Portraits

There's nothing more beautiful in photography than a B&W portrait of a meaningful face. I was lucky enough to find many of these characters when I went walking in the Hongkou neighbourhood.

My favorite is the grandma in the first shot. She is 91. She was thrilled to have her picture taken, and thanked me the old way: by bringing her hands together in the Thai "sawadee-ka" style, or as if she was praying. She was adorable.

91 and going strong

This man was Mr. Cool. He did not change his facial expression when I approached him and his friend, when I took both portraits, when I showed them on the screen, or when I thanked them and walked away. I wonder if he plays poker?

Mr. Poker-face

This little girl posed patiently until I got the right shot. She inspected each one of them with me, and we kept trying until we both smiled when we got the winning shot, and she said "hao" (good). Then she ran back excitedely to her mom and I bet she told her all about the photo shoot.

Little Empress

This man caught me trying to take a candid shot from a few meters away. He then stood up with a big grin, came over still holding his bowl, and sucked the noodles in a big noisy slurp. He then waited to see the shot before resuming his eating.

Sluuuuuurp!