#szanghaj
1. An Art Deco longevity door as photographed by Chasing Pattern Girl - the anthropologist documenting transformation of urban space
2. An Art Deco longevity door as photographed by Chasing Pattern Girl who decided to apply what she was taught by her friend - that it’s all right to remove bags and letters from the doors for better photos of architecture details
3. An Art Deco longevity door after an inhabitant of the house comes out and asks “Who closed the door?”. I wonder if after all my tricks with sneaking into semi-private spaces I really became an invisible ghost and she can’t see me standing right there, but answer loudly “Me. I’m sorry, I just wanted to take a picture of this extraordinary design”. I hold plastic bag with bills and letters in my hand, think this time I really crossed the line and anticipate a miserable ending when the lady says “A picture! Then let me turn on the light for you”.
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Before Chinese government introduces complete surveillance system I’m greedily enjoying the very human and fairytale beauty of this city, where it’s still possible for a friend to say with an enigmatic smile “Before we go to dinner let me show you something I discovered this week”. And we go inside Peace Hotel, walk up two staircases (one of them clearly marked as closed) and enter a dark room for staff. It’s full of furniture, so we set two comfortable chairs by the window and enjoy the view of lit up towers and the river. And the clock striking three quarters.
“Where on Earth can match your riches, match your people."
Unlike El Dorado Shanghai was built by migrant workers, not gods. Therefore I appreciated the opportunity to take a photo of one of them at his hard and magnificent work.
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Yesterday’s guest on my doorstep and today’s urban walk after work. Shanghai turned over by autumn - revealing that side where everything happens in hues of black, white and russet.
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I decided to walk along the street in which back in the 1990s we used to get our watermelons, stacked directly on the pavement, weigthed by two elderly men using steelyard balance scale. I wanted to see what would this street give me in the New Era 新时代, and it had some of the most extraordinary swastika patterns I’ve ever seen. Note that staircase photos are taken in the same building on different floors - traditional lattice pattern with swastikas and auspicious fruits smoothly transforms into a foreign design, which makes it not only visually appealing, but also conceptually powerful - demonstrating how modern aesthetic emerged in Shanghai!
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I like to think my lane has everything, but it doesn’t have a view of gingko trees turning gold or former Sino-Soviet Friendship Building, which an American friend of mine who used to live in Żoliborz calls Pałac Kultury even when talking to her American husband.
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