Category: CHINA

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CHINA contemplations Germany inspiration morning coffee talk Photography street street photography

Daily Coffee Talk~ 74/365

Sometimes it feels to me that I am cycling through my life in a comfortable pace and watching events happen around me as if on a movie screen.

But every once in a while an opportunity for change and elevation shows itself and somehow because of being so comfortable on the bike, I choose to look away.

Change means risk, discomfort, letting go of what we know, learning to adapt to a new situation and deciding to take the steps towards it without seeing the end of the road. A journey towards the unknown.

Change takes courage, will and determination and ladders are not easy to climb but climb them we will.

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CHINA contemplations inspiration morning coffee talk Photography street photography

Daily Coffee Talk~ 67/365

Tribal Ethnic Woman~ Yunnan, China

Today this image of the ethnic woman that I took in China triggered in me thoughts of lightness and weight. As I live and get older I feel the weight of my history and all that has happened in it.

I picture my life events as packages and bags that we have had to carry and as time goes on they can slow us down and keep us from moving forward and especially upward.

How do we let go of the weight and find the lightness we enjoyed as children?

Interestingly, most of my dreams that I diagnose as stress induced include suitcases, travel and items that are missing from them and time pressing on the whole situation and turning the level of stress to unbearable till I wake up.

Do we only let go of the weight when we pass on? Or can we start the shedding now, as we live, and be lighter and brighter?

I wish you a light and effervescent day ahead.

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china CHINA contemplations inspiration morning coffee talk Photography street photography

Daily Coffee Talk~60/365

Some of my favorite photography memories come from the times that I traveled alone on journeys to remotes places like in these photos.

These were taken in Yunnan, China, in villages so remote where the locals rarely ever see the likes of me.

On such trips, you meet innocence, curiosity and you feel the invigorating sense of discovery that only comes from being very far from comfort and routine.

I can’t wait till I can travel again and for the world to be allowing for that.

Good night from wintery Germany.

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CHINA contemplations Germany myanmar Photography street street photography

Morning Coffee Talk~18/365

young girl in Kashgar, 2011
woman in old alley, Shanghai, 2013
girl on bus, Yangon, 2016
girl behind train window, Istanbul, 2021

Good Morning,

It is winter in this part of the world and everyone spends a large part of their day indoors, seeing the world through window panes. How much of our lives is actually lived behind such barriers, in our cars, homes, schools, offices, airplanes, buses…

It feels like we see the world and the people around us through a frame, a view finder and that can only be part of the picture. How much does that influence our communication, tolerance, understanding of others, well-being, and humanity?

As the pandemic progresses, this lifestyle becomes more and more the normal way of going on and we are limited to our confined environments and lack of physical contact with others.

How many of our children are living mostly behind screens and communicating virtually with their friends? What influence will this have on our future as a human race?

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CHINA Photography

The Art of Containment~

Sometimes the world feels so vast, it’s people too many and the weight of it to heavy to bear. At those moments, and if you were a person that enjoys their own company with the endless mazes ripe with possibilities of self discovery, then the obvious result would be a self engineered containment. It can have the color of your own choosing, a palace on a hill or a hut on a beach, butterflies in its gardens or pebbles on its beach, the choices are endless.

So, I travel in my mind to my own palace of containment, letting my mind chart the journey and my spirit project the destinations.

Yes, our destinies can be re-written, by us.

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art CHINA Fine art inspiration Photography

Time to be Still~

In a time when all the planet is in upheaval, when all that we know is changing, when tensions are running high and panic and fear are the order of the day, being still might be what saves us. Let’s all take a moment, to pause in time and reflect on our lives here on this planet and all the good that remains in us and around us waiting to be noticed. Let’s be still because all is well, at least on the levels that matter most.
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CHINA Photography shanghai Travel

Crossing in Shanghai~

One of my favorite things about big cities is movement. People moving, going places, coming from places, going up stairs, crossing roads, cycling, running, walking and playing a part in rotating the great metropolis wheel. It’s the urban magic waiting for us photographers on every corner.

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CHINA Photography shanghai street photography

Shanghai Moments~

Visiting the city we called home for almost 12 years is nothing short of strange at first. But within a day or two I felt the streets call me back with their charm, unique flair and warmth of the people. So little of the old city is left as the large construction projects drive forward leaving bits and pieces of the beautiful old alleys around the city. As I walk around and find huge empty lots and big buildings on the sites of my favorite alleys, I realize that all my photography over the years in Shanghai has been about recording history and vanishing alleys that are never to come back again…

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CHINA inspiration Photography street street photography Uncategorized

Wanderlust~

yanghsuo portrait 2.jpg
an image of me meeting a local woman and child,  taken by a good friend on an adventure in Yangshuo, China, a few years back.

How gratifying it is to explore the spinning sphere we call home. Each time I plan a new trip, I feel a bubbling of excitement at the unknown that would undoubtedly meet, the amazing people who cross my path and the images my camera would capture. It is as soul nourishing journey when I am far from my routine, away from the usual comforts of home and when I get the chance to push the limits of what I know. It makes me think of how knowledge was collected prior to the industrial revolution and the schooling systems that created machines for the industry; before that time knowledge was sought through experience, apprenticeship and exploration. What an incredibly esoteric experience.

Where is your next journey taking you?

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CHINA human rights Photography religion street photography xinjiang

Future Unknown~ Xinjiang

Future unknown~ heartbreaking news coming from Xinjiang about China holding over a million Uighur muslims in re-education centers for the purpose of removing their #faith which they label as a virus. History keeps repeating itself and we humans never seem to learn. Their most recent tactic is breaking up families whose strength and cohesion they perceive as a threat to future China.

Story here