Portrait for l Express

Portrait editorial Shanghai China

A clipping from last week edition of weekly magazine l Express for which I did a portrait of Young French woman living in Shanghai.

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 stories – fishing on the jialing river

Chongqing is surrounded by two major rivers, the Yangtse and the Jialing. Year around, many chongqing citizen spend time fishing in it. All the techniques are possible, from the classic ones to the most original. Here a fisherman is uing is own nets and go directly in the deepest part of the river with his home made floating vest to get more fish ! The ciqikou district in chongqing is a popular area. With some of the oldest building in the city, it his a nice place were local people come with their family for a little stroll, playing with the kids or a simple cup of tea.

Han Han Portrait for Le Monde

Once again, I had the pleasure of portraying Han Han for le Monde. As one of his book and blog post are released in french, the journalist did a culture cover story on him. I met him at his former apartment now office in Songjiang district. When asked about why he lives so far from the city center, he answers that he does not really need to be in the center and that he hates traffic jams and night noises. The truth is that he is also the center of attention and his apartment is always filled with friends, journalists and other interesting people always debating about some possible future projects. 

summer series – portrait of shanghai expat for Le Monde

As a summer series, Le Monde is portraying some young expatriates around the world. I portrayed Alberto, a Italian Set Designer who arrived in Shanghai a year ago. The portrait is “cliche” but its part of the direction of this small summer series.

Chongqing Stories – part 3

Here are a few more of the portraits from the ongoing Chongqing stories project ( see here : http://blog.timfranco.com/chongqing-stories-part-1/ and here: http://blog.timfranco.com/chongqing-stories-people-1/ ) More to come soon !

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/

Wang Shu Profile for Le Monde

Wang Shu – Pritzker Architecture Prize 2012

Wang Shu – prominent chinese architect was just announced laureate of the 2012 Pritzker Architecture Price and enter the history as the first Chinese National Winner of the famous prize. I had the chance to meet him through the process of my current book with the Enrico Navarra Gallery. His process and personal stories are incredible and I am so glad he has received the highest recognition for it. Here is below some portraits of him and images from his most beautiful work, the ningbo museum of history.

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