Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images: Recently Added Galleries and Collections

Red and grey series (Lightroom 2)

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:36:18 GMT

Ming dynasty architecture of Northern China with Qing dynasty implements, reduced to two traditional core colors: red and grey.

Additional images processed in the same way as described below.

All images developed in Adobe Lightroom v2, with the SinCity preset developed by Matt Kloskowski (see http://www.lightroomkillertips.com/2008/presets-sin-city-look-sort-of/ for more).

Cameras used: Fuji F40fd; Olympus E-330 with the 11-22 WA lens; Nikon D2X and the Leica D-Lux 4.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

Serendipity collection II (Monochromes)

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:29:09 GMT

A small collection of b/w (monochrome) photographs, taken over a considerable period of time, with very different equipment, such as Hasselblad, Nikon film and Nikon digital, the Ricoh GRD2 and Olympus.

The play with light and shadows is what makes the development of photographs in black and white so exciting.

For portraits and people shots in b/w please visit http://hahn.zenfolio.com/p193233205/ .

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

Serendipity collection 撒散图片库

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:26:12 GMT

A collection of chance encounters, accidents, and discoveries. A couple of these pictures are arranged ("staged"), otherwise things were left alone and just slightly recontextualized. Against usual (somewhat harried) practice, with these photographs I did pay a bit more attention to exposure and composition.

Taken in the following locations:
Norwich, upstate New York.
New York City, Battery Park.
San Francisco.
Beijing, China.
Sanya, Hainan Island, China.
Bar Harbor, Maine.
Rockland, Massachussetts.
Ithaca, upstate New York.
Paris, France.
Sergiev Posad, Russia.
Marburg, Germany.

In contrast to my other collections and galleries, this collection is not serialized or homogeneous in any way. Cameras and gear differ considerably, from medium format to digital.

First images uploaded September 18, 2006. Last update Dec. 27, 2007.

Thomas H. Hahn, Ithaca, NY

Colors & flowers, from summer to fall 花的颜色

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:30:38 GMT

A gallery of transitional colors, from summer to fall. Photographs were mostly taken with the Fuji S5 and the Zeiss 100mm, with a couple of exceptions (Nikon D2X, Leica D-Lux 4, and Olympus 8080). The Zeiss does enormously well on the Fuji.

Processing was done in Adobe Lightroom or Capture One 4.

Thomas Hahn
Ithaca, NY
September 2009

Tianjin's Old Culture Street 古文化街

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:03:13 GMT

Snapshots of the old - well - newly constructed old center of the Chinese town of Tianjin (versus the former concessions areas). Not really random snapshots actually...

- There is the Small Culture City 文化小城, with five courtyards representing the traditional Five Elements Theory (Earth = the Pottery Columns, Fire = the Red Ball, Metal = the Bronze Cube, Water and Wood);

- The old Temple of the Empress of Heaven 天后宫 with the steles and stone carvings;

- The bronze statue of Yan Fu 严复;

- The new Cultural Palace 民俗文化宫;

- A couple of details of the alleys, the merchandise, and people.

It was kind of a grayish day when I took these pictures. No PP whatsoever, just resized.

Thomas H. Hahn, July 27, 2006

Scooter (Zeiss 100mm macro)

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:39:42 GMT

Sample shots taken with the Zeiss ZF Macro 100mm/F2. This is an amazing lens:
- Sharp (yes, as one would expect from a Zeiss)
- Excellent color rendition (more than excellent actually)
- Macro at 1:2
- Absolutely outstanding background rendition (bokeh) when wide open (see image 4 for example).

All pictures taken with the D2X (manual mode of course).

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

Chinese artists and the city 近代城市化与当代艺术家

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:48:39 GMT

Metropolis Magazine recently (Nov. 1, 2007) printed an interview with urban planner Sun Huasheng 孙骅声 (if you do not know Sun Huasheng, think Shenzhen urban development from 1980 to today). In this interview, Sun states: "I usually say that an architect or planner who wants to do urban design, if they neglect people’s movement and their feelings, their work is without any soul. In a word, it must be people-oriented because the soul of urban design is people." While this may sound obvious, the reality of urban planning in contemporary China is in fact quite the opposite, and - given Weng Peijun's striking images of Shenzhen as a place of defragmentation and functionalized desolation - Sun's words strike me as almost preposterous.
This gallery of photographs (most of which were taken in various galleries in China in the past 5 years) includes many artists as critical of urbanization as Weng. Obviously, modes of expression differ: the Gao Brothers use the naked body as the last line of defense against an environment which increasingly becomes ungovernable. Zhou Jun's b/w photographs of Beijing's structures, partially dipped in red as if the site was bleeding, are striking examples of how profound the body and the soul of the city of Beijing are affected by change. Song Feel, a Korean artist working in Beijing, places a person not unlike Rodin's Thinker on top of a large pole sticking out of a Beijing map. He can't make sense of the place obviously. And Hong Haochang needs to bring his Yunnan color palette to Beijing in order to create a visual narrative of Tiananmen Square which is striking both in its degrees of reverence and distortion. Yang Xiaobing (theorizing about the effect of urban noise, Miao Xiaochun, Daniel Lee are included here, too, as is Song Dong with his extremely interesting installation of the house of his deceased father, displaying all belongings that once were his, thus reminding us of the specific spatial and ecological footprint of a previous generation.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY, November 30, 2007 (updated April 8,. 2009)

Campaigns in Xuzhou 徐州 (Jiangsu)

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:14:08 GMT

The late 1960s saw many political campaigns all over the country. This small series of images depicts the campaigns as they were underway in Xuzhou 徐州, a large town in northwest Jiangsu province. From what I heard, Xuzhou was a rather embattled site during the era of the CR, with two deeply divided factions dictating proceedings.

These photographs are relevant in a number of ways:
1. They show the public's (forced or unforced) involvement in various mass rallies.
2. They provide details about the closing of a Christian church. Xuzhou in the 50s and until the church's closing was in fact the dioceses of one of China's more active bishops (by the name of Qian Yurong).
3. The last photograph establishes an intriguing relationship between Mao and his followers, wherein the followers appear to worship the Chairman as a demi-god and healer of ills. This is a rather unique image which I have not seen before.

Scanned on an Epson 4990 at 300 DPI to TIF, converted to lossless JPG and processed for b/w rendition.

Note: This series is not from the same Xinhua stock as the other galleries under the same heading.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

Sports 增强人民体质 (1971)

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:09:50 GMT

A small series of Xinhua propaganda photographs depicting the pervasive extent of physical fitness programs during the Cultural Revolution. These programs were aimed not only at improving the physical body, but were seen in union with moral and intellectual eduction (德育, 智育, 体育). Thus mandatory mass sport assumed a political (and often a militaristic) dimension which gave it a nation-building quality with a specific mandate to create a strong mind in a strong body (锻炼身体, 锻炼意志), the prerogatives for social order. Individual achievement of the athlete was subsumed by the masses' totality and the collective's revolutionary spirit - unlike today, with athletes like Yao Ming achieving superstar status.

Note that the photographs here are gender-neutral. In fact women perhaps played a larger role and were statistically speaking (looking at the medal count of the era) more successful in the construction of the physical body of modern China than men, being deemed better suited to harsh training regiments and repetitive exercises.

Recommended reading: Brownell, Susan (1995): Training the Body for China - Sports in the Moral Order of the People's Republic; U of Chicago Press.

Scanned on the Epson 4990, individually processed in Photoshop.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

Early photographs of Daoist sites and practice 道教舊影

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:06:58 GMT

A selection of photographs, original and published/printed, related to Daoist sites and practice. The time frame of this collection will extend backwards as far as technically and topically feasible, and forward - hopefully - into the 1970s (through the end of the Cultural Revolution, that is). For more current photographs related to Daoism, see the galleries under "(Sacred) Mountains and Sites in China".

Images such as these are difficult to trace. Outside of Hedda Morrison's photographs of Mt. Hua, with its Daoist cloisters and sword-wielding masters, and Anne Swann Goodrich's study of The Peking Temple of the Eastern Peak: the Tung-yüeh Miao in Peking and its Lore (1964) , there is very little coherent visual documentation of Daoism's late Qing and (post-)Republican era history, either published in print, or unpublished as unique mementos. To arrive at materials covering what was left of Daoist practice (or sites) during the CR is an even more fragmented undertaking. The photographs here represent these circumstances, by drawing from Perckhammer (1930), Osvald Siren (1924), Carl Kupfer (1911), Melchers (1921), Boerschmann (1906-09), etc. Added - and of considerable interest - is a unique pair of photographs of Daoist Associations (Baoji & Jinan), and a photograph of a Daoist turned filial son-in-mourning who, according to the photograph's description, did not utter a single word over the entire mourning period of three years.

Thomas H. Hahn, Ithaca, NY
Last update January 31, 2008

Suzhou Museum by YM Pei

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:39:35 GMT

Taiwan 台湾 1896

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:45:12 GMT

Scans of all 55 plates of Ogawa Kazumasa's outstanding (and now very rare) publication Souvenirs de Formose et des Îles Pescadores (Ogawa, Tokyo 1896).

The sites and scenes depicted here follow roughly the main western transportation artery of Taiwan (Formosa) at the end of the 19th century, i.e., from Taipei in the north towards Kaohsiung in the south via Jiayi and Tainan. Of great interest are the images related to the Pescadore Islands (Penghu 澎湖), and those photographs documenting a foreign (Spanish, British, French) presence on or historical involvement with the island.

For a decent map of Taiwan dated to exactly 1896, see the Map of Taiwan [Formosa] 1896 From the Scottish Geographical Magazine. Published by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society and edited by James Geikie and W.A. Taylor. Volume XII, 1896.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

The Hakka village of Luodai 洛带古镇

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:19:16 GMT

Text forthcoming...

Keywords, to be expanded from:
- Beautification
- Rehabilitation
- Ethnic village
- Local/regional/province-level tourist destination
- The old village as theatrical stage
- Technical execution
- Design versus real-life execution
- "Thunder the brand"
- Water as dominant design element for traditional Chinese urban planning

Official English-language web site of the Luodai government: http://www.luodai.gov.cn/en/ldgz.aspx

Visited January 20, 2009. Cameras used: Leica D-Lux 4 and Nikon D2X (plus 180/f2.8)

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

The Chelsea Market

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:48:38 GMT

A small selection of pictures from the very entertaining and interesting Chelsea Market on 9th Ave and 15th street. All sorts of food items can be had here, wines & spirits, capuccino & Italian ice cream.

"To walk through the Chelsea Market is to stroll through a sort of postindustrial theme park, carefully festooned with the detritus of a lost industrial culture, interspersed with food stores and restaurants."
(From the 'History' section of the resource linked to at http://chelseamarket.com/)

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

Moving on - Abandoned homes in upstate New York

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Wed, 27 May 2009 12:15:11 GMT

Upstate New York is a rather troubled area. Geographically speaking, the term includes the following wider areas:
- Buffalo
- Rochester
- Syracuse
- Albany
- Watertown
- Utica
- Binghamton
This listing encompasses the scenic Fingerlakes Region; most of the photographs in this gallery originate from here.

With economic growth lagging well behind the national average, even in a good year, it is no surprise that upstate is deficient in a variety of ways. The region suffers severe job losses, transformation of good land to fallow land, scores of farms going out of business, abandoned homes, trailer parks that litter the (still very scenic) landscape, low industrial output, fragmented cityscapes, southward migration, the walmartization of its retail infrastructure, and so on. It's been that way for a while. A report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York published in 1999 gives upstate low marks for economic performance even in times when the rest of the state and indeed the entire country was pulling ahead with much higher GDP numbers. There is no reason to be nostalgic, however. Upstate is a rugged place. People conduct their affairs in a straightforward manner. It is stating the obvious that New York state's most competitive asset in the global economy lies "downstream", in Manhattan. For those in charge, it would be wise - for once - to "look the other way" again and discover what upstate can contribute in the context of industrial and agricultural production.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

Portraits and people

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:32:40 GMT

A gallery of portraits of various well-known first-or second generation China-scholars (or Sinologists if you wish); I will keep adding files to this gallery as images become available.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

Close-ups, details & macro photography

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Sun, 03 May 2009 17:11:41 GMT

A number of images created by using the Olympus 50/F2 (on the E-330) and the Zeiss ZF 100mm (on the Nikon D2X). Using a 1:2 or 1:1 approach (measuring the distance from the shutter plane to the object, not from the lens front element to the object!) makes for a very interesting and absorbing way to examine the world.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

Harbin-Ashihe Daoist Wenchangge 文昌阁 (1925)

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 02:59:28 GMT

These images are derived from a very rare Russian publication with original photographs pasted on stiff textured paper. The transcribed title is "V Kitaiskikh kumirniakh gor. Ashikhe" (Temples of the City of Ashikhe); it was published in what must have been a very small print run in Harbin in 1925 - I have not seen another copy to date. I have been in possession of a (good) copy for almost ten years, but only now found the time to scan and post-process all 32 photographs. The photographer's name is cited as D. Raninin.

As far as I was able to establish, this Daoist abode named Wenchangge 文昌阁 does not exist anymore as such. It has either been neglected/destroyed, or repurposed. However, the place name is still in evidence in Ashihe 阿什河 (now Achengqu 阿城区, a district of Harbin 哈尔滨 since 2004). This may well be the only existing visual record of the old structure and its Daoist and lay caretakers. It is a rather comprehensive coverage of the site as one goes through the well-annotated images. Perhaps somebody in the not so distant future will be kind enough to assist with transcribing the Russian-only image captions into English & Chinese.

Scanned on the Epson 4990 to 400dpi TIF, then individually processed (converted to greyscale, level, contrast, sharpness and other adustments) in Adobe Lightroom 2.1.

Thomas H. Hahn
April 6, 2009, in Ithaca, NY

Post-industrial landscapes: Factory 798 in Beijing

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:28:01 GMT

On a parallel time track to the "Ten Great Buildings", and equally "inspired" by Soviet urban planners, a number of heavy-industry facilities sprung up all over China in the late 1950s and early 1960s. While many factories and production sites were in fact located in the urban cores (it would take decades to extract them again from their former, central locations and move them to the outskirts into properly zoned industrial areas), this particular factory complex on the outskirts of Beijing was designed by architects from Eastern Germany, in a faux-Bauhaus type style. Nowadays usually referred to as Factory 798, but in fact combining factories 718, 706, 707, 797, 798 and 751, production (tanks & other military weaponry) has either stopped or is in the process of being migrated elsewhere.

When the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts in 1995 searched for a temporary location to teach sculpture and other courses while building a new campus in the city, it rented space from decommissioned factories 798 and 718. The term was up after five years, but some artists stayed on, and, in 2002, the first public exhibition was held here. Since then, hundreds of galleries, cafes, restaurants, studios, advertisement agencies and publishers have settled into what has evolved into China's premier international art scene.

What was designed by East German architects in the late 1950s is now considered a cultural (specifically: industrial) heritage site. There are very few such sites in China, and 798 is a prime example of the successful conversion and modernization of defunct industrial spaces, through individual effort mostly, but still tightly controlled by the authorities.

I have visited 798 since 2003 or 2004. Most images here are of more recent dates. Cameras used: Nikon, Olympus and Leica. Processed in Adobe Lightroom 2.1

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

Pingyao (UNESCO World Heritage Site)

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 05:28:35 GMT

Images from Pingyao, Shanxi Province, China. Pingyao was the financial center and banking capital of China before the end of the last dynasty (1911). The first Chinese banks were founded here, bonds issued, and huge deposits of silver and gold were kept in underground vaults. Its walls and its old gate towers have remained fully intact, and the city in its entirety was inscribed in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1997.

From the UNESCO web site:
"Ping Yao is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a traditional Han Chinese city, founded in the 14th century. Its urban fabric shows the evolution of architectural styles and town planning in Imperial China over five centuries. Of special interest are the imposing buildings associated with banking, for which Ping Yao was the major centre for the whole of China in the 19th and early 20th centuries."

Due to its scenic nature and the marketing acumen of the local authorities, Pingyao is a regular host to the so-called annual Pingyao International Photography Festival, which draws many professional photographers from all over the world to exhibit their work. The website (in English): http://en.pipphoto.com/

Cameras used: Leica D-Lux 4 (JPG mode) and Nikon D2X (NEF mode). Processed in Lightroom 2.1.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY