吉姆 JIM HOFMAN | Photography Faces & places in China
Posts Tagged ‘China’
Making Stuff in China
During the last few years I’ve begun documenting factory tours with photographs. Most of the shots are “technical” images meant to capture the factory’s capabilities, but every once in a while I see an “art quality” photo opportunity – which usually leaves my Chinese tour guide looking very puzzled. Why did he take a picture of THAT?
HKIA Airport
Just killing some time at the Hong Kong airport before I leave. There are always some interesting shots at my favorite airport in the world.
Yangjiang Kite Festival – Kites
This was my first kite festival so I wasn’t sure what to expect. My only assumption was there were going to be lots of kites. I was right about that.
Yangjiang Kite Festival – People
I estimate there were probably 5,000 people at the annual Yangjiang Kite Festival and after walking around the place for three hours I concluded I was the only non-Chinese person there. This made me a bit of a freak that earned me a 10 minute photo session with half of the Chinese school girls attending.
Umbrellas in Trees
I don’t know why there are red umbrellas hanging in the trees, but it certainly looks cool.
Kite Hippodrome
I stumbled on Yangjiang’s “Kite Hippodrome” while roaming the city on a Sunday morning. It’s actually a field flanked by inlets of a small lake. That makes it a great place to fly kites, but then I noticed that someone decided to plant trees in the field. It won’t be such a good place to fly kites pretty soon.
Temple Parade
Sometimes you have to go out and find great shots and sometimes the great shots find you. We were driving back to a factory after lunch and a few blocks from our destination we got jammed-up by a parade on the way to the village temple.
Art in the Chaos
Street photography is like a scavenger hunt. Sometimes you’re rewarded with the gift of an amazing image. A small slice of the temporal continuum is captured by a few million pixels. Someone’s ordinary life frozen in time for others to see. They may not consider that particular moment precious, but when removed from the context of their everyday existence it can become special. Perhaps art?
Ancient Stone Village
I had to kill a day between meetings so a group of us went to a couple tourist spots near Ninghai. One of them was an “ancient stone village” that was about 700 years old. It was an actual living village and not a museum.
Chinese Japanese Bar
Talking about bad timing. A bar in China opens with a Japanese theme the same month the whole country starts protesting against Japan’s activities surrounding some off-shore islands. We stumbled on it in the same alley as the restaurant where we ate dinner.
The OTHER red meat…
I’m a pretty adventurous eater, but I have my boundaries. Last night I challenged my boundaries and tested one of China’s seasonal delicacies – dog.
Shanghai II
More photos from wandering around the Pudong area of Shanghai. While in Paris people photograph the Eiffel Tower. In Shanghai you photograph the TV Tower. I like to photograph architecture in black and white because it reminds me of the opening sequence of Woody Allen’s movie “Manhattan” – complete with Gershwin music.
Zhujiajiao
I went to Zhujiajiao today. It’s a water town on the outskirts of Shanghai that was established about 1,700 years ago. It’s a tourist village these days, full of restaurants & shops. It was nice to escape the big city…
Shanghai I
Shanghai is huge. REALLY huge (23 million people). It’s ten times the size of Chicago. And this week is was hot. REALLY hot. There were lots of umbrellas on the streets to make-your-own-shade.
Nanjing
I just spent a couple days in Nanjing, which is a few hours west of Shanghai. It was my first trip there. I always seem to visit the same manufacturing hubs in China and it was nice to go somewhere new.
Yangjiang Traffic & Streets
Yangjiang a beautiful city on the southern coast of China, just below Macau. This place is the “knife capital of the world”. I’m here working on some product development projects with the knife factories, but have found time to wander the back streets to take some shots.
Hong Kong Sunrise +
On the way in and out of China I always stay in Hong Kong. It’s one of my favorite cities in the world. I woke up early because of jet lag and grabbed some shots as the sun was rising.
Market Sights
Sights from a couple market places in China (Qingxi + Yangjiang). I love to photograph these places. Lots of interesting sensory inputs: sights, sounds, smells, people, activities.
Qingxi Night BBQ & Market
One of my favorite places on the planet. Lots of amazing street food + beer + fun people (often random new friends). The smells are incredible (good).
Sunday in the Park
While I was waiting for a late afternoon meeting with a factory representative I decided to kill some time at a local park in ChangAn. I sat at various benches for about 3 hours taking photos and meeting people.
A Night(mare) at the Airport
Flying in China in the spring is not unlike flying through Chicago O’Hare at the same time of year. You probably don’t want to travel in the late afternoon or evening unless you enjoy (long) delays because of storms.
Behind the Kitchen Door
I was curious about how a restaurant kitchen looks and operates in China. I tested 3 restaurants that I frequent and was able to get access to the kitchen in all of them.
