Arranged driver for 7am and headed for Thamestown again as the conditions were ideal, being slightly overcast. However, it’s really tricky to predict the weather, as it’s so changeable – a bit like being back home. As a result, I’m becoming obsessed by the BBC Weather website, checking for the right number of cloud icons to appear in tomorrow’s outlook.
Anyway, I managed to bag my way into one of the guarded residential areas by acting foreign and stupid and made it into another by clambering around a fence which hung over the deep river. If I’d fallen in I’d have been screwed along with my camera equipment, but it was worth the risk.
It’s frustrating and slower to get going than I hoped and however much research and planning I’ve done, it’s hard to prepare for the scale of this place; a megacity that’s too vast for my brain to comprehend and I feel like the only person not knowing where I am going. Plus I’ve picked up the Shanghai Throat, probably due to the pollution. I’ll try and kill it off with some fiery hot street food, I reckon.
One good thing is Joshua The Fixer has fixed for me to stay in a great business hotel in central Shanghai – big room, double bed and broadband. I am really enjoying the relative luxury of it, and all for the same price as my previous, cupboard-sized living quarters..
Odd incident of the day:
Man running down the street naked from the waist down and jumping on people’s backs in front of some of Shanghai’s most stylish shops. Rather than alert the attention of the authorities, most people just stood and laughed…
Yesterday was a trip to Thamestown so I got the underground, bus, train and motorbike taxi, taking almost 3 hours each way. This is not great. Anyway, Thamestown is as it had been described. A low-rise of Edwardian, Regency and Tudor residential and commercial areas – spotless, quiet and dead. Quite the reverse of travelling through the 30-million strong megacity to get here, whose anatomy is so curiously flat, offering little perspective. Devoid of anyone that could be described as resident, most properties are apparently sold. However, the place was enlivened by 20 or so newlywed couples having their photos taken, utilising this faux ‘Little Britain’ as a backdrop to their special day..
It was also tricky getting into the residential areas as they are all gated communities, although ‘communities’ is rather a misnomer. I did manage to sneak in a couple of times and found myself standing in a hallucinatory development awash with quoins, bay windows and porches, alongside numerous other suburban accoutrements.
My approach will be to include as few people, if any, in the frame as this will be distracting and turn the image into mere anecdote. I also want to shoot in overcast, flat lighting to retain a certain neutrality, in an attempt to mirror my experience as an outsider. The lighting may be tricky to achieve consistently, but fortunately Shanghai is often overcast and I have the high levels of pollution on my side that create an added haze.
So, a long day with lots of language problems, much pointing at my English/Mandarin phrasebook and gesticulating. I think I’ll have to bite the bullet and hire a driver, as it seems not many people know about these ‘new’ towns’ and the language barrier seems to increase with every mile I travel away from the city centre. I can then do a couple of locations in a day and avoid six hours travelling. Plus I’ll get to sit on my butt and let someone else do all the navigating..
I was amazed at how bad I was at table football and how seriously it's taken by those who are good at it. At the ex-pat bar I was partnered with my trusty Chinese fixer, Joshua, and being of a similar standard, we were soon out of the competition. Still, a few over-priced beers later and it was a taxi back to my tiny room. I slept really badly which I think was a mix of delayed jetlag and anticipation at meeting Giel.
I met Giel in a new business park where he is installing a large exhibition alongside other European nations with a strong interest in Shanghai's architecture and design. Turns out he's keen for me to be involved as FAR Architecture Network is producing a book about the satellite towns that I am here to photograph and would like me to come on board as photographer. We discussed how I would work independently on my art project whilst shooting some appropriate work digitally to illustrate text in the book. Giel has a number of writers and critics in the design and build field who have contributed alongside a great deal of research material. He seemed to like my previous work (don't people always say that?) and there may be scope to include a section showing a series of images from my art project. It's early days and we've agreed initial terms, which we'll put in writing, but I feel confident we can negotiate as we go along. I've now got access to all their research as long as I credit this in any exhibition/publication I produce and I get to use their office! This will beat working from home as I do back in the UK…
Then I receive an email from a central London architectural space that is willing to show the work for two weeks next year. I email back to say I'm interested and to agree dates and terms on my return. I feel like I've done enough talk and want to get on with making the work. I've decided to go to Thamestown tomorrow (no prizes for guessing the country this is based on) which is described on the official website as 'In pursuit of a wonderful time in classic Europe'
It’s a day since I arrived which makes it Thursday, I think. After an eleven-hour flight (not enough sleep) I grabbed a few extra hours yesterday and tried to get my bearings if that is possible when surrounded by skyscrapers on all sides..
As well as working independently, I’m hoping to collaborate with an architectural organization whilst here. We’ve had some preliminary emails about this, but I’m waiting to meet with them to see how and in what form this might take..
Well I made it to my first meeting. The man I was to meet, Giel Groothius, runs FAR Architecture Network in Shanghai, a Dutch foundation set up as a platform for discussion and debate around the built environment in this rapidly expanding city where superlatives don’t do it justice. I read somewhere it has increased its population sixfold since 1990 – a little hard to comprehend for my western sensibilities, living as I do in busy yet bijou Brighton. Anyway, it was a no show. He’s very busy organizing an exhibition and couldn’t make it. Not the greatest start having negotiated the metro and a taxi journey via motorbike to get there on time. Still, I met his staff, Lorenzo and Kaman, one Italian, one Dutch Chinese, and we re-scheduled to meet at 2pm tomorrow. Kaman then asked me if I played table football. Not really, I replied (a slight understatement). I’m now playing tonight in a table football league where there will be internationally renowned players (do they exist?). She also wants me to go bowling tomorrow. So far WORK 0 SOCIAL 2.
I now have a ‘fixer’ in the name of Joshua Li. He also works in the office and is the man in the know, so he’s going to try and get me better located in the city. I’m stuck out in Pudong, the financial district, which is pretty sterile, in a room barely twice the size of my bed, but it’s harder than I thought to find cheap accommodation in the right area.
I’m keen to get going on the project after so much research back in the UK, but I think these contacts are going to be invaluable over the next 3 weeks.
