A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to attend the launch of a new photography book on Shanghai titled: Shanghai: Portrait of a World City. Basically, it’s an overview of the rapid development seen in this Shanghai over the last thirty years or so, which has elevated it to the status of a global city once again. Out of the 143 images in the book, 23 were shot by me. The earliest one of my photographs was shot in 2011 on my second visit to Shanghai. A few of the images were shot this year.
The book is edited by Pulitzer Prize winning Chinese photographer Liu Heung Shing who I’ve assisted on a few shoots over the past couple of years. Liu is also the founder of the Shanghai Center of Photography. It was there that I first became familiar with his work. Leafing through one his books on China, I was amazed that it was all shot by one guy. He was a long-time staff photographer for Associated Press and his file photos pop up in the newspapers I read from time to time: Prince in concert, a photo of Australia winning the World Cricket Cup in India and so on. The topic that he shared the Pulitzer for was the fall of the Soviet Union.
It was quite a trip to look through the more than ten years I’ve been shooting around Shanghai. So much has disappeared, although some photos, such as the earliest one of people playing cards in a laneway in 2011, could have still been shot this month.
About a third of the my photos in Shanghai were shot during a job or on assignment. The rest were basically just me wandering around with a camera or working on small independent projects, some of which I already managed to get published later.
Along with Liu Heung Shing and numerous Shanghai-based photographers there’s also work in the book by other luminaries of photojournalism like James Nachtwey. It was a bit of a thrill to see one of my photos on the overleaf of Nachtwey’s double page black and white photograph of a crowded waterpark, shot back in 2004.
It’s certainly gratifying as well as flattering for my to work to be published in this way. Ever since I first visited Shanghai in 2010, I’ve tried to find and photograph the diversity and contradictions of life here. My long list of photos for submission for this book was well over 200 images, so maybe I’ll be able to shape them into something down the track. In the meantime, I’m still going out and looking to shoot the changing face of Shanghai whenever I have time and the mood takes me.
Anyway, here are some of the photos in the book.
