It took me over 15 months before I was able to return to China to continue my documentation of the final years of this 400-year-old village.
It’s been over two years since I was last in Yangjiang and it was nice to spend some time there.
Well… that was a long business trip. Really long and really amazing. I essentially sat out the pandemic in China – which was one of the safest Covid bubbles on the planet. It was really tough packing up my apartment at the end of my odyssey. I had accumulated a lot of stuff over 14 […]
This week is the one-year anniversary of coming to China in March of 2020. I came to Ningbo with the plan to stay for 6 weeks for a business trip. A few days after I arrived China closed the borders (still not reopened a year later) and the Covid cases in the US spiked.
This post marks the 10 year anniversary of this photoblog. It also coincides with the publication of Volume 2 of my village series.
Some assorted photos using assorted cameras and assorted film stocks. These are the final photos taken in 2020.
Because the local photo lab is getting slow and expensive I decided to start developing and scanning my own black and white film. I already do that in the US, but it requires some gear and chemicals to get it done here in China. After I was here for about 6 months I decided to set up a film processing lab in my AirBnB kitchen – which I never use.
My six-week trip turned into an “indefinite” length trip because of COVID-19 related issues (closed borders, lack of flights, lockdowns, etc.). I had plenty of opportunities to work on my photo project in the village and travel around China to capture analog photos on my Mamiya 6 and Hasselblad 500 C/M. Most of these photos were taken using Portra 400 film.
More street portraits from the village in Ningbo. I’ve entered a new stage in this project because in early May I printed a photo book with all of the images I had shot and distributed the book to everyone in the village who had allowed me to take their portrait. This created an incentive for […]
I self-published my first book of analog photographs in early May of 2020 and distributed free copies to everyone in the small village outside of Ningbo where I took the portraits. It was quite the event in the village. Smiles, bewilderment, and a few tears. No one knew I was publishing a book. I would […]
I’m back at the village after my 2 weeks in prison (Covid-19 quarantine). The weather is gorgeous in Ningbo and my friends in the village missed me.
After spending a month this summer photographing the people in a small village outside of Ningbo, I returned in October to continue my mission of taking environmental street portraits of the inhabitants. As has become my custom, I returned with prints of the portraits to give to anyone who volunteered. Apparently my project went viral […]
My summer project was a little different than my usual street photography. I took environmental street portraits in a small village adjacent to a factory I collaborate with in Ningbo. I also created a video of the process and included some of the back-story about the village.
I made three stops in Hong Kong during my five-week summer trip. Plenty of time for some photos in the extreme heat and humidity. I used a USB-powered lens warmer to pre-heat my lens so it didn’t fog up when I left my air-conditioned hotel room.
Two quick passes through Hong Kong on this trip – arriving and departing on a three week trip to China. The weather in October is always amazing. No humidity or big heat.
I use Shenzhen as my pivot point as I travel to other cities in China on business. The Shekou area is very western and very comfortable on the weekends. The food is great and the beer is cold.
Five-mile street photography walk + strained knee ligament = real pain. But worth it.
I participated in the first ever Yangjiang Street Photography Photo Walk this week. There was three of us, but only two photographers.
An amazing place – only a 4-hour flight from Guangzhou, but decades behind China. We arrived prepared for Nepal’s summer monsoon season but returned with sun burns because of the unusually beautiful weather in July.
I enjoyed a whirlwind photo walk in TST and Mong Kok for a few hours before flying home. I logged 9.2 miles of walking and got some interesting close-up shots. I used the 14mm f2.8 lens on the Fuji X-Pro2 for all of these images.
Ningbo was cold and crappy – except for one day, which was like a glimpse of spring. But it was just a tease.
The weather was warm and it felt great to get out and shoot. This is my first trip with the X-Pro2 and a bag of lenses and it was amazing! I spent most of the trip experimenting with settings and lenses.
I was lazy and didn’t get out to the Qingxi wet market early in the morning like I usually do, but there is always activity there and an opportunity for street photos. I also stopped briefly in Shenzhen and got out for a couple hours.
Another stop in Yangjiang and I wandered down into the old part of the city for a few photos. I’m experimenting with Fuji’s 56mm f1.2 lens for street photography. All of these photos were shot wide open at either f1.2 or f1.4. Two words – Not easy. […]