Faux Pas!! The White Devil Can Speak Chinese!!

A couple of days ago I was taking pictures with my very reliable Shin Hao 4x5 camera and my super wide 65 super Angulon lens. A friend of mine was complaining that he could not swing and tilt his super wide angle lens on his camera to achieve control of Perspective and Parallel Lines . We were working in a village and he asked for my help. I thought about it and thought, my techniques are not what they used to be only because Photoshop makes it easy to correct parallax and distortion. But back in the old days there was no photoshop. You had to do this in the camera. Large format cameras do that  and some specialty 35 mm lenses do too. The really nice part about using the large camera, there are many, is that you can see how your picture changes just by swinging and tilting the cameras lens plane and the film plane. So I took the camera out to the market that is right outside my door to practice some shooting. Setting up the camera takes time and people gathered around to see what I was doing. When I put the hood over my head to see the image a collective ahhhhhhh came from the crowd. In my best Chinese I asked several people if they wanted a view. Education is the quickest way to
extinguish  fear and mistrust. I always let people participate in my process when I can. My feeling is the more people are interested the easier my work is. Yet, not everyone has an interest in the work and will do their best to discredit me make fun of me. I don't know I think it is more of a personal issue than having to do with me. Anyway, a woman stepped up to the camera and called me a stupid white devil ( a real derogitory and mean spirited way to refer to foreigners) laughing, thinking what a stupid foreigner taking pictures with a ridiculous contraption doesn't even know what I am saying. Then I answered her in chinese. Stupid? White Devil? What? Why say that. Yes, I am a foreigner... Her eyes bugged out, her face turned red the crowd got quiet and she left.... very quickly.... Yes the white devil speaks chinese! Not so stupid afterall!

Basalt Rocks

I am excited! The Bernalillo County Public Arts Program just recently purchased a print of my image, Basalt Rocks, photographed in the Grand Canyon. I have made a limited edition of this image for sale to the public. The image is a custom hand printed silver gelatin archival print, on cold tone paper matted and framed it is a modest 22x22 inches. If you are interested in buying one, drop me a line on fb..... we can deliver anywhere ...

http://ragazine.cc/2012/10/bromberg-china/

The weather lately has been very hazy with a mix of fog and pollution.  As days go in Guangzhou this is a good day. An adult  student of mine had some sad news today for class. Her sister is sick with cancer. She is only 40 with a six year old. She had uterine sarcoma, a very deadly cancer and apparently a some what agressive cancer. Well she had her woman parts removed and did the chemo. That was six months ago. Everyone thought that was it, all is good.  My student, Fanny came to me today to tell me it had spread to her lungs. She started to cry. This is her only sister. In China, having a sibling is a very big deal. You are very lucky to have one if you have one. In America we seem to take our siblings for granted a lot of the time. She was a mess. We talked for hours. I could tell her heart was broken. She does not think any more chemo will help.  She has to break the news to her father. He will be 78 next month. She was debating when to tell him, before the party they have been planning for him or after. She already lost her mother to cancer three years ago. In the past eight months I have heard many stories about Chinese families losing a loved one early to strange and very agressive cancers. I was thinking, and then I just stopped thinking.

Yesterday, after classes at Guangzhou University somewhere in the Huadu district, I decided to go see my friends Aaron and Megan at Peizheng College... again somewhere in the Huadu District. Classes finished for me at 5:30 and I wanted to catch a bus to Huadu before nightfall. As I walked to the school bus I engaged a few teachers
to see if any of them knew what bus to take. Mark, an American who set me up with this job told Megan, real easy take the 4 bus. What he didn't tell her was where you catch the 4. So I asked around and in typical Chinese fashion I got a lot of I don't knows but they gave me directions any way. Some people just walked away from me. So I started walking. First in the direction of the main road but instincts told me to turn around. I have learned to really trust the instincts when the hackles go up, you know you need to do something different. I started walking in the opposite direction towards the bus station that you catch the 704 to the Renhe metro stop figuring that they would either have the bus there or they could tell me where to catch the bus. The bus station is a little hole in the wall place with smallish wooden benches you have to squat to sit on and a dirt parking lot for the busses. In my best Putong hua..(mandarin), I asked where do I catch the 4 bus to the New Century Hotel. Six people started to talk at me in Guangdong hua, (cantonese) of which I can only make out a little of what they are saying. Laughing and gesturing, grumbling and mumbling they told me no bus here. HAHAHAHA so funny...Ok ... so I asked where? they said there... and gestured south towards Guangzhou and take the 65 they said. I left the station, walking south. No worries.... the bus is out there somewhere. I engaged a motorcycle taxi and asked him where the 65 bus stop was. He wanted to know where I wanted to go. I told him Huadu. He wanted to take me there... 65 RMB he said. I said no. He started mumbling and grumbling. He started his motorcycle. I said wait. I want to go  to the bus stop. Take me to the bus stop. He thought about it, and said haode... (ok) and reluctantly gave me a ride to the bus stop. He charged me double. He cheated me, I didn't care. I found the bus stop. Three years ago I couldn't have done any of that. I would have cried.

Starting Over ... again

Casual Guangzhou Autumn Fashion 

Today is October 17th. I am working on changing things around trying to give my site a different look. trying to keep up with my blog. Since my last post which was almost a year ago, I moved into Guangzhou to be "more in the scene" I felt that Peizheng College was too remote to be able to do anything with the photography. So here I am.  Call me urbanite now. I decided that I did not want to do the typical sleek expensive apartment that most foreigners do. I wanted something in the middle of a village/ neighborhood that did not have any wei guo rens or brand new fancy skyscrapers. I found a place in xiaogang near the Guangzhou Art School, one of the best in China. The campus is beautiful with old trees lining the walkways and art in the gardens and on the walls of the buildings. It is almost like this place is out of place for China.