To be able to shut down, recharge, get rest, anywhere, in any situation, is the gift of sleep.
My shutter click woke her up and I found myself buying water bottles as a form of apology 🙂
Tag: sleeping
Being a photographer, shadows intrigue, evade, flee, hover and enchant us in so many ways as they claim their place in our images. Shadows are strange phenomena, aren’t they? They are the reverse projections of whatever object is blocking the light, almost like the doubles of that object that follow it wherever it goes, sometimes obviously visible and daunting, and other times barely there like phantoms. In a high energy city like New York, even shadows need a little nap.
A few days ago, we entered the sixth year of our expatriate life in Shanghai and I so wish I was doing a 365 project for every day of those years. Living here is in every way a thrilling adventure, looking daily at the strange canvas of what this culture of contrasts has to offer. And some things never change. Amongst the new buildings, the fancy high rises, the dozens of emerging 5 star hotels and glitzy malls, the workers continue to sleep in their stalls, they still ride their run down bikes carrying load of odd baggage, and they are always sweet, innocent and grounded in old tradition. Yes, I value every day I spend here and for that I will continue to drag my camera around daily into the streets of this amazing city.
photo taken: man asleep in his stall at the fabric market near the Bund, Shanghai
Go to any Ikea store in China and you are guaranteed to find at least 10 people (I have once counted over 50 people) sleeping, lounging, chilling with shoes off, reading books, listening to music, on the sample furniture. They appear to come for their lunch breaks and just really shut down and take a rest ignoring all the noise of shoppers around them. I am still not sure how to process this behavior, but at the moment all I can say is that I wish I was that free 🙂
photo taken: man fast asleep, he wouldn’t have woken up if you sat on him, in the newly opened giant Ikea shop in Pudong, rumored to be largest in all Asia.
Did you ever entertain the thought of taking out a lounge chair, carrying it out to the pavement of a busy street of an densely populated city, opening it up and stretching there to chill? Chinese people baffle me with their ability to just let it all hang for a half hour when they need a break, as if they have an on/off switch and they can just power off to recharge just about anywhere!
For me to take a nap, I need to have the right pillow, one of the 4 on my bed, not the one that’s too hard, or the one that is too feathery, or the kind of not so comfy one, I need the one in between and I know exactly which one it is. The noise levels have to be close to mute, and the temperature of the room has to be right. I have to be wearing no constricting clothing items like socks and the other stuff women wear and I need to silence all my phones and deal with any pending issues that might keep my mind active and stop me from relaxing into a nap… how complicated is that?? In the meantime, the locals are dozing off on the pavement, in the bus, on restaurant tables, on shop counters, and in the middle of loud and hectic traffic!