As Singapore celebrates its 45th birthday today, I thought it would be a good occasion to post a few photos from my corner of the world.

Slogging away on my China pictures. Slow progress. Lots to learn about my editing programs. Two steps forward...Next challenge will be Flickr. Here's a nice one of the group. The memory and thoughts of China and the trip are beginning to blur with my normal life back home.

I hate it when that happens!

Beijing New York

Back in the City and lunch with Shannon. Szechuan style in midtown.

How many ways is this wrong?

Food arrives individual plates. Too salty. Too bland. Cai xin (aka bok choy) has to be special requested. No tea. All around us Americans drink Coke.

I'm back and not back, as always.

If you're wondering, yes, it's a common question, at least for me: why'd you go to China? What was it like? And, yes, nearly impossible to answer in a word or two.

I'd love to hear what you think of your first Chinese meal back in America.

How to answer the question that I’m often asked now that I’ve returned, “What was my favorite thing about China?” Wish I had a short answer for that.

After all the buddhas and temples and palaces, after the myriad of lazy susans filled with noodles and soup and fish and hot and spicy foods, after the heat and the beer, and the air conditioning and the crowds and the haze and the people, so real and engaged in their lives, after the camaraderie of the group, and the laughter and smiles that kept us going, after the conversations of art, and time, and individuality, and purpose, after the walking and climbing and moving moments confronted by a history so long that it is almost incomprehensible, and a recent history so fluid that everything seems to change every decade, and where commercialism is alive and well and available for all, and Mao statues are thankfully a part of the past, and the distance between Three Shadows and ICP does not seem so vast…. I am left with the haunting feeling that it was all an illusion.

The sinking image of the beautiful Three Shadows complex threatened to be destroyed on an invisible whim with no reason or recourse.It doesn’t make sense to me and blows the wind right out of my China sails.

I think I know less now about China than ever before.

drumming video

passing through
Just a few days ago we were all in China.

Up and Down!

Don't think twice, it's all right!

Goodbye Jin Bei & Wang

Yesterday, after the Great Wall travel day, we said good-bye to our Jin Bei van and our driver Wang. What a treat to be able to work with him.

spiraling through

A day in Beijing is always filled with the unexpected. Cab Drivers who make pit stops and vote on who will take me home to the Lido, the salvation of google maps on my i-phone when I'm lost, extremes of heat and rain and food glorious food. Everyday we sample yet another of the wonderful cuisines of China.

Hou Hai

Fog and mist in the afternoon become rain in the evening.









After dinner we watch dancers at the Lotus Gate and navigate hutong alleys, bright and glistening, and loud with soccer on the plasma screens.

Beijing days like blur

Time blurs us like a smear of rain across the night black sky. We are here, finally, waking with our alarm clocks. But our minds wander back and back and back.

Conversation days fill time and long traffic jams on the way. Laughter. Questions. We don't know where we are going. And moments of connection follow confusion and wonder and enlightenment.

Late at night it's tough to summon the strength to post and sort pictures.

But the flickr group is evolving -- new pix posted now: please click on these pictures to link.

We're exploring and learning and stumbling together.

Coffee and the Man in the Gorilla Suit

Thursday morning started with coffee and the story about the man in the gorilla suit (m.g.s) - He actually joined us for the day…did you hear and see him?

Tibetan born street photographer Mo Yi, set the stage for inquiry and action with a gallery talk about his current exhibit, Me in My Surroundings -80, 90, 2000 at 3 Shadows. His work from the 1980's is a clear mirror of his questions, emotions and attitudes towards cities and cities as societies. His presence, photography, and the manner is which he deliberately yet modestly discussed his work and thought process, really resonated with me. He helped me to be a little bit more straight forward while considering my own emotions, attitudes and questions in relation to Beijing.

The m.g.s stayed the course and joined us at Chamber Gallery's, to meet with Simon and view, Seen in Passing: New Works by Shi Jing. Wow! Talk about ‘full circle’…In such a short amount of time a lot of ideas are starting to converge, emerge, and have an impact on my perception of the historical and personal, past and present and on the superficial and the profound... from Kim San to lady gaga, anything goes.

Cloudy on a Sunny Day

What's beneath the surface is cloudy for me here.

Old conversations screaming in my head.

China, so different, demanding a new response.

"I don't want to" is all I hear.

Same old fear approaching.

Time to listen outside of my head.

Day One album (on flickr)

 
9am -- to 3 Shadows -- we beginSong-zi, friend, interpreter, coordinator.

Our days are packed with Beijing conversations, heat, and lingering jet-lag. Pictures are lagged too -- a day behind. And, worse, with minimal captions...but the record of the journey is a work in progress....click on either picture above to bounce to a flickr collection of our activities.

After Day One

Some middle of the night thoughts...

We have been challenged to make photography visible by exploring the discourse within which we operate, the context that drives our structural and verbal language. To develop the almost non-existent muscle of noticing ourselves apart from ourselves.

I firmly believe that none of this is personal to me, although the angst might appear that way. Instead, it all is part of being human. Thus, compassion for myself, as I have for others, might be something new to remember to bring to the upcoming day of shooting.

My experience of the Photographer in Angst:

I'm aware of the photographic pull to shoot the graffiti wall, the ornate temple roof silhouetted against the blazing sky, the ritual incense offering in front of the buddha, and I say, "So what? It is cliche and meaningless." And my camera remains untouched in its bag. I see my response is automatic. Am I choosing not to shoot, or am I bound to it? Either way, there is really no experience of freedom. Perhaps it's time today to dust off the camera which has laid silent for years and abandon the restraints-shoot proudly only the obvious and see what I get!

As I was reminded, inspiration is 90% sweat.

One final unrelated thought which Liu Heung Shing mentioned at our dinner last night and which has me pondering: We think of photography as a universal language, but perhaps instead it is indigenous. If this is true, as I walk the sites of Beijing, wherever I go I can only bring my american self to what I see and how I interpret it. If I'm looking to see from a Chinese point of view, I will never ever find it. I will always be an outsider here.

The only response is to just be me and shoot!

Program begin

This morning our formal agenda begins at Three Shadows. Everyone has arrived and we're getting our collective feet on the ground.

My goal is to clarify some of the questions today -- can experience be a guide to learning? Can we see through the screen of our familiar discourse to engage the shared world of cultures that we don't know?

Improbably, the sky is blue. Last night at dinner with an artist who will visit the workshop later in the week I heard astonishment: until three days ago he hadn't seen blue successive blue skies in six months.

I maintain the superstition that this means good luck.

I already feel lucky! And I'm thrilled that you're here in Beijing to explore this with me.

Yesterday at the Lama Temple, in the heat, walking slowly, I decided to take pictures with my camera pressed to my belly at a slow shutter speed, breathing quietly.

First Meal in Beijing. Would you believe Tapas?

Yicheng Teahouse- an oasis on a little side street

At Yicheng Teahouse we indulged in vegetable dumplings served with vinegar, enjoyed relaxing traditional music, and enjoyed frangrant tea that was prepared in a ritualistic manner. This website best describes how the tea was brewed: http://www.teainfusion.com/culture/gong-fu-cha.html

First step out into the wilds of Beijing.

Lots of Buddhas and incense.

And sun.

Wonder what tomorrow will bring...

Desynchronosis

Books, t.v., a king size bed with a firm mattress and yet sleep is hard to come by! Daniela and Sean reassure us that every day we'll be able to sleep a little longer. An hour every day, right?

Blue records being set, perhaps

Another blue sky day in Beijing. This morning waking up it's blue again! (This picture above was day before yesterday.) The good weather is a good sign for a good workshop!

Five have arrived: Daniela, Greg, Viviana, Nancy, Adam. We're having breakfast now. Jane arrives today.

We're ready to take some pictures and explore Beijing.

one advantage of a 9 hour lay over in seattle, beer and salmon.

Hello! I'm at the airport and soon I'll be in China!

Camera and bags are packed.

New Lens Baby in tow.

Onward to China!

End of day refresh

At the end of the day -- long jet-lag day of meetings and taxis across Beijing -- I return to the hotel to find this nice refresh note of wonder. Delicious.

Beijing arrival.

Ready to board @ JFK.

Inside the plane, kids are everywhere. Chinese kids with Chinese parents and grandparents.

Five year olds run up and down the aisle. Mid-flight, a couple of ten year old boys play a pushing game with their in-flight pillows near in the emergency door alcove. Across from me, pre-teen twins speak to their grandfather in Chinese and to each other in English.

School is out and everyone is going to visit the family. I've never seen the plane so filled with children.

Fourteen hours later the sun is setting in Beijing. We file off the ramp and into the sweeping gorgeous terminal. The kids are quiet.

The line at customs moves fast.

My taxi driver is pissed because I'm staying near the airport. In-between the gestures and the words I actually understand I realize he's solid with the guys at JFK: he waited in the taxi queue for an hour only to end up with me and a paltry $10 fare.

Swimtime

Olympic pool.

Ready to go!

Ready for Beijing

There are many ways to approach our trip: as a photography workshop; as a travel adventure; as an art tour; as a vacation. All of these are interconnected and, indeed, informed by each other.

Another goal, slightly larger perhaps, is to think about the meaning of culture itself, especially as pertains to the mixing up of cultural boundaries.

When I first started working in China, the idea of culture as a concrete entity captivated my imagination. For me, working in China made culture, and learning about culture, visible in ways I had never experienced. One of the many challenges that I set for myself, subsequently, was to investigate how my photography informed and influenced my understanding of what it meant to learn about learning itself.

My goal with our workshop is to invite you into a conversation on this topic. As we dip into Chinese culture these next two weeks, these are the questions that will animate our time together: What can experience teach us about the learning process? How can that process be documented? Why does the act of picture-making influence the way we think about a culture that we don't understand?