cropping is for farmers

[nikkortorokkor]

No luck finding good film stock in Zhuhai yet. Here are a couple of digital photos instead. And an ethical question.

My wife and I were out last weekend on a bike ride on the intriguing Guangdong Greenway - a system of multi-use paths and back roads in the province of Guangdong.



The route files through tertiary campuses before suddenly arriving in the countryside of 'old China', just a few kilometres from hi-tech factories, golf courses and an international motor circuit.



We came across a field of eggplants and while my wife stopped to buy a basket full of veges for about US 50 cents from some women packing up to go to market, I watched a man and woman (husband and wife?) patiently watering their plants with plastic dippers wired to long poles. The irrigation was a border-d**e system, and they were scooping water from between the rows and pouring it onto each plant. It was the personification of timeless hard work.

So, here is the ethical dilemma - I 'sniped' three photos - one on tele (300mm equiv), the other wide angles. I didn't want to stop the guy's work to ask permission and wave a camera in his face, and as it was he was too busy to notice a Laowai on the side of the road with a camera. Are either of the resulting photos 'ethical' (or any good, for that matter)?

Enough waffle, here are the photos (I prefer the wide angle):

[daveh]

Ethical? I don't think there is an absolute answer. I don't believe there ever is nor indeed ever has been. Too many factors have to be taken into account. The person who looks at a photo will have his or her thoughts on it. I tend to come down on the side that almost anything is ethical as long as the purpose is honourable. Thus these photos are definitely ethical, with the wide-angle shot being the more ethical of the two.

Great photos: and it's great to see something of a part of the world that I haven't visited or even seen much of on film.

[mickeyobe]

Showing these people hard at work ennobles them. It is not in the least degrading.
Indeed, had you asked them, they may have been proud to show the results of their labour.

Mickey

[Doug T.]

Michael,
Like Dave said, the photos show a part of the world and a way of life that we seldom see.
I don't find anything unethical about them. It looks very peaceful there.

Doug

[nikkortorokkor]

Thanks all for positive comments.

One thing which pleased me about the photos, or more correctly, the photo-taking process, is that the second image is the one I wanted to get. I took the telephoto image first, but wanted a more contextual image. I took a second, wide-angle, image but new that the composition wasn't how I wanted it. The 3rd image (the second shown here) looked right in the viewfinder, and the result matches what I saw.

Yesterday, my wife and I caught a city bus all the way down to Heng Qin Island, where the sea breeze ensures clearer air and dramatic light.

This shot looks back up from one of the Pearl's many river mouths, past the Heng Qin fishing fleet to the incongruous glitz of Macao's waterfront casinos.

[mickeyobe]

Michael,

What an interesting juxtaposition of the old and the new.

MIckey

[nikkortorokkor]

Thanks Mickey.

Such contrasts are not hard to find here. 'Seeing' them is sometimes more difficult, especially when they become one's 'normal'.

[daveh]

Will you go to Hong Kong as well? It would be interesting to have a "compare and contrast" Macao and HK, both from photographic and a history viewpoint.

I've been trying to read the flags on those boats: "Macao expects every fisherman to do his duty", perhaps.

I think we are in for an interesting time. Thanks for posting them.

[nikkortorokkor]

Dave,

I will be going to both HK & Macau (I live on the mainland side of the border) sometime. But the next few holidays will be inland, to see family and things that frankly interest me more than the coastal cities.

To answer an earlier question/comment, Portugal's loss of maritime power did affect Macau and obviously contributed to its decline through the 19th century. But simple geography also played its part - HK simply has the superior harbour when compared to Macau.

Now, HK's star is fading a bit, and not because it is in Chinese control, but because its purpose as an entrepôt has been rendered somewhat obsolete by China's opening up and the advent of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) (Zhuhai, where I live, developed as an SEZ in the 80s). Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Shanghai are outshining HK as China's doorsteps to the world.

Macau, on the other hand, is on the up thanks to taking a lead from Reno, Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Monte Carlo; i.e., it provides a gambling haven on the edge of a huge population with limited opportunities for a legal flutter. Macau now takes more gambling dollars than Vegas.

The flags on the boats are unlikely to say much about Macau, Heng Qin is definitely the other side of the border. That is the Heng Qin ferry crossing back from Sau Francisco Xavier in the far right of the above photo.

No, the flags are simply net markers - each is equipped with a Styrofoam buoy.

[daveh]

Michael, I'm going to enjoy you being in China. One thing I have always wondered about (and maybe the answer is on the internet) is the spelling: Macao or Macau. I note you have used both, Is one the British version and one the Portuguese or is it just one of those places which couldn't quite decide?

However it's not quite as bad as some Greek places which have any number of names. One town I know of is on the Peloponnese - Nafplio, Navplio, each of these with an 'n' at the end and Napoli , which was its Roman name. Just to really complete things there is also Nauplia.