At beijingkids, we take pride in our magazine covers. They are the culmination of weeks or sometimes even months of planning. We do our best to visually represent the concepts covered throughout our issues, however deep or abstract they may be, and to do so with just a couple of artistic snaps. While they don’t always go to plan, it is always an enjoyable experience, and we rely a lot on the talented efforts of our collaborating photographers and editorial team to get it done right.

Yours truly sitting in frame to make sure the lighting is right

This month’s issue explores “Global Citizenship”. How do you visually represent such a complicated and essential topic? Our original idea was to have Third Culture Kids, or kids of mixed heritage, come together and express themselves through Chinese calligraphy, using characters that they felt defined them as a person.

Luckily, we also had at our service the amazingly talented Dave Hanssen of Dave’s Studio, to help us along and provide us with some much-needed guidance throughout this creative process.

We also enlisted two fantastic young ladies, Lin and Hailey from Beijing City International School (BCIS), to be the face of this issue. Besides both of them being obsessed with cats, both are also children of parents that come from different cultures, which perfectly represents the theme we were trying to explore in this magazine.

The position of these Korean characters is going to be problematic

Throughout the photo shoot, it turned out that perfect calligraphy is a difficult skill to master. We did our best using tracing techniques and eventually decided on writing out the word for “Identity” in multiple languages (Chinese, Korean, and English) so that we could express the complexities these kids face in communicating themselves in their multilingual social and academic environments in Beijing.

Together with Hanssen, we decided also to take some auxiliary shots to make sure we got the best cover possible. Eventually, we landed on an idea of blowing up the Chinese characters for identity, běnzhí (本质), to provide a dramatic backdrop for our young models to strike a pose with, and the result ended up being just what we were looking for!

Here are the remarkable results after about four hours of hard work!

Hailey

Lin

Dave’s Studio
With a wealth of experience and background in producing photos for various commercial brands, Dave Hanssen is a dab hand at creating some of the most stylistically creative and memorable images of kids and their parents. Back in 2010 as a first-time father Hanssen went about capturing every moment of his newborn son’s life and so his passion for photographing children and families began.

Prices start from RMB 1,000 for a one-hour session, and families can choose from a number of different packages to suit their needs. (WeChat ID: dlhzao, 139 1026 8205)

Photos: Dave’s Studio

When we think about an artistic family in Beijing we think about the Hanssen family. Dave, who relocated to Beijing 10 years ago, is the renowned photographer and owner of Dave’s studio where he creates the most artistic pictures of both families and students that you can find in Beijing. Dave hails from Austin, Texas and his wife Ma Zheng is from Beijing. Both of their boys, Coco (3) and Miles (7), were born in the capital.

Favorite spot to relax
We hit up East for a little staycation when we need a break from it all

Favorite weekend activity
In the summer we like to have pirate picnics at Chaoyang Park, we pack a picnic, and rent a boat and live out high sea adventures on Chaoyang Park lake

Favorite Chinese restaurant
Henjiu Yiqian located in Wangjijng

Favorite non-Chinese restaurant
Doko and Pie Squared

Favorite weekend activity
We enjoy day trips to Yanqi lake or Hauirou.

Family rituals
Friday night pizza and movies on the couch (or theatre if there is anything good)

Adapted Chinese culture
Drinking hot water

Best shop for groceries
Local veggie market in Hegezhuang village

Favorite place to play outdoors
Playground behind Indigo or Kukuto in Haidian

Favorite museum in Beijing
Dino museum

Photos: Courtesy of Peide School
This article appeared on p64 of beijingkids February 2018 issue.

Hailing from Texas, freelance photographer Dave Hanssen is the founder of Dave’s Studio, a family-run and family-oriented photo studio. With an extensive background in fashion and commercial studio photography, as well as working with children both at home and in the studio, Dave brings his creative and personal style to Hegezhuang Village (between Shunyi and Chaoyang Districts). His current studio specializes in three main areas: kids and family photos, (whether fashion or home shoots); annual school portraits for international schools; and business or corporate headshots. Staying true to the family theme, he works with his wife in the studio and has two children in school, one at Harrow International School Beijing.
Hanssen was convinced by two friends working in Beijing to move to China in 2008 and hasn’t looked back since. He started work in a commercial fashion studio but, in 2010, with the beginning of a growing family, Hanssen felt like he was spending too much time at work and not at home. Now was the time to breakaway and start his own business, one that allowed him to spend as much time with his family and the international community whilst doing what he loved best. Nevertheless, freelance photography is never easy. “Every day is a hustle,” he explains. “I might be booked up for a month, but after that I’ve got to find more work. But it goes both ways. The more I work today, the more work I will get in the future.”
Inspiration comes from everywhere and everything he does. Hanssen is constantly on the lookout for new ways to approach shoots, new settings, and ways to bring out the best of each family. Whether he is driving his kids to school, commuting around Beijing, or just talking to people, he is constantly asking: could I shoot here? How would this work?
Hanssen takes well-deserved pride in the personal, relaxed service he offers to his clients. He not only does shoots in the studio, but as a freelancer he is flexible in going all around Beijing, thus able to personalize his photo shoots by creating the perfect environment for the client. Having worked with beijingkids before, we also know very well how easily he puts kids at ease. Hanssen knows all the tricks to making them smile for the shots and behave in front of the camera, which is certainly no easy feat. Parents can relax and not stress about making their children behave on the big photo day. Parents relaxing leads kids to relax, and the naturalness and joy of his models shine through in the final photos.
His most popular product is the kid’s package, priced at RMB 4,850. This includes: the session fee, hair and makeup artist, 22 photos fully edited in an 8” album, 100 digital photos hand-picked by the client, 4 by 60cm canvas, and 22 postcard prints.

Find Dave’s Studio on Wechat (ID: pixstudio2014), davesstudio.rocks, 139 1026 8205北京市朝阳区何各庄村红厂艺术设计产业园B5

This article originally appeared on page 11 of the October 2016 Issue of beijingkids magazine. Click here for your free online copy. To find out how you can obtain a hard copy, contact distribution@truerun.com.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF DAVE’S STUDIO