As Seen by TV

Well, it doesn’t happen very often, but it seems I totally forgot about a shoot I went on… way back in February.

Although I do have a good excuse, as right after that shoot something happened… the absolute mayhem that was Chinese New Year (see the amazing pix again).  That post incidentally still holds the record for most traffic to this blog (cheers for that, by the way!).

Anyway, so this post is the lost shoot just before Chinese New Year, just a stroll down my street (Yong Jia Road) to Fuxing Park, just to give a realer idea of what my [old] neighborhood was like.  Enjoy.

Huai Hai Road is dubbed “Shanghai’s 5th Avenue“.

It is also the main street I walk along if I decide to hike it to my office, here’s a map to explain.

The blue line shows my path to/from work/home, and the fat green line is from shoot #1 (pictures 1-8) on a Sunday, while the purple line is from shoot #2 (pictures 9-14) taken the next day after work.

Boom.

ps- can you spot the ghost dog?

Check out these smurf-tastic elevated highways!!

[click to enlarge]

The left image I captured back in September, whereas the right was taken this past weekend.  You can now witness the effect the blue lighting has on the surroundings of the elevated highways.   Standing under these monstrocities is surreal, and because most street lights are tungsten (red-tinted), the mix is quite remarkable.  You won’t hear this from me often, but thank goodness for digital, as color-correting these in a traditional darkroom would be hell.

Thought I’d compile my most “interesting” (favorite, influential, etc.) shots from the past year.
Enjoy.

Notable events: Welcoming 2009 in Belgium/Holland; Best Man at the TOMMEL wedding in Miami; Dystopia ¦ Utopia solo photo exhibition; Goodbye NY / Hello SH; 60th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China; Taoist Monastery outside Chongqing; Shanghai/Shanghai/Shanghai; and of course all the people that made it happen.

Last Sunday [while it was snowing!] I went with my girl to hit up the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center (Official site / Frommer’s site), which is home to the largest to-scale city model in the world: Shanghai 2020!

I have always been a architecture fiend, and this was a hidden delight.  Well, maybe not so hidden, as the Exhibition Center is located inside a massive modern building in the middle of People’s Square.  5 floors of exhibits chronicle the history and modernization of Shanghai, from the feudal dynasties (SH was a fishing village), to when the first Europeans arrived to trade (SH was a fishing village), through to today (when SH was a massive city), and on into the future (when SH turns into the worlds’ economic metropolis of the world (you heard it hear first!)).

Old photographs were what I found the most interesting, as the trasformation of this city is truly beyond words.  Just look at the image of the Pudong skyline in my last post, when I was in Shanghai for the first time some 10 years ago, only 3-4 buildings were built (including the Pearl Tower), so I can only imagine what Shanghai will look like in another decade in 2020… oh wait nevermind, on the 5th floor they have the worlds largest to-scale city-model in the world: Shanghai 2020!

The center obviously showcases much about the upcoming Shanghai Expo, and I can’t wait to see some of the structures they are planning to build, truly remarkable stuff.   Still can’t decide which one I will like more… Thomas Heatherwick’s UK Pavilion (consisting of 60,000 transparent rods) or the Switzerland Pavilion by Buchner Bründler Architects (which has a ski lift through, over, and around it  -no I am not joking).

October fourteenth… nothing special really, just fixed up a couple random images I overlooked the past couple weeks, enjoy!

The police car is the mighty Volkswagen Santana, which since its introduction in 1983 has sold more than 3.3million in China alone and had almost 50% market-share back in the 1990′s.

…I had a blast!
[~ The Bulldog ~][~ O'Malley's ~][~ Mao ~][~ Zapata's ~]

Also thought I’d share some links for those interested in finding things to do in Shanghai:
SmartShanghai.com for a cool happy hour map.
ExploreShanghai.com has a great metro map which also calculates time + cost.
LonelyPlanet.com has lots of info on Shanghai (and the entire world).
Shanghaiist.com has events listings and other happenings.

Now I have to go see about a girl, but I’ll leave you with this dope vid I found through the Shanghaiist done only with a Canon A540: