Jerusalem | snaps through the holy city

As I was travelling to Jerusalem for a the gigapixel for Propaganda Studio / Singtel I enjoyed some free time to discover the the incredible city of Jerusalem. One of the oldest city of the world history , never a place has seen so many violence, invasions, wars and religious activities. Wandering around the street of the old city is like going through history and trying to undertand the problems of modern societies. Here is a few snaps taken during those walks

Muslim in Rangoon

As Burma is opening up and welcoming a growing number of foreign visitors and investors, its multi ethnic and religious population is a source too numerous conflicts. The muslim minority in Myanmar mostly consists of the Royingya people, they are mostly located in the Arakan State. In 2012, at least 166 muslims lost their lives in sectarian violence in that state. In Rangoon, Myanmar main economical city, Buddhists and Muslims seems to live in peace but according to Radio Free Asia, an angry Buddhist mob attacked a muslim school and shops in the Rangoon suburb last week.  Here are a collection of photos I did a few weeks ago in the Muslim district of central Rangoon.

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:

China Consumption – Chongqing Themed pool for Le Monde

One of my vertical communism photos from a Carabean themed water pool park in Chongqing has been published in today’s edition of Le Monde illustrating an article on strong consumption in China.

Portraits for Le Monde

In this week end edition of Le Monde, two portraits of young french residing in Shanghai talking about their vision of France.

chongqing | beyond & further

As a major developing city in China, Chongqing construction sites are all over the city. From giant housing complex to new public projects, every part of the city is changing and growing. The jiangbei area ( north of the river ) is considered as a new development district. Just some farmlands a few years ago, the north side of the Jialing river is now covered with giant holes and construction projects. The major one is a gigantic bridge connecting directly the Jiefangbei central district of the city to this new area.

A few kilometers down the Jialing river, in the active district of shapingba, giant housing complex are also being constructed on every piece of land still available to accomodate newcomers in the city. Some of chongqing new inhabitants still have a very hard time to adapt to the urban life and keep their traditional way of living.

and back to our favorite shepherd, just because we like hom a lot

Chongqing Stories – A Rural Megapolis

Chongqing Is Often regarded as one the shinning new exemple of central chinese urban megapolis… but is it ? As most of the people migrating to the city come from a farming background, most of them have no level of education. They are suddenly being relocated in high rises and apartment complex on the border and in new development district of Chongqing. Once relocated, they are doing the only they know how to do well – farming.

While the center of chongqing seems like a forest of high rises and modern buildings taking over old part of the cities, you don’t have to drive very far before seeing every piece of land being used for agriculture purposes. From the garden of complexes, to the border of construction sites, every piece of ground is good to be work on. This comes as a major concern for the modernisation and development of the city,  as half of the population is actually doing agriculture work.

Chongqing Stories – Summer Heat

Chongqing does not escape the summer heat. It is even considered as one of the hottest city in China. With temperature turning around the 40 degrees, it is hard to walk outside for more than an hour. On week ends, locals escape the heat as much as they can. The Caribbean themed park located on the Nanshan Mountains, a few minutes drive from the center of the city is certainly one of the most popular destination for the summer days. Giant wave pools together with a full range of different slides and other attractions, the park offers the perfect mix between refreshment and entertainment. On summer week ends, thousands come through the park gates to get a chance to spend the day in the water.

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.

Chongqing Stories – People 1

My Chongqing Story continues with this series of portraits taken from the popular district of Jiefangbei and the entertainment district of Jiaochangkou. By portraying those people, I wanted to have a representation of the local active population, the youth going out and the families strolling by the modern new avenues and luxury shops representing the fast growth of the city. With most of the people we met, we also talked with them to get an insight of their situation in the chongqing urban environment, what do they do, what are their social status and what type of building they live in, modern towers, old houses etc.. The goal of the project will be to link portraits to their urban environement in a series of diptychs. More about it here: http://blog.timfranco.com/chongqing-stories-part-1/