"Early Spring no. 1" (2011) is a sublime, large-scale color photograph by famed Chinese fashion and fine art photographer, Yan Zhixiong (China, b. 1979), whose career into the world of fine art was launched after years of being considered one of China's top fashion photographers. This is the first photograph in Yan's acclaimed new 'Early Spring' Series of lush landscapes that each literally capture the early blossoming of Spring with a picture plane filled with cherry trees in bloom, as well as the metaphorical blooming of young love, underscored by the young couple sharing a private, tender moment as they face to face atop a massive boulder at the center of the composition, their presence nearly subsumed by the grandeur and beauty of the landscape that surrounds them. This photograph is from an edition of just 8, measures an impressive 59 x 59 inches (150 x 150 cm), is unframed and in excellent condition.

Yan is a member of the British Royal Photographic Society and the China Photographers Association. He was born in Hunan Province in 1979 and now works in Beijing. He has studied traditional Chinese and oil paintings since his childhood, and majored in art design at University. His works have already won more than 70 awards in photography from Collections, Exhibitions and Periodicals throughout China, Austria, Ukraine, France, Belgium, Hong Kong and Macao. Yan Zhixiong achieved China's highest individual photography award, the "Chinese Gold" and was awarded the "China Photographic Art" exhibition Portrait Photography Gold Medal as well. He has held several solo fine art exhibition, most recently in 2010 at the Today Museum, China which featured his incredible range of photographic images. Many Western photographers have had an influence on his work, including Helmut Newton, David LaChapelle and Terry Richardson amongst others. Yan's work for editorial fashion assignments has always carried intense and deeply creative narratives, pushing the boundaries between high fashion and art.