Scouting out locations

Seeing as it has been ages since i last posted anything I figured I should update on my movements really.  Since Guizhou (I’ll post about that trip a bit later) and the zoo trip the other week I have been wrestling with the dreaded lurgy and also shitty weather so not had the pportunity to shoot so much, but managed a couple of shoots that are in at the lab as I type.

Returned to the open section of the zoo again before it closes for the year because I have put so much focus on the enclosed section, but i will post more about this tomorrow when i get the images back.  Essentially I focused on the same subjects as normal when working arpund the animals but added a new twist for a project that I am just starting focusing on the viewing structures in zoos.  I think this may be the most interesting angle I have approached it with yet so will add some of the initial test shots here when I get a chance.  Making this blog a lot more visual is high on my list of priorities at the moment so expect a slew of images to go up both in new and older posts over the coming week or so -mainly whenever the weather is rubbish and I want a break from writing my MA dissertation…

Over the past fortnight -on days when I’ve been healthy (I hate flu and am a typical man when ill and refuse to do much of anything useful…) I’ve been out and about looking around the bits of Dalian I had been foregoing in order to be able to make use of them for this project.  The most interesting I have found are the Botanical Gardens -a park in Dalian that is actually a nice, peaceful park!  If any of them come out sharp (it was getting dim out and I didn’t have the tripod) then I will add an image from the fishing area here tomorrow or the next day.  I aim to go back and shoot more here in the next few days as it has elements relevant to oth my MA work and other ongoing projects.  The most interesting and something I have not seen done quite as extensively are the areas people have cleared around trees and then added cross beams between the trees to use for exercise.  A small series of these spaces will be online shortly…  There was also the classic scenes of secluded areas being used as waste dumps which is a very typical scene wrld wide and one that always interests me so when i go back with the tripod I will make some images of this as well.  Those kind of images could be anywhere in the world and so appeal to my view that China and the rest of the world are essentially the same -spaces occupied and damaged by humans in largely identical manners.

The other location I have found but not yet had chance to shot in properly -I think it is going to require an early morning to get the light right, is the coastal road between Xinghai Square and the open area of the zoo.  I think it is called Binhai Xi Lu (West Binhai Road, see, I am learning…) and has not only a secluded empty resort just near the zoo but the road itself is worth shooting because there is ne specific corner which is perfect -complete with green and red striped tarmac and a bright blue lampost…

So these locations plus a few days to the north of the city in Jinshitan and the surrounding area and I think the project will really start to take shape.  I have been looking more and more at Mark Power’s Miyazaki work and like the idea of just travelling around and documenting what is on the main tourist trail for the chinese, seeing who the Chinese tourists experience nature in Dalian.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 5:21 pm and is filed under Killing Time. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.