A Glimpse of the World

A Transition

August 3, 2008 11:49 AM

On Monday August 4, I leave China, ending five years of extraordinarily rich residence in Shanghai.
As I depart China, I am also leaving The New York Times, ending a fulfilling 22 year career at the newspaper, and joining the faculty of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
For more biographical information, please refer to the “About” item on this page.
So what does this change mean for me? It means that I have to reinvent myself as a teacher. It’s actually a return to something I did very early in my working life, when I taught English literature in the 1980s at the University of Abidjan, in Ivory Coast.
It also means a return to my roots, sunk back in that same era, as a freelance writer. My plan is to stay very busy as a writer, and during the fallow portions of the academic calendar, the idea is to continue traveling and exploring the world. My first effort in this direction is a review of The Corpse Walker, by the Chinese writer Liao Yiwu, in The Nation, which can be found on this site.
In the near term, this will undoubtedly mean continuing to pay a lot of attention to China. I’ve invested a lot of effort in coming to grips with this country, including becoming fluent in the language and photographing the withering old neighborhoods of Shanghai in an in-depth and arguably unique way.
With its velocity of change, and a population that amounts to 1/5th of humanity, the China story will only get better, and I plan to be involved in it, both as a writer and a photographer. Stay tuned.
Other specific plans include more work in Africa. A trip back to the continent last year after several years away merely whet my appetite for much more work there.
I’m also thinking about India, about the Caribbean, where I worked in the early 1990s, about southeast Asia, and about that newest of all subjects of exploration for me, the United States.
My hopes also include a rapid conclusion to my first attempt at fiction, a big push to get Disappearing Shanghai into print in book form, and some embryonic non-fiction projects.
For people who are interested in my work, you will find regular updates on all of this right here.
Finally, before long, visitors will also discover a long overdue redesign of this website.

Posted at 11:49 AM · Comments (1)

Featured Writing

China’s Ode to Legerdemain

August 14, 2008 7:50 AM

From the Huffington Post - Posted August 13, 2008 | 06:36 PM (EST)

I have a small confession to make.

I slept through much of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

I could blame my flagging interest on jet lag, since I had just arrived in the United States from China, where I had lived for the last five years, and there would be an element of truth in that. Or I could emphasize the feelings that these mass exercises induced in me as they stretched on.

Yes, there was an irresistible twinge of admiration for the production effort that went into such a gigantic spectacle, just as I have felt real respect for China’s national reconstruction effort that I’ve watched firsthand. Ultimately, as I watched other night, though, I felt a mild sensation of repugnance accompanied by a creeping sense of boredom.

To be truthful, there were moments of sheepishness over the next couple of days, as messages poured in from friends, including some from ordinarily skeptical Chinese, about what an awesome, even life changing experience the opening ceremony had been.

Explaining the boredom, though, is a snap.

Leni Riefenstahl has never been remembered so well as in recent weeks, as one commentator after another (myself included, in my former column in the International Herald Tribune) has compared Beijing 2008 to Berlin 1936, and invoked the name of Hitler’s filmmaker to try to come to terms with such an ambitious marshaling of imagery in the direct and obvious service of propaganda that we have witnessed by the Olympics’ Chinese hosts.

Paeans to the grandeur of the state and the manipulation of history in an unsubtle celebration of racial identity and doctrinaire solidarity seem terribly old hat. The effacement of the individual and the glorification of a sacred, but never clearly defined national cause are of a piece with nasty ideologies of bygone eras.

Beijing’s favorite director of politically correct cinema blockbusters, Zhang Yimou, directed the Beijing spectacle using every high-tech trick he could muster, but the event’s intellectual lineage goes back to the bygone tenors of the Hollywood epic, masters of the mass, anonymous screen extra, like Cecil B. DeMille and William Wyler.

Fortunately nowadays, most of the world is suspicious of the all-powerful state that brooks no contradiction from the individual. For all the talk of the ceremonies’ tightly choreographed “one-from-many” message being an expression of a uniquely Asian social paradigm, Beijing and its Mini Me ally, North Korea are in fact the only true believers in the values trumpeted on opening night.

My confession continues. I was wrong to be so blasé as to fall asleep. Beijing communicated to the world in an unmediated fashion on 8/8/08, and it delivered a deeply revealing message and one that is properly worrisome: behold us in awe and pay tribute to our greatness, fall in line and ask no meddlesome questions.

The repugnant side of the Games has been there all along, but during the buildup was somehow kept mostly out of view. That is until the cynicism, dishonesty and power worship that lies at the heart of the Chinese state’s program was laid bare through an embarrassing revelation: the little pixie who enchanted the world on opening night, singing Ode to Motherland, just as the flag bearing Chinese team entered the stage wasn’t in fact the little girl who sang the anthem.

Chinese television viewers were further mislead, during the ceremonies’ long discursion about the grandeur of the country’s supposed 5,000 years of history by a fireworks display that was not the fireworks display that those in attendance at the National Stadium, the ‘Bird’s Nest’ actually saw.

The state’s worry that anything but a carefully handpicked crowd might lead to spontaneous protests or some other mortifying embarrassment led it to ratchet up security to the point that ordinary people feel it’s not worth attending. So when the stands have been too empty, the government has trucked in ersatz fans, including many of its own eugenically selected youthful volunteers.

The occasion of the Olympics was too important to leave anything to chance, or indeed to leave any room for reality. Embellishing the face of China, and thereby enhancing the prestige of its rulers, required something better, a painstakingly idealized hyper-real, and whether that required trickery or deception, so be it.

There are indications that even ordinary Chinese people are tired of such games, complaining in large numbers online about the government’s manipulative handling of the Opening Ceremony.
The official answer to such complaints came from Chen Qigang, a Politburo member whose interview Beijing Radio was quoted in The New York Times. “Everyone should understand this in this way,” Chen urged. “This is in the national interest. It is the image of our national music, national culture, especially during the entrance of our national flag. This is an extremely important, extremely serious matter.”

One might add that such overriding emphasis on flag and anthem and face-driven notions of national interest, as decided entirely behind closed doors by something called a politburo is extremely old fashioned.

The corollary to this episode, of course, has the government’s response to skeptical minded foreigners, journalists or otherwise, who come to the festivities armed with all sorts of questions about the nature of the Chinese system, the restrictions on liberties, the use and purpose of Chinese power. “Aw shucks,” the system has seemed to answer. “These are just games, meant to be enjoyed by the Chinese people, and for the people of the world. Don’t sully their purity with politics. Don’t spoil our wonderful party with talk about rights or ideals.”

For remaining doubters, the veil lifted on the stage management of the opening ceremonies should clarify things. These games are and always have been about something most serious: China’s global resurgence. The Chinese people themselves have few outlets for a national conversation about what their country’s rise means for themselves and for the world. The government won’t tolerate it.

That makes it all the more imperative that the rest of mankind to come to grips intelligently with this country’s remarkable rise, and not to be put off by anodyne slogans like the ephemeral erstwhile favorite “peaceful rise,” or by the equally airy, and content-free current ones, like “harmonious society,” and “scientific development,” or indeed by the razzle-dazzle of the games themselves.

Click to read more

Posted at 7:50 AM · Comments (0)

Disappearing Shanghai

May 15, 2008 10:55 PM

I’ve just come across this link to a picture from my Shanghai gallery show of February 2008. Thought it was worth sharing. This is a show of one of the two rooms where the images were displayed. The other room, which can’t be seen here, contained much larger prints from medium format (Rolleiflex) photographs.

Click to read more

Posted at 10:55 PM · Comments (0)

m97画廊荣幸地宣布摄影双个展 - A Solo Photo Show in Shanghai

February 15, 2008 8:07 PM

2 New Solo Photography Exhibitions:
Robert van der Hilst “Shanghai: 1990-1993” and
Howard W. French “Disappearing Shanghai”
Exhibition Dates: February 16 - March 21, 2008

Opening Reception: Saturday February 16, 5 - 8 pm

m97 Gallery is pleased to announce two new photography exhibitions: “Shanghai: 1990-1993” by Dutch photographer Robert van der Hilst and “Disappearing Shanghai” by American photographer Howard French. Both photographers use their different camera languages to present us a grand picture of the people and streets of Shanghai beginning with Robert’s color Kodachrome works in the early 1990s to the recent past, and five years of Howard French’s black-and-white documentary work in the alleyways of Shanghai. The exhibitions begin on February 16, 2008, and m97 Gallery will hold an opening reception for the artists on Saturday February 16th from 5pm to 8pm.

Robert van der Hilst’s early color work from “Shanghai: 1990-1993” captures the early roots of this large metropolis as it readies itself for the great thrust forward towards modernization. Bringing a strong sense of color and composition to his work in the streets of Shanghai, Robert’s color Kodachrome photographs, now viewed some 18 years later, bring a sense of historical reflection after the past two decades of breakneck development in China’s financial capital. His subjects and sceneries are at once both familiar and foreign to the viewer. The subtleties and textures of Robert’s works, as well as the overall appearance of the city and its people are captured by the Dutch photographer as he first encounters a city poised on the edge of a newfound greatness. First traveling to Shanghai in 1990 on assignment for Vogue Magazine to feature a reportage of the city, Robert became fascinated by his first encounter with China and later made a total of seven trips to Shanghai in the course of three years.

American photographer Howard French’s “Disappearing Shanghai” series, is an intimate journey through many of the forgotten lanes or Nong Tangs of Shanghai. Documenting the bustling back alleyways of the now highly-developed metropolis of Shanghai, Howard’s black-and-white photographs offer a contemplation and reflection on the fading architecture of the old lanes and the people living in the shadow of Shanghai’s modernization. As the Shanghai bureau chief for the New York Times, Howard has managed to capture intimate scenes of normal people and their lives in the old lanes of Shanghai whose days are clearly numbered. As quoted in the New York Times, Howard says “ Over and over again, I have been asked by the people of these neighborhoods what is my purpose in taking pictures of these lives? Am I trying to show a bad side of China? To make fun of poor people? I have no trouble answering, and my reply is effective more often than not because it is sincere. ‘I take pictures in your neighborhood because there is something very beautiful about the lifestyle you have,’ I say. ‘Things may not be perfect, but there is a very special kind of community you have, and soon places like this will all be gone.’”

Robert van der Hilst lives in Shanghai and Paris, and is currently working on a large-scale photography project titled “Chinese Interiors”. He has worked as a photographer in Europe, South Africa and North America and his monograph “The Cubans” was published in 2001.

Howard W. French is a senior journalist for the New York Times and has been Shanghai Bureau Chief for the Times since 2003. He has won “ the Publisher’s Award” seven times and currently lives in Shanghai where he is also at work on his first novel.

For additional photographs, interviews or other media queries, please contact m97 Gallery at: info@m97gallery.com or by phone: (+8621) 6266.1597. Tuesday-Sunday 10:30-18:30.

m97 画廊｜上海 摄影双个展：
罗伯特·凡德·休斯特《上海：1990－1993》与
傅好文《消失的上海》
展出日期：2008年 2月16日 – 3月21日

开幕仪式：2月16日星期六下午5点 – 8点

m97画廊荣幸地宣布摄影双个展：荷兰摄影师罗伯特·凡德·休斯特《上海：1990－1993》与美国摄影师及记者傅好文《消失的上海》即将开幕。罗伯特九十年代初拍摄的柯达彩色照片和傅好文最近五年的黑白纪实照片从不同角度为我们呈现出了上海在这两个时代的不同风情。本次展览将于2008年2月16日开始，开幕仪式定于2月16日星期六下午5点至8点，届时艺术家会莅临现场。

罗伯特·凡德·休斯特的早期彩色摄影作品《上海：1990－1993》展现了一个当时正摩拳擦掌准备朝着现代化大都市进程飞跃的上海。他的色彩和构图强烈的彩色照片让观众有机会在经过了十八年飞速发展后的今天欣赏到这座中国财经中心当年的历史样貌。荷兰摄影师与当时处于转型时期的上海的碰撞造就了这组细节与质地丰富，并且充分反映了当时的城市和人的生活形态的照片。那些曾几何时的人与风景立刻带给观众一种既熟悉且陌生的感觉。1990年罗伯特被巴黎《时尚》杂志派到上海来拍一组照片。那次旅程让他立刻迷上了中国。之后的三年里他曾七次返回拍摄。

美国摄影师傅好文的《消失的上海》系列是一段在被遗忘的弄堂中游走徘徊的私人旅程。他拍摄都市中的背角街道，深切关注着现代化进程阴影下的老街和生活于其中的人。身为《纽约时报》上海分社社长的傅好文捕捉了平凡人与时日无多的老房子之间的亲密关系。正如他在《纽约时报》中曾写到：“街坊里的人们曾多次问我，我拍摄他们的生活场景，目的是什么？是不是要显示中国的阴暗面？或嘲笑穷人？回答并不难，因为我的答复是真诚的，所以常常为人所接受。‘我在你们的街头拍照，是因为你们生活方式中一些美好的东西。’我说，‘任何事物也许都不十全十美，但这是一个极其特殊的地方，不用多久，这一切恐怕都会消失了。’”

罗伯特·凡德·休斯特生活在上海和巴黎。目前正在拍摄大型摄影作品“中国人家”系列。他曾在欧洲，南非，美洲等地从事摄影工作。1991年出版摄影图书“The Cubans”。

傅好文为《纽约时报》高级记者。自从2003年以来担任该报驻上海分社社长。曾七次荣获报业人士最高荣誉奖项“the Publisher’s Award”, 住于中国上海。目前正在上海创作一组人体艺术照片以及第一部小说。

如果您需要更多相关摄影作品，约见或者其他媒体需要，请联系m97画廊，请电邮至：info@m97gallery.com 或者电话至（＋8621）6266.1597. 开放时间：每天上午10:30 - 下午 18:30

Posted at 8:07 PM · Comments (1)

Show Time

February 1, 2008 12:10 PM

The details of my two shows featuring my Disappearing Shanghai work have finally come together after lots of intensive labor. The Shanghai invitation is copied below. A smaller version of the show opens at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum of Washington University, in St. Louis, on February 8, 2008. I’ll be visiting St. Louis early the following week to give a talk there.
Details can be found at: http://kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu/exhibitions.html
Visitors to my other, all photography website, whose link is in the upper right hand corner of this page can get a sense of my work through the Disappearing Shanghai gallery posted there.

That website is in the midst of a badly needed redesign, but some of the images from my two shows can be found there nonetheless.

By the way, I have less than 200 copies remaining of the catalog from my October 2006 Berlin show of Disappearing Shanghai. It’s nicely printed, and the price is $20 plus handling, a virtual steal. Get them while you can!

Posted at 12:10 PM · Comments (0)

The Vacation is Over

January 7, 2008 3:12 PM

Happy New Year everyone.
I’ve endured an enforced absence from the web for a while due to unexpected complications in switching web hosts. That’s all happily behind me now, though, and I’ll be updating this site with new material steadily in the weeks ahead. I’ve just posted the majority of the pieces I’ve written for the Times and the IHT over the last few weeks to the Writings section, and will be adding fresh new material on a daily basis to the other sections, as well.
My documentary photography project Disappearing Shanghai, has reached maturity, and will be making its premiere in China with a show opening February 16 at gallery M97 in Shanghai, alongside the work of the well-known photographer, Robert van der Hilst.
A smaller collection of this work is also showing at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, at Washington University, in St. Louis, opening on January 29, 2008.
Click to visit the museum

Click to see Disappearing Shanghai
Click to visit M97
There are still 50-image catalogs available of an earlier version of my show, which premiered in October 2006, in Berlin, and they can be ordered through this site, or by contacting me directly at: globetrotter@howardwfrench.com.
While pulling together the definitive gallery version of Disappearing Shanghai, I’ve turned my photographic attentions in a totally new direction, and am building a portfolio of fine art nudes, which begin to make their appearance on my all-photography site howardwfrench.net as of today.
Click to see this gallery
If you have an interest in modeling, please contact me directly at globetrotter@howardwfrench.com.
There’s also a permanent link to my photography site in the upper right hand corner of this page.
Prints of the nudes as well as prints of my documentary work are available for sale through the link above.
Finally, there have been several publications of my work since I went offline. Newsweek Select featured it in late December, as did Shanghai’s “Hint” magazine. Stay tuned.

Posted at 3:12 PM · Comments (0)

Howard W. French (http://www.howardwfrench.com)