Monday April 18, 2011

SHANGHAI – Back in Shanghai. Where do I begin? Yes, it’s true, everything here seems to have been built within the last 20 minutes. There are few traces left of old Shanghai, whatever that means. The few traditional looking small scale buildings that you see may well have been built in the traditional style in the 1950s. I came to Shanghai to meet Maria who came here directly from the London Book Fair for meetings with her client, Shanghai 99 (who have been our hosts and guides).

I took a walk on the Bund, later meeting Maria to go to Annabel Lee. I’ve gotten lazy about editing – I’ve included three images for today, all shot with my Leica M9 and a 50mm Summilux lens.

For the above image I sat on a bench on the esplanade that runs along the Bund. A young Chinese man sat next to me – he had a posse of three older guys, one of whom was carrying a back pack for him. It turned out it was a brand new camera bag full of new Nikon gear, including a D3x and every lens known to man. He put a lens on the body and stared snapping a pair of startlings on the grass behind us – a total bore – he was all gear and no action. Kind of confirms what people say about the children of the very rich in the People’s Republic of China.

On this day one year ago: Sunset after the rain in Warren.