One day toward the end of a long journey through Japan and China, after spending some time in and around Shanghai, we stumbled upon the Long Art Museum—a place that seemed almost hidden in plain sight, with its industrial facade. We approached it a bit uncertain. “Are you sure you want to go in?” Well, yes, even if it’s an abandoned warehouse, it looks interesting. Let’s take some pictures!
Of course, we weren’t the only ones drawn to this intriguing space. The museum’s campus and the surrounding park attracts budding photographers and their models, all eager to capture the latest fashions against this uniquely interesting backdrop. I was lucky enough to capture these images of a skateboarder nearby.
It was not cheap to get in, the price of admission was about $60 USD per person. But once I was in there, I knew it was money well spent. The convergence of art and architecture, a modern cathedral of creativity that I found profoundly moving.
This is church for me. What I believe in: human creativity. Ethereal music also filled the museum’s stark, towering spaces, emanating from an “audio sculpture” in the next hall. I uploaded a little snippet to remember the sound.
At some point, looking out a window, I noticed a small film crew. I just assumed it was some amateurs honing their skills and having a good time. There was a sort of screen covering the window, but I snapped a shot anyway.
Later, at a coffee shop nearby, the film crew wandered by again. Look it’s David Lynch! I joked, not knowing who it was outside the window.
It wasn’t until a month after I returned from my trip, and having attended several films at the New Zealand International Film Festival, I was thinking about Wong Kar-wai’s films for no particular reason. I started watching an interview with him, and he was with his cinematographer Christopher Doyle, all of a sudden, I realised who it was I saw that day.
It’s nice for me now to think back on that day, I sat there in the coffee shop for some time watching one of my favourite artists at work, even though I didn’t know who he was at the time. What was he doing there, working on a film? Just mentoring some film students? I didn’t dare approach them, but I was fascinated. I’ll probably never know exactly what project they were working on, but it’s caused me to learn a bit more about the filming process. The creative process.
These are the things I travel for, the things I live for. The chance operations, the mistakes and wrong turns. We could have easily decided to go somewhere else that day, and I would not have had this chance encounter. You can visit the Long Gallery virtually and I find myself going back. Creating an image for my “Places” series just to commemorate this last day I had in Shanghai.
It’s not new, capturing a frame from Google’s vast storehouse of imagery. I composed the capture because I enjoy the glitched figures, the place I enjoyed visiting, the people and their postures. Working with this image as a starting point, the image prompt, bringing in a new dimension.
It didn’t turn out the way I had expected, but I was happy and surprised. Maybe it’s something about being an observer. And what are the ghosts that keep appearing in these “Places” images I create? I don’t think they need to represent anything. Then again memory is like a ghost. The next time I visit this place, there will be the ghost of the last visit.
It’s a practice, as Christopher Doyle says, just do it. Make movies. Make art. Make mistakes. I don’t have time now to get this blog post the way I want it to be. To say the things, I really want to say. I don’t have time to work on other images that are inspired by this place and this memory. But I will keep trying. Tomorrow and the next day. Someday I will get this story out about the Drones Over The Lotus Pond I aim to tell. Not tonight, but someday I’ll get around to it. Or I’ll just die. The work will be unfinished, and I’ll be the ghost wandering around the art gallery. Maybe I’ll get caught in the background of some selfie.
Doyle always says, “My next film is my best film”. My next image will be my best image. My best blog post, will be my next blog post.
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