方式，也是她对摄影疗愈可能性的探索。


    2019年，欢岛将这一系列结集出版为同名摄影书，并在北京白场举办同名个展。2020年，该系列入围三影堂摄影奖及意大利帕多瓦摄影节，此后又入围集美·阿尔勒国际摄影节摄影书展、影像上海艺术博览会，并获得武汉影像艺术博览会自出版入围奖。该系列曾获《Vogue Italia》《假杂志》《北京青年周刊》《嘉人NOW》、谷雨影像、WWD、别的BIE、MStudio、Artfor等媒体及机构采访与报道，并被三影堂摄影艺术中心、直接摄影空间等机构及私人藏家收藏。










    Give Me 1 Minute on view at The 12th Three Shadows Photography Award,
    Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Beijing, 2020

    “Give Me 1 Minute" Photography Book© JOYISLANDSTUDIO 2019
    Designer: Qunlin Cui
    🛒（Available in Mainland China


    All images on this site copyright©JOY ISlAND,2025

    New York 2025