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| Saturday, 1-Sep-2007 02:47 |
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The Disappearing Worker
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Approaching
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Becoming an abstraction
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The Final Abstraction
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I took this series of shots in the Forbidden City a few years ago. On a cold, January morning. Workers have cleaned the Forbidden City for centuries. In the times gone by, they cleaned it for the Emperors of days gone by. Now, they clean the city for the government, and for tourists. In olden times, many of the senior workers and palace officials were quite powerful actually, and through the palace rituals, actually controlled the Emperor's life.
By the time of Pu Yi's short reign (Pu Yi was the last Emperor of the Qing Dynasty), the Emperor was quite weak actually. And, his every wish was entertained, to give him the illusion of power. Pu Yi actually had a whipping boy, whom he could whip whenever he was in a bad mood. For all that, he was a mere puppet. And, the court officials had the real power.
The lowly workers at the bottom of the pyramid were, however, the faceless, expendable rats. Yes, that's the expression - faceless, expendable rats.
And, this is pretty much true in the world today, be it in the large corporations where CEOs blithely axe 10,000 or 20,000 jobs or, in other societies where the lousy treatment of workers is more visible.
So much so, that they blend into the brickwork and become a mere abstract design for a passing amateur photographer on a cold winter day in January.
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| Saturday, 18-Aug-2007 14:25 |
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Next Week
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Hiya all. I should be back next weekend. Life has been incredibly hectic. But, the next weekend should see the return of me!
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| Sunday, 17-Jun-2007 12:06 |
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Foliage
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Roots
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Flowers
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Water on leaves
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I have been lazy. Actually, not so lazy, as occupied. Packing up house, preparing for a new move tends to occupy your mind.
So, I have been lazy, and have not really looked up any one's fotopages.
This is one entry, without too much in the text box. Laziness again.
These were pictures I took on a recent trip to Zhang Jia Jie. Beautiful place. Touristy. Lousy weather. But, the foliage was nice.
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| Tuesday, 29-May-2007 13:15 |
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Silence Is Golden
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Silence Is Golden
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In the calm of an evening on the sea when the cool breeze blows, and the sun goes down, you can feel the presence of God in the glorious Infinity of the Universe.
This is when you need inner silence to see, and feel the glory of nature, which is God.
Silence is Golden.
Enough Said.
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| Saturday, 26-May-2007 05:32 |
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Junk
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Junk
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These last entries are running in parallel, in one sense, to another blog that I have started. Called, From Dead Monkey, or something.
Anyway, this shot was taken relatively recently. I had gone, on a gloomy, rainy, snowy March day to do a photo shoot in the hutongs behind Qianmen, in Beijing. The hutongs are the old courtyard houses in the older parts of Beijing. Lots of narrow lanes, with some nice houses. These folks really lived in the shadow of the king.
Abut, that is not the subject of this entry. Junk is. Junk. I have been thinking about this kind of entry, ever since I saw a little series on decay, by Jankel.
We humans love to buy things and, junk them all over the place. I think we create our own kind of pollution. It's funny how much of our life is dominated by inanimate objects. Okay, these objects are created by animate folks like ourselves. But, we feel the need to make things, which we junk. And, create mountains of junk.
I met an Australian guy recently, who told of me of his life's philosophy, which he derived from the Buddhist (all old mystics say the same thing), that life becomes much simpler, if we reduce the number of masters that we have.
So, he has one credit card, one bank account, no car........ And, he says his life now, is much simpler. He's a corporate dude. But, a very centred fellow.
I will move to Singapore in July. In China, I have collected lots of stuff, which I will junk. And, in creating my own junk, I hope to reduce my masters in the future. Let's see 
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| Tuesday, 22-May-2007 14:21 |
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Fried Eggs
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Fried Eggs
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Okay, this is not a typical entry from me. This is me in a more sarcastic mood. Fried Eggs. My vision of the human race.
I was chatting with a colleague and, a good friend of mine one evening and, I suddenly got this vision of fried eggs. Rather, the whole human race turning into fried eggs. He was a little disgusted with me when I said this.
My logic? I had just returned from a travel to some place, which was hotter than it should have been. I was criticizing the human race for the pollution and the general muck that we create in the world. We dominate the world but, we screw it up completely.
So, my vision? One day, our brains would start popping out of our heads and fry, like fried eggs. However, in this picture, it looks more like a human face, with the yolks for eyes.
Pretty disgusting, yeah? But, we'd better watch out!
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| Monday, 14-May-2007 14:23 |
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Burning Bright
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Burning Bright
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THE TYGER (from Songs Of Experience)
By William Blake
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
1794
I can't add more. The eye of the tiger burns bright....
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| Wednesday, 9-May-2007 08:28 |
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A Touristy Trip To Harbin - 3
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This will be the "last" of the touristy Harbin set. We'd gone to see the Siberian tigers. The DongBei Hu (EastNorth Tigers in a literal translation).
All these shots were taken with my Nikon Coolpix S10. This is a great camera for undercover photography, because of the swivel lens. It also has a good zoom, upto 300 mm (in the 35 mm equivalent). And, it allowed me to stick the camera into the cage for some of the shots. The top 3 were taken from the moving bus. The bottom three, were taken through the cage. The close up of the tiger's head was taken when I stuck the lens into the cage, through the wiring. I had to be a bit careful, as one of the blokes was not too happy and, was swiping at us with it's paws, as you can see from one of the pictures.
This lot of tigers is not very well cared for. They were a slightly sorry looking lot, with little scabs and all that. Yet, with all that, they are magnificent creatures. You feel the majesty of these cats in their stride and, in the way they generally relax.
Tyger, tyger burning bright, as the dead poet said...
(Sorry Mark, did not mean to follow you so soon, with the tiger shots)
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| Wednesday, 25-Apr-2007 11:20 |
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A Touristy Trip To Harbin - 2
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It's been a long time since I updated the page. And so, these are a little out of date. The weather has turned warmer. It's nice. The sky is blue and, the weather temperate!
In Harbin, the sky was blue. The weather was cold...
Anyway, here are some snow sculptures. The houses are as big as actual houses. The man's head and the Native American Indian are about 100 feet high.
One shot of a house was taken early in the afternoon, when the sky colour was cooler. Two were taken when the sun was setting. You'll see the golden tint on the snow wall of the house.
One shot is that of Harbin town glistening in the evening sun. There's a model of the wonderful Sophia church.
Oh, look at the shot of Harbin town. Do you see the bridge? Now, look at it again at night in the last shot. This was a hand held shot. I had gone for a post dinner walk with my daughter when I decided to take that shot.
The next update will be on the 8th May.
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| Tuesday, 10-Apr-2007 13:45 |
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A Touristy Trip To Harbin - 1
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This is the first of a short series of our trip to Harbin in February this year. This year we had a warm winter. Harbin or, Ha 'er Bin as it is properly spelled, is in the North East Part of China or, 东北区, as they say in China!! Literally translated as East-North Area.
It's best known for the annual ice festival. They carve up huge blocks of ice and snow into various shapes. The ice blocks sometimes have lights frozen inside and, the lights work. The snow blocks are lit externally. The ice town and, the snow town are separate areas.
So, this is the ice town. This winter was warm. Normally, it should be - 15 degrees Centigrade day time and, - 30 at night, This year, was - 5 and - 15!! Warm.
Therefore, the young dancing queen did'nt seem to feel cold at all. She was, along with her mates, dancing in a thin jacket and, wearing a thin pair of gloves. Anyone fancy a dance with her - outside - if it is -30 degrees centigrade??
And, oh yeah! Commerce and advertising rules. You see Michelin somewhere?
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Enjoy your day 
