Feature on Land Grap in the Wall Street Journal

Land Grab in Chengdu for the Wall Street Journal

Two month ago, I traveled to Chengdu with a journalist from the Wall Street Journal to document the recents Land Grabs happening in China. During three days, we visit different people who lost, not only their lands to massive private development projects , but for some of them, members of their own families for protesting against the grabs. The article is available online for suscribers and on today ( 14.02.2013 )’s edition of the Wall Street Journal. Here is the link for the online slideshow:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324906004578287182123200020.html#slide/1

And here some of the selected photos:

Myanmar ‘s opening | Rangoon travel

As Burma is opening up , tourists are flowing into the country from everywhere around the world. The touristic industry is yet not ready to welcome so many travelers and many of the hotels are still proposing prohibitive prices and you need to book in advance ! Shang, the Shangri la hotel magazine sent me to Rangoon to document the touristic attraction and to look at its food delicacies and famous street food. I have spent about a week wandering in this amazing city, build mainly on colonial architecture and concentrating a mix of east asian and indian culture. Here are some of the first photos from this series

Surfing in Hainan China

Sanya, located on the island of Hainan, south of china away from the vietnamese coast is a popular destination for local mainland chinese people  in for an cheap exotic escape. With a south east asian climate and white sand beaches, the island still lacks of interesting touristic activities. With the basic, group diving, group banana boating, group jet skying , the island seemed to sell only big chinese vacation group packages. But if you look a bit further, on Riyue bay ( 1 hour drive from Sanya or 20 minutes fast train ride ), you will find a small community that is trying to establish something different. A surf lesson center build with an “old school ” community style. Everything is available on the spot, from boards to beds for overnight stay, to a small dining and infinite flow of fresh beers. As the school is sill having a hard time seducing the local vacationeers, the surf spot has already attracted international circuits and competitions with a good winter break and beautiful waves. Twice a year, international contestant come to Riyue bay to compete for global circuits.

To find out more about the Riyue Bay Surfing School please visit their website : http://www.surfinghainan.com/‘

This article / photos were initially part of a travel story assigned by “Shang” the Shangri La hotel travel magazine that should be available towards the next month.

Rocinha – Largest Pacified Favela in Rio de Janeiro

During a commissioned work in Rio de Janeiro, I have decided to stay a few more days with Motion Designer Artist Abram Hodgens to do a project of our own . As we will reveal more about the specificity of this project on this blog later, we’ve been documenting the largest Favela of Rio : Rocinha. In the past year, many of Rio Favelas have been “Pacified”. Meaning that the police took control of the inside of the favela where no Drug Lord or weapon is suppose to be found. The traffic continues but at a much smaller scale. It is really interesting to walk around freely about what used to be some of the most dangerous district of South America – here are a few iphone snapshots of those incredible inner cities.

Where China bends to meet the world for the Financial Times

The Financial Times is doing audio slideshows about foreigner living and working in different cities around the world. I followed Josh Noble, hong kong based journalist to interview three shanghai expats. This slideshow is about shanghai and their lives within:

http://video.ft.com/v/1620120242001/Audio-slideshow-Where-China-bends-to-meet-the-world

or click here if you are registered to the FT.com for a better quality video:
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/9457f766-95d8-11e1-a163-00144feab49a.html

Here are a few images from the slideshow:

[Show as slideshow]

shanghai event photography

As Shanghai is becoming an international city, tendencies have changed from selling chinese products towards selling products to chinese. With the highest rise of rich people in the world, all kind of foreign companies are trying to capture the chinese market. From luxury brands to western style products, companies are making a lot of effort & investment to seduce this new clientele. For time to time, I find myself hired by some of those companies to help them through this promotion process. Here, a Spanish Wine Company is organizing a wine tasting in an high end shanghai club (M1NT )

Tim Franco is shanghai based photographer and he is available for event photography within Shanghai & greater China

Poyang – another disappearing lake

Early this month, as I was checking chinese news site, I ve stumbled upon photos of the Poyang Lake. Once one of the biggest fresh water lake in China, most of the lake has now gone dry, leaving strange desert-like landscape with boats resting like corpses. A few days later, after a small flight to nanchang / jiangxi with Harold Thibault from Le Monde, we became witnesses of this desolating view.

Click here for a full sound portfolio on Le Monde.fr

shenhua shanghai team and chinese football for Le Monde

With the announcement of Nicolas Anelka signing up for Shenhua Shanghai club, both chinese and international media are looking towards Chinese football. With recent years of very low level, embarrassing stories and fixed match, Chinese football is trying to catch a second breath. The recent signature of Jean Tigana ( below photos ) as the new coach of the team is confirming chinese intention in getting football level to an higher standards in China.

[Show as slideshow]

Cover Shot for “Le Point” special issue about Shanghai

A few weeks ago, i got commissioned by Le Point to shoot their cover for an issue about Shanghai. As they first wanted something else than the eternal bund view, i took upon shooting this portrait from the new cool docks area. I was quite satisfied with the result but the editor came back at the last minute with a “montage” of my shot with the classic bund view. Probably to make sure to get the shanghai symbol on the frame.

you can get the full issue here