Matsa; The Morning After Photo Gallery by Kal Khogali at pbase.com

Matsa; The Morning After

After 24 hrs of teasing Shanghai, Typhoon Matsa struck the city with vengence on the night of 6th August 2005. These images are an attempt to express the resolve, fortitude and character of the people of Shanghai. I spent about 1hr walking around the area I live and came back with these. If I was at home, the world would stop. Here, life goes on. I love the people of Shanghai....

Matsa; Fallen Comrades	Matsa; A Small Step for Man	Matsa; Exit Right	Matsa; Bonding	Matsa; Support
Matsa; Life goes on	Matsa; That Look	Matsa; Walking on Water	Matsa; Run	Matsa; Sinking
Matsa; A Smile & Peek	Matsa; Determination	Matsa; Riding the Tide	Matsa; Following the Lead	Matsa; The Arc

comment |

George McCarten		31-Aug-2006 12:06
I get the sense of being in a flood here, as I had once in Seoul, and too many times in Bangkok, which is an almost normal aspect of life during the rainy season. Standing in sewage: unavoidable, but definetely have to wash as soon as you can!

...duncan		11-Feb-2006 14:41
I think these images are a testament to the resolve of a people and how they can move on with their lives after the storm. Most other places you see people wallowing in their own worlds not carrying on with their lives and being sentimental about lost things. Not in these images. Very well done. There does not need to be the images of hardship or damage because the average photojournalist will cover them. The average journalist looks for the, pardon me, crap, and sinks their teeth into it. They don’t describe the actual experience in a whole because they leave out much of what happened. It is often and dream of the journalist to go into the zoned area of hardship and find downcast eyes and faces in tears. They look for that like a tourist looks for the nearest fast food place. Those images sell the scene but not the reality. I have been through ice storms and tornado warnings and some wild weather, not to the extreme as some, but generally what happens in a book is opened, conversations happen and time carries on without amenities and services that make life easier. Life does go on.

Marisa Livet		16-Aug-2005 05:44
The force of this gallery makes me unable to comment, often words are meaningless. Marisa

Phil Douglis		08-Aug-2005 16:49
Glad this story gave you some experience in photojournalism, Kal. For a first ever attempt, it is worthy one. You learned a lot from it, particularly in retrospect. You now have a better perspective -- Capa was right when he said "if you pictures aren't good enough, you are probably not close enough." He was telling us to abstract our subjects by moving in and finding an essence, instead of trying to tell the whole story in one shot. On the other hand, he would warned you about the very problem you point out -- you let yourself "experience" the story so much that it colored your perspective. You thought you were capturing "resolve and fortitude" when it was really your own resolve and fortitude that was showing here. And viewers don't care about the photographer, they care about what they can see and feel and care about in the image. You've hopefully learned to stand back and see a story from the viewer's perspective, and do whatever you can to help them grasp the essence of THAT story, instead of your own.

Kal Khogali		08-Aug-2005 12:45
The reason being Phil that the damage as I discovered during the day today was limited to flooding and some uprooted trees. I have added a couple of images of these as a record, one of which I think works well. Some of these images don't fit in here, and went in mainly because I would not normally have posted them. This was my first ever attempt at recording something of news value. I learned three things..1) Don't get carried away with the moment (easy to do in the excitement)...2) Move on, there is news elsewhere...3) there are always other non-news images to take in these situations, and if you spend too much time on them...you miss the news! I value your comments as always Phil. This was a good learning experience for me. I will do it differently next time. One thing I do know is that Robert Cappa was right, some of these images involved me being knee deep in water full of sewage, and would never have been captured without being close and experiencing it. I just experienced it too much!!

Phil Douglis		07-Aug-2005 20:27
Although the "resolve and fortitude" you mention are not really evident in these images, I do get the feeling that it is still business as usual in Shanghai. As you say in one of your captions, Kal, "life goes on." It would have been a more effective gallery as a whole if you had been able to cover a greater variety of situations. Too many of these shots are essentially repeating similar themes: kids playing in the water, and people riding through the water. There are not enough indications of hardship, damage, or incongruous changes, other than the flooded streets. Several of these images do express the unusual nature of the event, however. I have noted these in individual comments.

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