Dave Tacon

I shot this during my first trip to China on a two day trip out of Shanghai to Yangzhou in neighbouring Jiangsu Province. During this time I did a lot of street photography with a Hasselblad Xpan loaded with Kodak Tri-X black and white film. In photography, you make your own luck. I was fortunate to catch the moment where the face of this young man in a business suit was reflected on the glass through which he viewing an elderly lady passing by on a bicycle.

January 13, 2020, Shanghai, China - Shadows are cast by laundry hung up to dry on a sunny winter's day on Hefei Road in former the French Concession. Like much of Shanghai’s former old town, this neighbourhood is slated for demolition.

February 17, 2020, Shanghai China - Staff wear protective clothing as a precaution against the spread of Covid-19 at a community health centre on South Shaanxi Road, Xuhui District. Shot with Hasselblad Xpan on Kodak Vision 3 250D motion picture film.

Another image from my first visit to China in 2010. I was fascinated by the combination old and new, stage and familiar when I first visited Shanghai. I was drawn to the Bund district, near the city’s historic waterfront, partly because the colonial era architecture reminded me of some of the older buildings in my hometown of Melbourne, Australia. These days one sees very few of those old electric bicycles that man is whizzing by on to the left of frame. Now you’ll see more modern e-Scooters and MoBikes from the ubiquitous bicycle share scheme. Shot on Fujifilm Superia 400.

Workers move coconuts down by the docks in Yangon, Myanmar, December 2010. At the time I photographed this Myanmar was just starting to open up. Visas were available on arrival for the first time and they had even installed Automated Teller Machines. There was a real sense of optimism in Yangon and everyone I met was so welcoming. I travelled there to write and photograph a story on press freedom for The Age and to write and shoot a report on the re-opening of the textile industry after the lifting of USA and EU sanctions for Women’s Wear Daily. Shot on Kodak Portra 400 film.

October 3, 2019, Shanghai, China - People's Liberation Army solidiers on patrol to help control huge crowds drawn to the Bund historic waterfront district to view light displays to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Shot on Ilford HP5 Plus film pushed two stops to 1600 ASA.

July 17, 2019, Ksamil, Albania - The shadow of a waiter on the wall outside a beachside restaurant in Ksamil, a village near Saranda, the largest town on the Albanian Riviera. During the rule of Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha, Albania's coast was off-limits except for military and the political elite. Today it is experiencing a boom in tourism. Shot on Fujifilm Provia 100F slide film.

In between working on assignments for Rolling Stone and Monument Magazine in Beirut, I took every opportunity to photograph out in the streets in that amazing clear summer light. Before I departed on a world wide trip that took in assignments in New York, Rome, Beirut and Osaka, I Kodak gave me a couple of pro packs of Kodak their new Portra 400 film to try out. This is shot on that same emulsion.

This image was shot on assignment for The Age for a story on Laos’ development of a series of dams on the Mekong River, the impact of this on displaced locals, the potential benefits to Laos’ economy and the potential environmental impact of the dams - particular to the 65 million or so people downstream in the Mekong Delta. Shot on Kodak Portra 800, converted to black and white. Later published in Geographical, U.K.

Believe it or not, this is the site where the world’s largest Starbuck’s now sits. Things change fast in Shanghai. Shot on Fujifilm Superia 400.

Getting up early to see the procession of saffron-robed Buddhist monks is something almost every visitor to Luang Prabang does. Shot on Kodak Portra 400.

This mosque, the the largest in the Southern Hemisphere was an amazing place to shoot during a visit to Jakarata to work on assignments for Monument Magazine and Rolling Stone. Shot on Kodak Tri-X film.

I shot this on my first day in Mongolia. This woman is honouring her ancestors by tossing pebbles in the air, to the left in the distance is a war memorial left by the Soviets.

October 3, 2019, Shanghai, China - People's Liberation Army solidiers on patrol to help control huge crowds drawn to the Bund historic waterfront district to view light displays to commerate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Kamea traditional owner Issaac Desai wears traditional dress (a headdress made of Bird of Paradise feathers, bands of cowrie shells and a skirt of ‘tapa’ cloth made from bark) with his stone tools in the jungle that surrounds Kanabea Catholic Mission, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea. Desai was 11 years old when he met French priest Jean Besson. For several days, the Kamea believed Besson was a a spirit returned from the afterlife.

A family make their way down to a tourist boat to make a visit to Pigeons' Rocks, Beirut, Lebanon.

A security guard outside a car park in Umeda bows to a passer by.

From a test shoot with Kay on Rollei Infrared 400 film on Chongming Island, which is part of Shanghai. It lies right in the mouth of the Yangtze River. Shot on Hasselblad Xpan.

Dockworkers unload a ship down by the docks in Yangon.

This is a shot off the same roll of Kodak Tri-X as the one sweeping the floor at this enormous mosque in Jakarta.

A young woman walks along a sidewalk at the edge of Beirut Central District with a billboard depicting politician Nadime Gemayel who was assassinated in a car bombing.

A grandfather holds his grandson in a crowd of sightseers at The Bund, the city's historic waterfront.

A tree surgeon trims a palm tree on the waterfront in downtown Kuwait.

A camp dog at dusk at Maningrida, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, The Gunabidji indigenous people of this area have many beliefs about creation including dog dreaming, crocodile dreaming and termite dreaming.

This was one of the first shots I did in Yangzhou during my first visit to China on a roll of Kodak Tri-X black and white film. Seems my timing was pretty good in those couple of days since this is from the same roll as the first image in this gallery.

Sightseers gaze across the Haungpu River to view the skyline of the Lujiazui financial district in Pudong.

December 16, 2020, Shanghai, China - A man checks his phone as he stands next to figures in a historcal dress painted on to the facade of a bricked up colonial era building. These building date from the time when the neighbourhood was part of the International Settlement. Shot on Fujifilm Provia 100F.

August 30, 2021, Shanghai, China - The giant globe at the Metro City electronics mall glows red with a sign commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party at dusk at Xujiahui District.

December 31, 2020, Shanghai, China - Late afternoon on Yuanyang Long street inside former walled city looking towards the Lujiazui skyline to the north. This area, the traditonal urban centre of Shanghai is steadily being replaced with modern highrise apartments with many residents already relocated, their former homes, bricked in and boarded up. The city's defensive wall was demolished in 1912.