Photography at the Central Studios Fair in Shanghai

A couple of weekends ago I dropped by the Central Studios Fair. I’ve been attending this event for the past eight years, usually on assignment for Women’s Wear Daily (WWD) to shoot street style. The vibe at the fair is very much ‘hipster’ since it’s pretty much a gathering of people who work in creative fields with an emphasis on fashion. This time they also had a vinyl lounge where people could stock up on LPs.

Back in 2012, WWD ran one of my shots as a cover under there headline ‘Brooklyn East’. Since editorial budgets aren’t what they used to be, I’ve haven’t shot at the Central Studios Fair for a couple of years, but I always make a point of dropping by. I know I’ll bump into friends there and there’s always great food, drink and music. Vanessa spends most of the time shopping when she’s there. The place (a commercial photography studio) is run by an Australian couple, Rodney Evans and Natasha Ivachoff, who also has a fashion label, Missy Skins. Rod was one of the first people I met during my first visit to Shanghai in 2010. Once I’d decided to move here, his advice was invaluable.

Anyway, Vanessa and I turned up a bit late in the afternoon. It was already getting a bit dim on an overcast day. If I’m not shooting for work I’ll usually just bring a film camera along to have a bit of fun with. This time, I brought along my Hasselblad 503CX, three lenses and two film backs - quite a bit to lug around. I shot about half a roll of Fujifilm Pro 400H and then switched to Delta 3200. In hindsight, I would have brought my Pentax 645NII instead of the Hasselblad since the light was really low and the margin for error is much higher manually focussing. My strike rate was about 75%, which seems a waste of film when my autofocus Pentax virtually never misses and gives me 15 shots per roll compared to the Hasselblad’s 12. Still, I do like the character of the Zeiss lenses better as well as the square framing and the fact I need to spend a bit more time getting the shot.

Last year, I spent a lot more time at the fair and shot a few rolls of Agfafilm Vista 400 in a Nikon F100 with a 35mm lens.

Anyway, here are some shots from the last couple of Central Studio (Summer) Fairs and some work from my first visit in 2012.