October 2016

Morning Shadows
Jiuquan, China
2016

Lost in Translation #4
Dunhuang, China
2016

This woman, in fact all three of the folks in the photo, were part of our tour group. They didn’t speak English, nor I Chinese, so I couldn’t ask her what she thought the message on her jacket meant. I imagine the top line means something like “tell me everything.” What that means in relation to the second line I don’t know. But the mystery message had my attention every time I saw it.

China Street Life #9
Jiuquan, China
2016

This guy and his wife (in the background) both seemed to think it was funny that I wanted to photograph them at their hardware shop. They started smiling when they first noticed me pointing my camera their way and didn’t stop the whole time I was there. He didn’t speak English (nor I Chinese), so I took the photo, thanked him, shook his hand and moved on.

China Street Life #8
Jiuquan, China
2016

China Street Life #7
Jiuquan, China
2016

This studious looking puppy was the greeter at the local pet hospital.

China Daily Life #6
Yumen City, China
2016

Gender roles are more traditional in China than this photo suggests, as is work clothing.  I don’t know what was going on, but for whatever reason, this woman was showing this guy how mixing concrete is done. Even the Fashion Queen doesn’t dress up that much for manual labor.

China Street Life #6
Jiuquan, China
2016

With the content on the billboard, this photo would also qualify for my series Lives Real and Imagined as well as Lost in Translation.

China Street Life #5-Brooms and Mops
Jiuquan, China
2016

Not, much actual life evident in this photo of a mop, but it is symbolic of a lot of what goes on outside the shops and stores in the cities. The streets and sidewalks are always very clean and they do all the work by hand, with brooms and mops. I’ve actually accumulated quite a collection of photos of the unique (to an American) types of brooms and mops they use in China.

China Daily Life #4
Jiuquan, China
2016

A roving fish monger. He drives up, you pick your (live) fish, and he cuts it’s head off, guts, and cleans it while you wait. An extreme version of “farm to table”.

China Daily Life #3
Jiuquan, China
2016

In the middle working on this series of daily life photos, I decided at least some of them really ought to be processed in color. While I don’t like to mix color and b&w images in the same series, I’m going to do it anyway.