Picture of the Week #313 "Miss Shu & the Neon Babe" Shanghai, China 1980 & 2014

This is from my latest series titled: "MAO to NOW" a photographic exploration of change. Miss Shu on the left was my interpreter when I was in China in 1980. She was always dressed in a a simple grey MAO outfit. Many people wore Blue. Today things have hanged as you can see. Plus my "Neon Babe" is holding a cell phone and is exposing a little thigh and open toed shoes. That was strictly forbidden 34 years ago. To say China has changed would be a ludicrous understatement. I loved being there to see the great leaps except for the traffic and the pollution. I am sure I will post images showing how brown or grey the cities have become. Anyway, stay tuned to more of "MAO to NOW". 

Picture of the Week #312 "Baby Face" Shanghai, China 2014 Signed & Stamped

I absolutely love Asian babies. When I was in China in 1980 I so wish that I could adopt one but I was single and in those days it wasn't easy for a foreigner to do that. I don't know if the restrictions have opened or not,  I only know that when you walk down any street be it Beijing or Shanghai you will see parents carrying or walking the most adorable children. I caught this one looking at me and was so grateful that he posed for me long enough to snap this image. As I am working on a series of images titled: "MAO to NOW" a photographic exploration of change, you just know that this will be in the exhibition showing the new face of China, versus an old man hobbling on two canes dressed in a mandatory blue Mao outfit that I took 34 years earlier. As they say, the old and the new. You can see that picture in the earlier post #242 titled "Hobbling Along".

Picture of the week #311 "iChina" Shanghai, China 2014 Signed & Stamped

Forgive me but as I was in China my post of the Picture of the Week # 309 titled "Shake Rattle & Roll" never got in to my blog. As you might have heard China blocks Google, Facebook and other sites and mine must have been one of them Anyway, we're back and here's this week image of a man clipping his nails under a huge sign for the iPhone. This will be a part of my series "MAO to NOW" a photographic exploration of change that I am currently mounting. Notice the McDonalds logo on the upper right. This image will be alongside a picture I took back in 1980 where people all dressed alike in blue Mao outfits got their information by going to the street corner and reading the posted newspapers. Remember people were very poor in those days and no one could afford to buy papers or even film. So my vintage images are now golden. My show will show the vast changes that have occurred and I hope to have a beautiful coffee table book that will not only be educational, but fun as well, like the picture above.

Picture of the Week # 309 "Snow White and the Duck"  Shanghai, China 2014 Signed & Stamped

Okay, I know this really doesn't show China as you'd expect it. This was the first time I've been back since 1980 and this kind of image definitely didn't exist back then. This time I was there to work on a show titled "MAO to NOW" a photographic exploration of change. At the same time I have been accumulating my pictures going back almost 50 years that have a sense of humor. I probably have said this before but I am bored by black & white landscape images as beautiful as they may be, by pictures of war and of dead celebrities. Why can't they're be humor in photos? Aren't most family events, weddings etc fun? And aren't there things that you encounter on the street that make you smile and say to yourself I wish I had a camera. Well now-a-days everyone has either a camera or a smart phone. But what are they taking.... selfies. Amazingly those images bring a smile to my face. But I am more interested in other people than recording myself. So I am always on the lookout for pictures that make me smile. My serious images from China will be posting shortly. Stay tuned.