Based in New York, photographer Quentin Shih has managed to make coal-mining city Linfen in China look glamorous in his series titled “9 Dollars Fashion for Photography”.
Setting himself a budget of US$9 for each item used in the photo shoot, he spent three weeks in the Chinese city to complete the project—the resulting images make the counterfeit products look surprisingly expensive.
Although Shih states that he just wanted to showcase the young people and their lifestyle in a typical small town in China, he have also captured snapshots of a booming counterfeit economy in the country.
View more images from this thought-provoking photo series here, or head over to the photographer’s website for more of his impressive work.
[via Fast Co. Design, images via Quentin Shih]