B&W photos from Taishan

Black and White photos from Taishan county.


Women sort through a pile of mud in order to find baby crabs, which they then sell to a man at 100 crabs/20 RMB (a little less than $3 USD). The guy then either sells the crabs or raises them until they are big and he sells them for a crabload. We got our full-size crabs for 45 RMB, about $7 USD.
For two nights, I stayed in Sha-Lan village, which has recently seen a large emigration to Brazil. Indeed, two of the families I met in Brazil hailed from this village, and I was able to contact their families to see their homes they left behind.


The family I stayed with had a son who was 19, and was quite severely mentally retarded. He acted like a 3 or 4 year old, crying when he didn't get something, pouting to his mom, and woke up everyone at 5 am for no reason. He seemed to love photography; I allowed him to take my photo and he loved it when I took his. At one point, he ran to his older sister's room and grabbed her Hello Kitty. I like the picture for some reason.

Sha-Lan village.
Sha-Lan village

Rain and snow

Today I had my first snowfall in Milan. I love snow and rain (in small doses, of course). People who have grown up around snow know there is a special feeling when you wake up to a world of white.
My apartment when I woke up. You can see the snow on the building across the street; this is a color photograph, no joke.

The tram-tracks by my apartment.

Snow has a way of cleaning things up, before making them all dirty again.
I love the sort of moody film noir feeling one gets when photographing rain in low light. Rain creates new worlds, through reflections, puddles, raindrops on windowpanes. Now if only I had a weatherproof camera and could shoot at ISO 3200 or 6400.... maybe Christmas??

I like to photograph in the late afternoon and early evening, when light is subdued, when people are subdued, when natural light mixes with the artificial.


Curitiba, Brazil

Next time it rains, go outside and pay attention. Just look and see, look for patterns, for light, for the way light hits raindrops. Sometimes beautiful things appear.

Can anybody figure out who this is?