Nicely Made in China

This post is also available in: Chinese (Simplified), French

The first company we have decided to showcase is Time Machine Image Centre.  We’ve asked Matthieu Torrano, TMIC creative and development director, a few questions:

What is Time Machine Image Centre?

Time Machine Image Centre (TMIC) is a fine art printing centre. We offer our clients complete services from a 65m2 studio – complete with lighting equipment – to scanning, printing and framing.

Where are you located?

Our company is situated in North Beijing in a place called “One Art Base”. It’s a little bit less well-known than ‘798’ but it is much more of a working space than an exhibition space. Many artists have their studios in this area. There’s also a cinema studio and a museum.

Who started  Time Machine and how does it work?

On August 8th 2009 three companies started TMIC with Xu Xi, Zhang Zao Ming, Matthieu Torrano as partners – an art gallery, a printing studio and a production company. We’ve teamed up in order to offer our clients all these services under the same roof. Opening one year exactly after the start of the Olympic Games was a way of saying that things were still happening in Beijing and in China.

TMIC has 15 employees. At TMIC each employee has a specialization, however everyone gets trained in other fields in order to have an overview of  what’s on offer at TMIC.

Who are you working with? Can you name some of your clients?

Our clients are photographers, artists and museums. They all insist on the same thing: quality!  Among our clients are people like Ai Wei Wei, Rong Rong, Weng Fen, German photographer Robert Eysoldt and his Farbwerte project as well as Getty Images Beijing-based Australian photographer Adam Pretty. Among our corporate clients we find the Forbidden City, the Guangdong Contemporary Art museum and the Aperture Foundation from New-York.

What kind of printers and papers do you use?

We use HP, Canon and Epson printers. According to the work we choose which machine we’ll use. HP printers for instance now give us pictures that can last up to 250 years.

Regarding paper we could not find the papers we liked – cotton based and acid free – so we decided to import.  We now import Hahnemuehle, Premiere Art, Moab and Museo papers.

Can you ship outside of China?

We regularly work with foreign photographers and organizations. However, in order to avoid problems we ask foreign clients to provide us with an A4 copy of their work with the settings they require.  Experience shows that we are usually 30% cheaper than can be found in the US, Europe or Japan, even when you add the production and the shipping costs.

Anything else you would like to add?

In 2010 we’ve decided to add another offer: we’ve launched Virtual Reality (VR). It’s 360° panoramic photography. We can reproduce any environment in 3D with lots of details. It’s an innovative tool and it is very much in demand right now.

TMIC can organize outdoor productions providing assistants and equipment.

PS: Mr Matthieu Torrano left the company in June 2010.