chongqing portrait for AA

When I first stepped in Chongqing two years ago, I had the same feeling as when I first arrived in Manhattan from new wark airport in 1995… A feeling of entering in a mysterious and magical place… I felt in love with the city immediately.  A couple of month after, my first contribution for Le Monde was an opening photo of the city. Since then, I have been back three times and I continue to be fascinated by it. To my eyes, it is a representation of the recent chinese history in one place at one moment. From the mafia era to the red era, the city is full of mysteries and stories that are waiting to be told… From the central clock tower, surrounded by giant shopping malls and luxury shops, you can slowly walk down from this upper part of town to the river at the lowest level. This downgrade will also take you through all the different level of the society. Near the clock, new and modern compounds are home to the rich… As you walk down, the living standarts are going down as well… and in the lowest part, near the river, electricity and windows become a luxury…. In some part, some strange old temples are trying to resist the rapid development of the city -in other giant holes suddenly appears in between high rises building and are waiting to be purchased by some developer…

As I will pursue my work in this city, this issue is bringing you an introduction to the city. In the full screen gallery, I have inserted some of the large format urban photos of the city, mostly taken from or towards the river banks who define the cities. I recommend you to purchase this edition of AA ( L architecture d’Aujourd’hui july / august edition ) and read as well the excellent article written by french architects from Archiplein agency in shanghai. Its a full 10 page spread !!!

please check the FULL PAGE PORTFOLIO on CHONGQING by clicking here !

Preview the full article or purchase the electronic version by clicking here

THIAPS portrait book out for online purchase

THIAPS is releasing a hard cover book ( also available in soft cover ) called Unlimited Grain Portraits. Frans Peter Verheyen curated numerous photographer into this compilation of analog made portraits. From 35mm to large format, the books seems quite diverse in style and subjects. Breaking away from a documentary style book, each portraits seems to emphasize on the esthetics and the fact that they are all made shot on films.

Two of my gao’an series portrait are featured in this book. The gao’an shots are a series of large and medium format portrait captured in my own little studio which looks directly in a street called gao’an road in shanghai.  I am using this studio to explore close up documentary portraits through various angles and lights. By using minimalist means and high quality lenses, my goal is to try to be able to capture the personality of each of my subjects. They are pausing very naturally in front of my lenses and I specifically ask them not to smile. I ll try to get them in a situation of confort in which they can reveal themselves to the film. I am still in the experimentation phase of this process, that is why my subject are still composed of friends and people that I come across in Shanghai, but the ultimate focus is to get a documentary series together within this year.

In the meanwhile, here is two early shots of those capture, in between lot of other interesting and beautiful portraits

Click here to purchase and or preview the full book

Below are the two featured portraits and of course I can advise only to look at them printed on real paper , but in the meanwhile, you get them here