04-SEP-2007
Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2007
These were the world's tallest towers from 1998 to 2004, and remain the highest twin structures on earth. I abstract the structure by interpreting it as an interlocking pattern of curving and linear windows. In doing so, I provide an unusual close-up look at the building’s metallic and glass façade which completely fills the frame. This photograph does not describe the building. Rather, the form and shape of the building itself is replaced by a pattern of repeating elements that offer an insight into its character – strong, supportive, modern, simple and interdependent.
04-SEP-2007
Lobby, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2007
The lobby floor of the Petronas Towers is inlaid with a pattern of curving lines, resembling paths or lanes. By shooting down on these lines from above, I create a sense of radiant, rhythmic energy. I include two people in this picture, moving in different directions. The woman in Muslim dress looks in one direction and walks in another, the blurred man at the right hand edge carries us in an opposite direction. These divergent paths seem to expand the pattern beyond its borders.
06-SEP-2007
Tai Chi, Shanghai, China, 2007
By moving well below this man doing Tai Chi on a Shanghai monument to China’s revolution, I was able to create an echo effect, linking the interlocked position of his arms to the juxtaposed hammer and sickle on the wall just below him. By moving to my left, I am also able to shift the position of the man towards the right side of the frame, linking the direction of his Tai Chi thrust to the flow of the rhythmic pattern of rays coming out of that hammer and sickle emblem. My low vantage point places him directly between that emblem and the Chinese inscription behind him. My low perspective not only energizes the image by mobilizing its rhythms and patterns -- it also suggests that China’s historical past may be very much alive in this man’s mind. It also demonstrates how critical our vantage point can be in terms of organizing rhythms and patterns as meaning.
07-SEP-2007
Skyscrapers, Shanghai, China, 2007
The Shanghaiese look to the east, where Pudong rises into the sky just across the Huangpo River. At left is the 88-story Jin Mao Tower, still the tallest building in China and one of the tallest in the world. The building to its right, the 101-story World Financial Center, now under construction, will soon surpass it. I made this image from inside a car that was moving along a Shanghai expressway, letting me create foreground and middle-ground layers of light standards, plus two foreground buildings that provide striking contrast to these skyscrapers. These layers are integrated by the repeating rhythms – the vertical light standards echo the thrust of skyscrapers behind them, just as the verticality of the skyscrapers themselves rhythmically echo each other.
08-SEP-2007
Workers, Shanghai, China, 2007
While these grinning construction workers were happily posing for the four other photographers in our group, I moved well over to one side, aligning them with the pattern created by the colored boards hanging on the wall behind them. The boards rhythmically carry the eye through the picture, and reinforce the echoing body language of the arms and hands of the workers.
10-SEP-2007
Confucian Temple, Nanjing, China, 2007
Huge sticks of incense constantly burn before the statue of Confucius in Nanjing's 1,500 year old Confucian Temple. The characters imprinted on the outside of the sticks incongruously appear as well on the burning ash itself. I organize the image around the repetition of vertical thrusts – the three sticks of incense echo the vertical folds of the statue’s softly focused robe just behind them. The crossed hands emerging from the robe repeat the ash emerging from the incense sticks as well.
11-SEP-2007
Exercise, Nanjing, China, 2007
Dancing with red fans is a popular form of exercise in China’s parks. I abstract this woman, dancing in Nanjing’s Stone City Park, by photographing her from behind and backlighting her, so that the fans become almost translucent. Dance itself is made up of rhythmic, repetitive moves, and I’ve tried to emphasize that in this image. One side of the photo repeats the other – with her arms and hands held at the same angles, and with the fans repeating each other’s arcs as they move through space. Within each fan, there is a pattern of wooden supports. The transparent arcs that form around these patterns repeat the arcs of the billowing outer edges of the fans.
13-SEP-2007
Rigging a lamp, Pingyao, China, 2007
With a nail in his mouth, this electrician is poised to install the first of a number of hanging lamps outside a Pingyao restaurant. (He probably serves its meals as well, and perhaps even cooks them. The operative word in a small, remote city such as Pingyao is versatility.) A series of horizontal rhythms is stacked from the top to the near bottom of this photograph. A double row of sockets and decorative embellishments offers rhythmic repetition that carries the eye across the top of the image. The electrician’s hands break the rhythm at the center, calling attention to his task. The arms of the electrician complete an arch that links with the electrical wire. The circular lampshade repeats the shape of the circular embellishments above it. And the characters spelling out the name of the restaurant rhythmically flow across the lower half of the image. All of this offers counterpoint to the expression on the face of the electrician.
18-SEP-2007
Drenched, Temple of Heaven, Beijing, China, 2007
Seven wet tourists, sharing five tiny umbrellas, try to keep dry as they gamely stride through a squall drenching one of China’s most famous temple complexes. There is a musical beat to this picture, based on the rhythmic repetition that undulates between the tourists, their umbrellas and their reflections on the wet pavement. It is as if we are looking at a page of soggy musical notes. The tourists, meanwhile, are abstracted into anonymity by the umbrellas except for the lady bringing up the rear. I climbed the steps of the complex’s signature structure, appropriately named the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, to get this high vantage point, as well as claiming a dry spot under its overhanging lower roof. Without this high vantage point, the rhythmic reflections don’t work.
30-AUG-2007
Library, Singapore, 2007
When heavy rains disrupted our pbase shoot-around in Singapore, we headed for cover in the city’s stylish library. We found one room, probably a lounge or display area, that had only one occupant – a man working on his laptop at the very end of a long row of upholstered stools. By taking the seat at the far end of the room, he makes the image work as a series of rhythmically repeating shapes. Three major patterns emerge, the interlocking boards of the polished bare floor, the round stools, softly illuminated by window light, and the row of wet windows itself. All three patterns sweep the eye down to the man at the very end of the room. If he were any further from us, he would be out that door, which gives the exit sign over it an extra touch of meaning. He leans over his laptop, unaware of the power of the patterns that lead our eyes to him. His relatively small size also creates a scale incongruity – all of those empty stools, with just one of them in use.
03-SEP-2007
Chorus of the Gods, Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2007
The deities atop the roof of the Hindu Temple at the base of the stairway to the Batu Caves seem to be chanting in unison, as a storm gathers overhead. I immediately saw the rhythmic repetition in the subject itself. To make it work as expression, I abstract the figures by silhouetting them against the late afternoon sky, exposing for the brightest part of the image. This calls attention to their body language instead of drawing attention to their ornate appearance. That body language is rhythmic in itself – arms upraised, symbols in hand, the statues appear to singing as a chorus. There was virtually no color in the leaden sky, so I converted the digital file to black and white. The image becomes universal and timeless, truly a Chorus of the Gods.