jplomley Posted October 18, 2012 Share #1 Posted October 18, 2012 Advertisement (gone after registration) Very difficult to find anyone smiling on Canal Street.....too many people crammed in like Sardines I suspect. 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted October 18, 2012 Posted October 18, 2012 Hi jplomley, Take a look here Unhappy in ChinaTown. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
vdb Posted October 19, 2012 Share #2 Posted October 19, 2012 Jeff, love this. Chinatown, in NYC and Chicago, always a tough place to find my stride. In fact, never found my stride. And this image reflects my feelings. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuny Posted October 19, 2012 Share #3 Posted October 19, 2012 Jeff - Terrific. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsw Posted October 20, 2012 Share #4 Posted October 20, 2012 Jeff, love this. Chinatown, in NYC and Chicago, always a tough place to find my stride. In fact, never found my stride. And this image reflects my feelings. I agree. Great capture of the way it its. Henry Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jplomley Posted October 20, 2012 Author Share #5 Posted October 20, 2012 Many thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. Agreed Virgil, difficult places to work a scene, but oh so worth it when the elements come together. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
roguewave Posted October 21, 2012 Share #6 Posted October 21, 2012 Jeff, the strengths I see in this image are your attention to rendering the details. Canal Street has been the site of many of my best images. It is a unique place in NYC. There is a HUGE Chinese population that continues to grow at the fastest rate of any ethnicity in the entire City. Quite honestly, for all those people that live & thrive there, there is open resentment and animosity to many tourists. In fact the stores are now employing non Chinese in an attempt to provide a buffer. The content is screaming the truth. You have an older woman that lives in Chinatown and is attempting to navigate an overcrowded sidewalk, with non-Asian tourists that not only make all kinds of scenes along Canal, but on Mott, Mulberry and Baxter as well. There's nothing subtle about what's going on with the mother & child. There is great nuance in Chinatown, but one has to make themselves receptive and alert. Frankly, I'm always amazed at the self control of the Chinese residents that have to put up with the garrulous behavior of visitors to Chinatown. It wasn't always like this. I spend many weekends shooting in Chinatown and enjoying meals with local Chinese photographers. They are too polite to point out the lack of decorum and the sense of entitlement that is the hallmark of most visiting tourists in Chinatown. I hope someday you will be able to apprehend the divine balance and ballet that makes Chinatown, much more that someone's idea of a tourist destination or feature rich environment. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jplomley Posted October 21, 2012 Author Share #7 Posted October 21, 2012 Advertisement (gone after registration) I hope someday you will be able to apprehend the divine balance and ballet that makes Chinatown, much more that someone's idea of a tourist destination or feature rich environment. The same issues that plague ChinaTown in NYC I am certain share commonalities with ChinaTown in Montreal and Toronto. Having worked both these areas in Canada and having several asian colleagues that live in these cities, I'm quite certain I have a very good comprehension of what I am observing, else I never would have raised the camera to my eye and clicked the shutter at this precise moment. Note that it was not only the asians I observed as unhappy. Even among the affluent, I just found very few New Yorkers were smiling. It's as if the city was on auto-pilot, plugged in to their iDevices, oblivious to their surroundings. I hung out on a street corner somewhere on 5th avenue during the heat wave in July and observed a homeless person hunched over a trash can, clearly having a difficult time with what was most likely dehydration. I watched for a good 15 minutes as people just passed by, doing nothing to help. In fact, I was abhorred when several people just fired garbage into the can. How fucking rude is that! I just could not stand it anymore, so went and bought him two bottled waters. He punched it out and said thanks brother. He asked where I was from. I said "Canada, we're all friendly crackers up there". He laughed so hard I thought he was going to fall to the ground. So yeah, I may just be a tourist in NYC Ben, but being a humanist first and foremost is without boundaries. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolo Posted November 16, 2012 Share #8 Posted November 16, 2012 Very funny, Jeff. Enjoying it. Miss your input. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ldhrads Posted November 16, 2012 Share #9 Posted November 16, 2012 Jeff, What a great shot, replete with emotion. Great tonal range and contrast. I look at a shot like this and try to imagine myself taking a similar shot...I always feel like I'm stealing something when I'm taking street shots like this. I have pushed myself to do more when I'm in a city, but I don't live in a city any more so it's rare and uncomfortable. I know that this has been beaten to death here before so I wont go on except to say...Bravo. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
likalar Posted November 16, 2012 Share #10 Posted November 16, 2012 An amazing moment! Scenes like that come and go so quickly. Congrats to you. Larry Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissah Posted November 16, 2012 Share #11 Posted November 16, 2012 totally agree with ben here. when i lived in nyc and would shoot in chinatown i hated everything i got. totally miserable. jeff, july in nyc is hell. whatever the season though people tend to just move on. your senses are so hammered on a minute to minute basis that sometimes survival is simply withdrawal. having watched nyc during 9/11 and more recently sandy i dont think its fair to charge the city compassionless let alone apathetic. i never found a way to make myself receptive and alert. because i didnt have much money i ate there or indian food in the east village. i mention this because it wasnt like i wasnt there often. i was but photographically i wasnt. anyway on to you. i agree with the comments above. this is a fabulous shot. youre shooting with a 28 so youre up close which really makes this. love the happy floral print thats obviously lost on this whole scene! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fang Posted November 18, 2012 Share #12 Posted November 18, 2012 Nice capture. The emotions of the young girl visiting and the older Chinese lady Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jplomley Posted November 18, 2012 Author Share #13 Posted November 18, 2012 Many thanks for all the feedback. It's very much appreciated. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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