REAL SHANGHAI ?
After moving around the world, from Europe to the US to Asia, Shanghai was a revelation to me. This city has changed my life.
I spend hours walking around with my camera, capturing places, faces and situations that deeply move me. I try to understand the Chinese’s lives and culture. They are undergoing such dramatic changes.
Sometimes I manage to chat with the people; I then feel so fulfilled to have been able to share a few moments of their lives. Sometimes I just snap a shoot and run.
To me, Shanghai is a place full of real people living in an unreal environment.
Real people… young and old, rich and poor, spoiled and struggling, innocent and full of wisdom, Shanghainese and those from different provinces, all these people are the REAL individuals I confront.
Their environment seems so unreal. Symbol of a successful China, Shanghai is a combination of modernity and tradition, of authenticity and kitsch, of fantastic wealth and extreme misery, perpetually changing at a frantic pace. Places vanish, others appear, are we dreaming?
The digital image helps me emphasize this vision. Thanks to collage and colour enhancement the surrealistic becomes more obvious. When looking at my pictures, people should be wondering what is real and what isn’t…
When the process begins, through the lens of my camera, I am a spectator. Then on my computer, I become a composer. Finally, I sign discreetly, by appearing as part of this unreal world.
If people feel tenderness, humour and amazement in my works, my photos will have accomplished their mission.
I spend hours walking around with my camera, capturing places, faces and situations that deeply move me. I try to understand the Chinese’s lives and culture. They are undergoing such dramatic changes.
Sometimes I manage to chat with the people; I then feel so fulfilled to have been able to share a few moments of their lives. Sometimes I just snap a shoot and run.
To me, Shanghai is a place full of real people living in an unreal environment.
Real people… young and old, rich and poor, spoiled and struggling, innocent and full of wisdom, Shanghainese and those from different provinces, all these people are the REAL individuals I confront.
Their environment seems so unreal. Symbol of a successful China, Shanghai is a combination of modernity and tradition, of authenticity and kitsch, of fantastic wealth and extreme misery, perpetually changing at a frantic pace. Places vanish, others appear, are we dreaming?
The digital image helps me emphasize this vision. Thanks to collage and colour enhancement the surrealistic becomes more obvious. When looking at my pictures, people should be wondering what is real and what isn’t…
When the process begins, through the lens of my camera, I am a spectator. Then on my computer, I become a composer. Finally, I sign discreetly, by appearing as part of this unreal world.
If people feel tenderness, humour and amazement in my works, my photos will have accomplished their mission.