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| Friday, 8-Jul-2005 00:00 |
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Faces through the Ages - 9. The Poor Folk of Yangshuo
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As you will have noticed, I have been very irregular when it comes to fotopages. Hopefully, things will improve after the 20th.
What can I say about these people? About poor people, in general. To live amidst the beauty of this place and yet, to possibly, be too poor to enjoy it. The lady waiting for Godot lives in a 1,000 year old town, which, I have been told, the government wants to preserve. But, the lives of the people?
They will still wait for Godot, I think.
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| Tuesday, 21-Jun-2005 00:00 |
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Yangshuo - Poverty At The Edge Of Beauty
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Well, you've seen the beauty of the mountains of Yangshuo. These mountains are, undoubtedtly beautiful. They have been the subject of many Chinese paintings and, I think, a fair amount of Chinese poetry as well. Middle class folk, rich folk, corporate folk pop down all the time and, sigh and gasp at the beauty and then, return. Some, like me, upload pictures to the net.
We went to a little fishing village and, a 1,000 year old hertitage town. No changes, I believe, are allowed in the old town, which is great but, it does not do much for the people of the town. The "Old Houses" and, the "Old Street" are photos from the old town and, the next three are pictures from the fishing village.
The old woman who now lives in the house, charges you 50 Chinese cents (6 US cents) to go up to the "Rooftop against the Mountains", to have a look at the view. And, you can get your photo taken along with the "Painting for View" for another 3 US cents. A different world.
And, the boatman has his humble kitchen at the back of the boat. The same boat from where I took most of the pictures of the mountains.
There are worlds and, there are worlds on this earth that we live.
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| Tuesday, 14-Jun-2005 00:00 |
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A final look at the YangShuo Mountains
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These pictures were taken at the same time as the last set but, I shot into the shadows. The effect, in my opinion, is quite different. A little more dreamy, I think but, that is my personal opinion!! In one shot , I was almost shooting into the sun so, you see the refracted rays coming into the picture.
I did take a few more shots of YangShuo but, these were of the old town near the water's edge and, the little village there. I am not sure if I will put these up, however. Or, maybe I will. There is poverty at the edge of beauty.
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| Sunday, 29-May-2005 00:00 |
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The YangShuo Mountains Contd.....
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Modern Boat on The River
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Traditional Boat on the River
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Fisherman Waiting for the catch??
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First of all, let me start with an apology. I have been tardy of late, in posting comments to everyone's photos. I have been too damn busy and, I see this crazy phase going on until the middle of July. I will, however, try and be a bit regular, however.
These photos are the second installment of my trip to YangShuo last August. A hot and steamy August it was, too. But, very nice. One of these days, I will start posting pictures of Shanghai. I have started photographing the city and, I hope that, by the end of the year, I should have a decent collection of pictures. You'll see the contrast between Shanghai and the rest of China. Or, should I say, between Shanghai and China!!
The water buffaloes? Well, they will probably never earn the millions that Bill Gates and Jack Welch have and, neither will they clock huge frequent flyer miles. But, they will not die of work related stresss either. Someone, many years ago, said that all the animals on earth, except man, know that the principle purpose of life, is to enjoy it. These water buffaloes certainly live upto that principle. More power to them.
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| Tuesday, 10-May-2005 00:00 |
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Inside the YangShuo Mountains..
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YangShuo in the Southern province of Guangxi is a fascinating place. It is awesome. I will do some research and, tell you more about it next time but, it is home to the famous karst mountains. These, I think, are limestone hills, which have been fashioned by nature into some of the most spectacular scenery. But, I will get you into that by and by. I will try and keep some suspense up for you folks!!
I went there last August and, it was love. Yep, it was love. I want to explore the province a little more and, see if I can photograph the terraced paddy fields.Awesome stuff.
The caves, inside have these super stalagtites and, stalagmites. You know how we were taught which goes up and, which goes down. The stalagmites always go up, cause when the mites go uo, the ti(gh)tes go down.  .
The beauty of the "caves" or, tunnels really was enhanced by the lighting. This was spectacular. I shot a few with the flash but, the flash robbed the scenes of the beauty. Natural lighting was better. All these are handheld shots. Anyway, there were so many people shoving and pushing inside, using a tripod would have been completely impossible. Many of these formations have been given fancy names - like "Rising August Moon Through A Sea of Clouds" and, such stuff.. But, what the hell. So you see my attempt to give the formations fancy names.
Nature's art at its best. Confucius (Kongzi) once said that if he had 50 more years to live, he would spend it studying the Yi King or, I Ching. If I had 50 additional years of health ( & wealth), I would spend it photographing people and, the beauty of the natural world.
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| Friday, 6-May-2005 00:00 |
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Charcoal Boat
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Charcoal Boat
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I am off to Singapore next week and, have been blissfully sleeping over the last few days and, watching movies late into the night and, drinking lots of wine. Labour Holidays are bliss!!!
And, I have a huge backlog to put up here!! YangShuo, the Forbidden Palace, Shanghai, Chicago, San Juan, Qian Dao Hu. I have become lazy!!
Anyway, here is a quasi-artistic and wholly pompous rendering of a boat inQian Dao Hu. Qian Dao Hu means Thousand Island Lake. It is a lake that is 6sq km larger than Singapore City and, has 1,078 islands. Quite beautiful. Really beautiful.
The charcoal effect?? Dreamland!!!!! We live in a world of perceptions of reality.... 
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| Wednesday, 27-Apr-2005 00:00 |
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The Dark Side of the Moon????
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From The Dark Side
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Okay, Pink Floyd had better not sue me for this title!. But, I was listening to their marvellous album, "The Dark Side of The Moon" recently and, of course, I was struck by one of my favourite songs on that album. "Brain Damage". Surely, one of the finest descriptions of a lunatic's mind that I have come across. You know those lines " ... there's someone in my head but, it's not me" and,
"..And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes,
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon".
In my teens I used to be quite occupied with the problem of madness. What is it? Different perceptions of reality and are we, who seem to be sane, actually insane when when seen through the eyes of a madman? Also, given the fact that so many people nowadays are visiting a psychiatrist or, being treated for depression - who is the one who is truly insane?
Now, in Hindu philosophy, we have the concept of Maya. Maya is the supreme Goddess, above even the Holy Trinity of Indian Gods and, the concept, very loosely translates as perception and illusion. As per this concept, the world around us is an illusion. It is our perception of the world that we take as reality and, we have to pierce this veil to seek ultimate reality.
Very much a quantum physics view of the world. Or, even a William Blake view. How many of you remember the opening lines of his poem 'Auguries of Innocence'. Another super poem that deals with this issue is one called "The Conference of the Birds" by, I think Farad ud-din-Attar.
Finally, there is Aldous Huxley's experiments with mescalin in "The Doors of Perception" and, the books of Carlos Castaneda!!
Then there is Hermes Trismegistus. There is so much alternate reality that, we can all get into a long debate about what is reality and, what is not. So, if this is the case, how do we define insanity? As one who does not perceive the world as we commonly perceive it?
Incidentally, this photograph is not a shot of the moon. It is a picture of a late afternoon winter sun. Taken at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Alternate reality!!
On an administrative note - my schedule for the next two and a half months is completely crazy. I will dip in and out of fotopages. I will try and keep up with everyone's entries but, if I am late at times, my apologies in advance. At some point, I will put up photos of San Juan and Chicago.
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| Friday, 8-Apr-2005 00:00 |
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And for the last time, Aqualung was not at Rottach Egern
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Was Aqualung Here??
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I have to repeat this one, Aqualung was not sitting on this park bench in Rottach Egern, eyeing girls with bad, really bad intent!! Oh no, no, no!!
For one, he would have wet the seats of his pants and, we would not want that, now would we?? And, Rottach does not have too many young girls. There were a few that came in when I left and, they were some real good lookers so, maybe Aqualung took his seat here after I left. Maybe, just maybe but, we will never know. This will be one of the secrets that will be buried in the sands of time!!
Okay all, this is the last entry of mine from that trip to Rottach. Enough of winter! Away with it. We now have the beautiful days of spring before us.
I will be away for two weeks. I'll keep up with your entries, however. I will be in San Juan, Chicago and then, in a place called Qian Dao Hu (Thousand Island Lake). See you around.
And, if you see some shabby, long haired, long beared fellow lurking, leering in your neighbourhood, maybe it will be Aqualung out there to beless you all!!
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| Wednesday, 6-Apr-2005 00:00 |
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Visions of Madness and Horror? Divine, or Temporal?
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Well, you guys have seen the last few entries - pristine beauty, snow on the branches and all. Remember, I had said that there is much that you can do with this, depending on what you see in the picture. Or, depending on what you choose to see in the picture.
I played around with Photoshop for this entry, one of the very rare times I play with Photoshop and, I have come up with these dark images.
In college I was told that I have a dark mind. I was fascinated with black magic and, the dark arts!!
I once wrote a short story called "Catherine and Me". It started off quite sweetly, about Catherine. And then, Catherine's life darkened, because I, a jealous, malevolent spirit, occupied her mind and, slowly turned her to madness. And, all this happened on the spur of the moment.
Okay, now, I am not normally dark. I am normally quite sunny but, here are some dark images, from my dark side!!
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| Monday, 4-Apr-2005 00:00 |
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Precursor to the next entry
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Well, I am winding down my entries concerning Rottach Egern now. Only two more to go after this and, about time. It is quite ridiculous, to be posting winter pictures in spring time. In the last entry, 'Pristine Beauty', I actually had no time to write any comments and, was in half a mind to go back and write something. But then, when I looked at the entry, I thought that maybe the trees looked good enough in themselves and, did not need any accompanying blah-blah from me to tell the world how nice they looked.
In this particular entry, the only blah blah that I will give is that, when I looked at the snow on the branches, I suddenly had this crazy thought: that the snow and, the branches could, if we use our imagination a bit, be the root of some wonderful, abstract patterns. Think about it. Twist the pictures and, the shapes a little bit in your mind, give them some colour and, you'll get my drift. 
On an autobiographical note, I have just finished re-printing and cataloguing photos from the last 23 years of picture taking. I notice now, that my initial attempts were actually quite bad. Real crap, actually. Then, I developed my own style. Became a little pompous about it and, started shooting some lousy stuff again. So, in 1987, I quit for 10 years. Then, I did some sporadic stuff from 1997 till 2003 and, resumed again in October 2003, in Lijiang, China. It's been quite a journey. Someday, I shall put up some of my old stuff as well.
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Kidding..
