November Romance - A photostory

One morning this week I looked out the window in our kitchen and noticed the falling leaves, blue skies and a bright sun shining down on Gao An Lu. I checked the thermometer and noticed that it had climbed  up close to 20 °C - despite autumn not unusual for Shanghai at this time of year.

Whilst sipping my coffe I remembered a friend of mine telling me that a few weeks ago she went to visit a forest park located northeast of the City. She assured me that it was worth going and that you could actually find some forest there (I have learnt by now that  even though it says forest, it doesn´t necessarily mean that there  is one..) It sounded like a good place to go to explore on a sunny day. So I decided to venture out with my camera in search for shooting a little story about autum in Shanghai.

A 20 kiliometer cab ride laterI found myself close to the Huangpu river but the area seemed more like  some kind of industrial estate. Was I really in the right place? But as soon as I walked through the entrance gate I knew I was right and was swallowed by green lawns, trees, lovley waterponds - and an uncoutable amout of wedding photoshootings taking place.

Weddings and Wedding photography is a big thing here in China and  quite different to us in Europe. It is well worth dedicating a whole post to it one day. But I want to find out about it some more before writing about it. All you need to know for now  is that the photos play a major part and are usually taken before the wedding.

For today I just want to invite you to  join me  for a stroll through Gongqing Forest Park on a sunny tuesday afternoon. Come and find out that even a big concrete city like Shanghai can have a romantic touch, that it can be colourful and that people here are not much differen to anywhere else in the world.

It is only when we look behind the scenes you will notice that some things are a little different than home :-)

Zuo Ba! Let´s go: This way to the ticket office: ENTER HERE

Little Fleur in Fuxing Park

In a big city like Shanghai it can take a little while to reach the outskirts when you are in search for nature. If you are looking for space and green than the best chance to enjoy  nice day here are the parks within the heart of the city.

Fuxing Park is a favorite amongst the locals and every day you can see People getting together to let their kites fly, participate in the open air ballroom dancing or play mahjong.

In Summer I met up with some friends for a picnic there. And it didn´t take long until I found myself following my dutch friends daughter Fleur around the park. With my camera I tried to portrait this afternoon through her eyes, capturing how she took it all in..involving friends, her baby sister, mother, the ayi .. and a bunch of happy Chinese.

I´m very happy to share some of  the moments of Little Fleur in Fuxing Park with you!
Please enter HERE

Acrobats in our apartment

Ever since we moved here we have  been wondering about how to fill this big empty white wall in  our hallway at the entrance to our apartment. All we knew we that we wanted to hang up one of my photographs and that we wanted it BIG.

We only had two small problems:
A) choose the right one  from nearly 40.000 pictures
B) how on earth are we going to hang it up on that wall which is from the lowest bottom to top 4 meters high and a ladder would be difficult to balance on stairs?

A couple of weeks ago we fould a solution for problem "a" and came to the conclusion that since we are not living facing the skyline of Shanghai we simply bring it into our flat. And therefore chose a picture which I took on a sunny September day at the Bund.

Soon I had it printed at the "Shanghai Photomarket", one of my favorite places in town :-). It is two buildings of 4 floors selling only photorelated stuff. One shop is specialized in prints and there we had our picture blown up on Aluminium 1,70 x 1,20 meters.

But were still left with the issue of how to get it up the wall . And because we are not supposed to do any DIYing in our aparment,  we called Sophie from our relocation agency who helped arranging the building team from our Landlord.

This morning 9:30 Sophie and the builders arrived and I was quite excited to see the way the guys solved the issue with our stair case:
Whilst one guy climbed up with the drill  the another guy (with a bandage already around his finger) lifted up with his arms that part of the ladder which was too short to reach the staircase:

Sometimes I think it is more breathtaking to watch builders and carpenters performing their jobs than watching any acrobats in Shanghai circus..I think it would drive anyone who is responsible for health and safety in Europe or Americas nuts :-)

A massive round hole of easily 2cm in diameter was drilled into the wall, before a large piece of square wood was hammered into that. I guess a chinese solution for an anchor fitting (Dübel). Once the wood was in place a screw was put into the wood and a minute later the show was over and on one injured. Together we enjoyed the outlook onto Pudong Sykline.. and I was beaming with pride!!

Lost in Translation

This is a cute little story I want to share it with you because this sort of situation happens to me all the time.

The other day I tried to buy the DVD "The Black Swan" with Nathalie Portman from one of the little street vendors which you can find here on every corner. Or in this case  he was parked right in front of my favorite Spa, Dragonfly (Very clever positioning of him if you ask me - what else could could be better than watching your favorite film after a massage ??)

At first the guy  didn´t understand anything I said and presented me the usual bunch of  brand new releases which sometimes they are still "hot" because they are  not even out in the cinema or officially puplished as DVD´s.  When they are that "hot" you sometimes suddenly notice someone getting up blocking the view - or you struggle listening because some movies are  recorded secretly with mobile phones in the cinemas and if unlucky sit next to someone with a large bag of crisps. But hey, so what if the DVD costs 8 RMB?

So I kept on  repeating "Black Swan"!!! to my little street vendor  and after a while he seemed to have understood that I was obviously looking for a film related to -hang on -  BIRDS! and therefore proudly presented to me the latest Jim Carrey film which I have no clue what the story is about but at least shows penguins on the cover.

I couldn´t help it but having a real good laugh and than explain in chinese "No, No, I mean Big bird, black bird, Nathalie Portman"..and started tip toe dancing in front of him (sort of anyway)... "Ahh..wo you!"  all clear now!!.. Followed by a big grin  he pulled out the right film from his pile of DVD´s.

Next I want to get Harry Potter - maybe I wear my new round glasses and take a broom stick with me??

Shanghai ART - Photoseries Moganshan Lu

Moganshan Lu is not an ordinary street in Shanghai. It is a complex of deserted warehouse and factories which over time were taken over by artists looking for low budget rent and eventually was transformed into modern art galleries. M50 is the largest complex and best known in Shanghai. It is hosting around 100 artists who are not only work but also living there.

But it is not only the galleries which make this place so interessting. It is more so that you can still see the transformation from old homes and warehouses into fancy art galleries. In some places it looks like people are still somehow living in the ruins which is something you see quite a bit in the old parts of Shanghai. A great place for finding lot´s of little stories.

So in September I decided to take my camera with me and to explored the venue trying to capture a feel of the place.

Please enter here to find the whole photo story - ENJOY!

My little job - is all about pictures

A couple of months  ago my sister in law bumped into a team of webdesigners who were developing a new website for the art scene in Shanghai. They told her that their plan is to promote the underground music and art scene  and that they were looking for a photographer to document their interviews.

It seemed like the perfect match because I was in search for an enviroment to get some practise and exposure with my camera. Knowing that Marie got us in contact with each other over a nice lunch, Greig (who runs  Shanghai 24/7) and  I agreed that we should team up.

And so I´m finding myself finally going in the right direction of my dream and on top of that getting free tickets to various events. How cool is that?

Want to get an impression what it is all about? Take a look the links below. The pictures were taken during an interview with Marc Elliot who is the organizer of the annual Jazz Festival held in October. We took the pictures in September in a music school called "JZ-school" and this is also where the organisation team of the festival is based.

This way to the pics and interview:
http://www.shanghai247.net/music/features/mark-elliot-jz-festival-interview
http://www.shanghai247.net/music/features/mark-elliot-jz-festival-interview-part-2

You know what´s even better? After the interview I was told it is never too late to take up drumming and could do it right there!..Maybe I make this other dream come true some time..But for now get ready for a lot of pictures coming up here. I took a lot of photographs over the past months and there is a lot of material that wants to be shared with you!