:: as mentioned a couple months ago, I’ve been trying my hand at lomography. Below is the result of my continued struggle to make sense of this silly hipster gadget. The slideshow has few good snaps (all luck) taken at the MIDI festival in Zhenjiang and a spattering of other places around Shanghai. Enjoy. // AjS
:: a slideshow by the creative force behind the Beijing-based independent design brand Odi Et Amo and Neocha.com-user Wang Shaobei (王晓贝). I met Shaobei at this year’s MIDI Music Festival in Zhenjiang and was refreshed by his confidence, he told me then (and reiterated on his Neocha blog): “We will make the #1 independent and original brand in China. If we can think it, we can do it. Nothing is impossible in youth. A lot of people have similar ideas, but the difference is that I am going to make it happen. I believe in us, we have youth, we will do it.” Check out a video interview with Shao Bei to learn more about Shaobei, his brand, and his world domination plans. See some of his designs below. // AjS
[full disclosure: 56minus1 is a partner at Neocha.com]
:: I recently had lunch with Beijing-based photographer Doug Kanter, and today I stumbling upon a portrait series he did with an old style 4×5 / large format camera from the 2007 MIDI music festival in Beijing. The photo just below is from that series: on the left is Lin Yun, a 22 year old art student from Guangzhou; on the right is 24 year old Liu Aruhan, with a tattoo of the Chinese character “fen” (traditional form) on his chest, meaning “shit” (as in dung / manure) – both of these photos were taken May 1, 2007. Check out the full series here.
I have shared some more of Doug’s work below too. To see his full portfolio, link here. Bravo, well done. // AjS
:: this past weekend I attended the MIDI music festival in Zhenjiang (Jiangsu Province), China. Below is a slideshow of snaps I took of graffiti pieces / tags / throw-ups that lined the inside wall of the venue (just across the street from the west gate of Jiangsu University). These were all painted specifically for the festival (and are probably gone by now), so they are not exactly organic. Nevertheless though, some are quite good. Enjoy. // AjS
:: the video and photo below were shot Sunday night during Tong Yang’s (痛仰) set, the last performance of Midi, a 3-day music festival held this year in Zhenjiang (Jiangsu Province), China. Shortly after the video’s six minute mark, said naked foreigners make their grand entry. These will likely be “harmonized” soon, so enjoy while you can. [Update: the video already seems to be inaccessible.] // AjS
