Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Photography: Old China New China, Great Wall at Badaling



Above: Great Wall at Badaling, ca 60-70 km NW of Beijing, ca 1877. Photograph attributed to Thomas Childe. Source: "The Face of China As Seen by Photographers & Travelers 1860-1912, p.22"/flickr.com/©etherflyer's photostream
Below: Badaling Great Wall, March 3, 2005 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Photography: Old China New China, Temple of Heaven



Above: Temple of Heaven, Beijing, ca 1911-15. Photographer unknown. Source "Imperial China, p. 122"/flickr.com/©etherflyer's photostream.
Below: Temple of Heaven, 2007 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Ghost images of quake zone: Photographer Thomas H. Hahn


©Thomas H. Hahn 

Thomas H. Hahn has recently posted a number of docu-images on his Zenfolio website about how Wenchuan, Yingxiu and Dujiangyan look today (images taken Jan 21, 2009). The images show eerily quiet ghost towns and massive destruction, the only people in the photographs being two men dressed in funeral garb. His introduction however states that Wenchuan is surprisingly full of life and feverish reconstruction, welcome news for all. 

Hahn's Zenfolio website is otherwise a helpful source of historical photography of old China as well as Thomas H. Hahn's own photography of a changing China. As Hahn states in the opening page: "The main subject area is China and that country's rather rapid transformation from a rural to an urban-centered society". Hahn has been travelling regularly in China since the early 1980s. 

(Side note: See my article about "thanatourism" posted 090202) 

Watch this and weep

Posted from Youku.com

I don't know what to say about this...just when the Western world has got smoking somewhat under control, look at this little Chinese kid, smoking like a pro.