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Post by nikkortorokkor on May 26, 2012 22:46:13 GMT -5
I went out this morning with a misbehaving Oly - I think it knows I'm preparing to buy a replacement and, in Australasian parlance, is spitting the dummy accordingly. A few missed shots due to randomly misbehaving buttons did not improve my mood. One trouble I have when taking photos in China is that as a 6'2" laowai (foreigner), I tend to attract much unwonted attention from would-be subjects. This is why I'm interested in a small and quiet system (the OM-D has my attention). The primary problem is people staring at me. The second? People immediately turning to see what the heck the crazy laowai is so interested in. I get many photos of backs of heads. Anyway, here are some which I think worked. Mostly involving personal transport and crumbling architecture. This is the nearest true village to my on-campus apartment. Just about 1200 metres, as the crow flies, from where I'm write this. A slice of morning life in working-class China. Michael.
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daveh
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Post by daveh on May 27, 2012 3:31:14 GMT -5
Michael, super. Good street photography records ordinary people doing ordinary things without playing up to the camera. These photos fit that perfectly. As you say it's a real pain when the subjects notice the camera and change their behaviour.
Twenty years ago I tried to photograph in a market in Lamu, Kenya. The stall holders were pretty insistent I didn't photograph them. It's probably the nearest I have got to someone being hostile. The old "white man" wisdom would have it that they feared the photographer would take their spirits away. The truth was more pragmatic - they thought I would be selling the photos and making money out of them and they wouldn't be getting a cut.
Camera-innocent people are probably better to photograph except, as you say, they do tend to either stare at the camera or look to see what you are taking.
A few years on one suspects these building will have been bulldozed and modern blocks of flats put in their place. As well as being good photos per se, they could form part of an important social documentary series. More please.
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Post by grenouille on May 27, 2012 7:46:33 GMT -5
Thanks for showing us life as it is in another part of the world. The electrical supply system is certainly an electrician's nightmare.
Hye
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Post by nikkortorokkor on May 27, 2012 17:35:40 GMT -5
Thanks for the kind words, Dave and Hye. The old buildings are being replaced, but by equally chaotic ' blocky east-Asian architecture'. The maze-like street-plan remains intact. This happens as the villagers become temporarily wealthy from land sales to factories and other developments. We are in the hi-tech manufacturing heartland of modern China. Chances are, a component for your latest digital camera was made somewhere nearby.
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mickeyobe
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Post by mickeyobe on May 27, 2012 22:56:12 GMT -5
I wonder if they replace fuses with yuan instead of pennies in their fuse boxes. That wiring looks --- suicidal. Are there no standards, no government controls?
Is that blackening on the walls mould?
Mickey
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daveh
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Post by daveh on May 28, 2012 2:42:46 GMT -5
Absolutely, and looks little better in Japan (searching for photo). Ours always seems more hidden away than it is in many countries.
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Post by grenouille on May 28, 2012 5:32:37 GMT -5
I do not know what standards China adopt, but in South East Asia where I came from we follow British Standards and sometimes they modify to suite individual needs.
When the fuses blew too often, they simply replace them with copper wire, that's how we get a lot of places being burned down.
Michael, apart from components, most of the cameras are manufacture in either China or South East Asia, quality is excellent and happily for all of us they are affordable. Regards,
Hye
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Post by nikkortorokkor on May 28, 2012 9:37:17 GMT -5
The wiring is, indeed, anarchic. Partially this was why I chose that particular corner to set up camp and take photos. There probably are wiring codes, but in a country with a weak rule of law, the above mess is the outcome. The domestic voltage in China is 220, by the way - more than enough to kill you. A yuan coin is far to precious to use as a fuse when there are plenty of old nails, screws & scraps of wire lying about! Domestic fires are fairly rare due to the construction methods here - concrete fame, brick fill, plastered and limed. Nothing to burn but the furniture. The black is indeed fungus - mildew rather than mould. It is very humid here, & lime render (used indoors and out) makes a good culture for fungi it seems. A sealed camera case is mandatory here. Yes, the quality of components (and complete cameras, etc.) is excellent. This village is flanked by modern electronics factories featuring internally controlled environments. Some have as many as 30,000 employees. To illustrate the contrast, I took these photos about 500 metres from those above. The senior gentlemen are either professors or the parents of teachers (extended families are common on campus). They are going to or from market in the village. The ladies are returning from "playing T'ai Chi" on the steps of the university library. That's a factory you can see behind the school's side gate in the second photo.
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Post by grenouille on May 29, 2012 2:56:05 GMT -5
The photos certainly tell a story of everyday life, Regards
Hye
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daveh
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Post by daveh on May 29, 2012 3:32:15 GMT -5
Definitely so: China is coming to the age of the motorbike with hardly a car in sight. I wonder what it will be like several years down the line. These photos will be part of an important social document in years to come.
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Post by nikkortorokkor on May 31, 2012 10:17:00 GMT -5
Dave, this illustrates the problem of historical texts, including photographs. One has to account for the bias of the person doing the recording. After a lifetime of cycling and motorcycling, my own bias is towards two wheels good, four wheels bad. There are plenty of cars in China and the burgeoning middle-class has a love-affair with them. Many of my colleagues drive across campus and view my wife and I as eccentric for not owning a car (the students, on the other hand, mostly approve of our "strength"). A shiny Buick, Chevrolet, Audi, VW, Merc, Rover or even Porsche (Cayennes are the model of choice) is now the choice for many. So which is the "real" China, 1, 2 or 3? All were taken within about 10 km of one another.
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daveh
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Post by daveh on May 31, 2012 19:52:05 GMT -5
The answer is all of them, though 1 will be getting more common, 2 less so with 3 staying the same.
It is interesting in Britain, that although the horse is much less used as a work or transport beast it is said there are more horses than ever before. The leisure market has taken over. (It is also said that Wirral has a higher proportion of horses per head of population than anywhere else in the country.)
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