Photographing at a nightclub in Shanghai during a pandemic seems totally normal

It’s been a little while since I last wrote an entry on this Shanghai photography blog. After having this page lie dormant as a back-up to my other website www.davetacon.com, it became apparent that this domain, www.davetaconphotography.com, is better suited for generating traffic to my business. When the coronavirus lockdown hit I had quite a bit of time on my hands, so I determined to do one or two entries a week.

I’ve failed to do that over the last month or so as photography and video work has finally caught up with me. After a very lean patch during what is normally one of the busiest times of the year for me, I don’t mind working seven days a week. Right now I’m mainly occupied with a series of corporate videos for CEIBS (China Europe International Business School), assisting legendary Chinese photojournalist Liu Heung Shing who is currently the official photographer of a huge Dior exhibition event in Shanghai this month and doing photography and video at a new high end nightclub in Shanghai called Red Room. As luck has it, my fiancee, Vanessa, is the general manager. The club caters mainly to young, rich Chinese and mainly plays hip-hop.

This gig is challenge since it basically means shift work. It’s also a bit odd to be photographing on a contract with a nightclub as this is something I’ve never done before. My series Shanghai: Decadence with Chinese Characteristics (SDWCC) was partly shot during an editorial assignments, but mainly as a personal project.

Mostly, I’m shooting at Red Room in totally the opposite way to how I shot that decadence project. This time almost all shots use flash and I’m shooting with a low ISO (e.g. 64 on my Nikon D850) and stopped right down on a 35 to 50mm lens at f16 for deep focus instead of wide open. I’m also only shooting this way with manual focus since I’ve found that’s the fastest way to shoot to make sure I don’t miss anything. However, the focal lengths I’m using are the same though and the video I’m shooting (all in slow motion) looks identical to SDWCC, which will bring a fascinating new element to the project or at least that’s what I think.

If I’m not shooting video, which I seem to do every other night, I’ll bring along a second body without a flash to shoot more in the vein of (SDWCC) so I can potentially add these to that project. When I am hired to shoot video, I still have to provide photography coverage.

The hours can be a bit gruelling. The week before last was a public holiday, which meant I shot four days straight. Some nights I’ll get home around 5am.

I can only hope that Shanghai continues to keep the pandemic under control. Things do feel sort of normal these days. People wearing masks are still a common sight, but these days I’ll only wear one in a taxi, on public transport or in an elevator. All the service staff at Red Room apart from the bartenders do wear them. I’m surprised to still see news articles debating whether masks should me mandatory in parts of Australia (like my home town of Melbourne) that are still struggling with the outbreak. It’s a no-brainer. It certain situations, people should be wearing masks. I’m not sure if it’s vanity or some kind of macho mentality as to why Australians aren’t taking to protective masks. It’s common sense.

Anyway, I’ll post some photographs from Red Room in Shanghai (including a couple of shots with Vanessa) before I bolt off to assist with photographing with the installation of the gigantic Dior exhibition at Long Museum. What Liu Heung Shing is currently shooting is the reportage part of a series, which is supposedly doing to be a big spread in Vogue China. The big event with portraits of Chinese celebrities and coverage of the opening is towards the end of the month.