I’ve written before on how practically everyone wears a face mask outdoors in Shanghai these days. Being confronted by a world wearing masks was the most immediate change here back in January when Wuhan was locked down. Although the Chinese government has advised that it’s not necessary to wear masks outdoors in low-risk open spaces, putting on a mask before leaving my apartment has become as normal as putting on shoes.
A few weeks ago the weather warmed and Shanghai had successive days of clear skies. This would normally be around the time that Shanghai Fashion Week takes place, but of course all that has been cancelled. None of this seemed to stop some people from making an extra effort to dress up. Since I’ve shot street fashion in Shanghai for Women’s Wear Daily (WWD) every year since 2012, I thought as may as well keep doing it. I also thought it was an optimistic story on people coming out on the other side of the city’s coronavirus lockdown.
I remember watching Bill Cunningham New York (a documentary on the pioneer of street fashion photography) and was struck by his assertion that fashion is what grounds us in history. With this series, there’s the double whammy of clothes and facemasks. I think in the future there is unlikely to be much difficulty in placing these shots in a historical timeframe.
Nevertheless, the timing was wrong for these images to run in WWD’s international edition. Just as China started to emerge from the first wave of this crisis, the West went into coronavirus lockdown while the fashion industry went into global meltdown. The situation also has forced WWD’s China edition to curtail their spending on contributors for a couple of months, so in the end, I sent my series to Polaris to see if they could syndicate them.
Although work has become very slow, I think it’s important for me to continue to pursue projects. Aside from the added historical weight the coronavirus situation gives to the work, I feel the need to keep my skills sharp and keep myself motivated. The situation has spurred me to almost never leave my apartment without a DSLR or at least a point and shoot camera, something I haven’t really done since my first few years here. For the first time in a while, everything became strange and new again.
Anyway, here is some shots from my facemask fashion series. It was basically a matter of grabbing my camera (and a facemask) and wandering around my neighbourhood, the former French Concession. Special thanks to Vanessa who is a great spotter and helped me approach people without weirding them out.
More work at www.davetacon.com
