A week ago I did an interview with Inside Imaging, a website and newsletter aimed at the Australian photography industry: commercial photographers, engaged enthusiasts, distributors, manufacturers and retailers. You can check in out here: https://www.insideimaging.com.au

Not much has changed since I gave this interview, apart from that the job I was quoting for in Bangkok ended up going to a cheaper, local photographer.

I do feel that the wheels of industry are starting to turn in Shanghai. The streets are slowly getting busier and the air quality is noticeably worse.

I think I was a little optimistic about when we can start seeing a return to normality in March. The beginning of March is next week. I see March as another month with almost zero commercial photography projects in Shanghai or anywhere in China. Perhaps things will pick up in the second half as we near April. I still think that somewhere in the next few months there will be rush of work as projects that have been in limbo are pushed forward. It’s likely that the total sum of commercial photography will be down for this year though. Some projects are sure to be cancelled.

In the meantime, I’ve still been heading out to shoot in the streets as its a good way to gauge how things are progressing. I’ve included some recent shots in a gallery below including some shot with some Kodak Vision 3 250D and 500T in a Hasselblad Xpan.

Most of the time I’m shooting with my Nikon D850 with a 50mm lens. 35mm is my usual standard lens, but I figured that I’d shoot a couple of steps further away than usual when some random guy took exception to him being in a photograph. Of course this can happen in any city, but it rarely happens in Shanghai. It’s not like I was in his face either. I was probably around four meters away and besides, he was wearing a mask and glasses. Still, the guy was irate. Even though I was at least a foot taller than him and also was holding a few kilograms of magnesium alloy in one hand, any escalation in the situation wasn’t going to play out in my favour as a foreigner in China.

I showed him the photo, which wasn’t a particularly good shot. Talking to him just seems to make him more agitated. In the end I just shrugged it off and deleted it since it didn’t seem like worth getting into a fist fight over. I figured I would take better ones that evening and that shot wouldn't even make my first round of selection anyway. It was just a situation that might have revealed how poorly some people are coping with the lockdown.

It would have been a bit complicated if I had been shooting film. In these kinds of situations, people are usually just puzzled why anyone would be shooting film in this day and age and it tends to defuse the situation. I certainly wouldn’t have torn a roll out of the camera.

Anyway, here’s my interview with Inside Imaging:

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Shanghai-based photographer, Dave Tacon, is one of the Australian ex-pats who chose to stay in mainland China and bunker down during the Coronavirus (COVID 19) outbreak.

The Australian has lived in Shanghai since 2012, working as a commercial photographer and videographer. He was attracted to the city’s incredible buzz; ‘it felt like the centre of the world – especially during my first visit in 2010 for the Shanghai Expo,’ he told Inside Imaging.

Since January the atmosphere has changed. It’s eerily quiet, with far fewer people crowding the ordinarily bustling Shanghai streets. Precautions from individuals and businesses has also resulted in work across China to dry up.

But life, as they say, goes on – despite uncertainty surrounding the severity of the epidemic. Although it’s not all doom and gloom. In fact, the extraordinary event makes it a unique moment to be a photojournalist or street photographer in Shanghai.

Inside Imaging shot a few questions over to Dave. They are as clear and succinct, so instead of a re-write, here they are in full:

What’s the professional photography community like in China compared with Australia?
There’s quite a few foreign photographers in Shanghai with a handful of Australians in the mix. The leading commercial studio here, Central Studios, is owned and run by Rodney Evans, from Sydney. He’s been here longer than me.

Is there a sector or industry which you predominantly serve as a commercial photographer? What’s the primary marketing channel?
I shoot a mixture of editorial, corporate and video work. The corporate stuff has mainly been for luxury hotel brands over the last few years. I also shoot luxury events here either for Women’s Wear Daily or sometimes directly for brands.

The only Chinese social media I use is WeChat, which is a bit like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, but also a cashless payment system. There are a few different WeChat professional photography groups. I’m the admin of one, which has 210 members. Most of them are foreigners. It’s a bit like the old ACMP Yahoo group, if anyone can remember back that far. It was a great resource back when I was starting out.

Have attitudes changed from when the coronavirus outbreak began in late December until now, both among the public and government?
The Coronavirus situation really came onto people’s radar when they put Wuhan under quarantine. That’s when all the stocks of masks and hand sanitiser basically sold out overnight. Things seemed to get more serious during the Chinese New Year holidays.

During that time I travelled down to China’s border with Vietnam for a project. I wasn’t able to enter many of the villages, and some border towns were shutting themselves out to anyone not from there. All their restaurants and hotels were being temporarily closed down. I returned to Shanghai instead of taking a break in Vietnam.

Now some residential compounds enforce a quarantine of 13 days, although it varies from compound to compound. A lot of the measures are kind of pointless, like constantly taking people’s temperature with pistol shaped electronic thermometers. Even wearing a surgical mask outdoors isn’t much of a protection, but it communicates that you’re taking things seriously.

How many jobs or cancellations have you had this year? Have you travelled at all for work or is this not possible?
January was extremely quiet and I actually didn’t shoot a single job, so set about finding some more clients. I did have a few meetings prior to the Chinese New Year, but everything is on hold so I’ve been unable to really follow up on these. Even Shanghai Fashion Week has been postponed, which is usually something I’ll pick up a few jobs from.

I’ve been filing daily life stuff to my agency in the US [Polaris Images] and they seem to be making a few sales with partner agencies. It gives me something to do and the situation here has made street photography more interesting. Over the past few weeks since I returned to Shanghai I also wrote a couple of things for SBS and The Independent, shot a little job for the AFR, flew down to Guangdong Province to shoot a portrait for German magazine Stern and I’m in discussions about flying out to Bangkok to shoot a boutique hotel, so it’s not a total drought.

Pretty much any commercial work within China has been cancelled or put on hold though.

So generally the public are staying in doors, with fewer shops are open, etc. What else is happening – are people free to travel?
The government has stated that anyone who has returned from outside the city should quarantine themselves for 13 days. People are supposedly free to travel if they can find a place that hasn’t temporarily severed their air links with China. Technically, I’m out of the 13 day quarantine phase come this Friday. This is another headache about travelling outside China for work. I’m supposed to be on lock down for two weeks after I return.

I’d take a guess this is a new experience – being nearby a containment zone due to a virus that has the whole world watching. Do you have any idea on how long this will go for?
I think the situation will ease off with the warmer weather. The best case scenario I can envision is that things will be getting back to normal by the beginning of March. Once things do settle, I think there will be a sudden rush of work.