The Bund was the commercial and financial hub of Shanghai in the early years of the 20th Century. And no building on this elegant riverfront promenade was more famous than the Cathay Hotel, built by Sir Victor Sassoon in 1929. The Cathay still stands on the Bund today, but it is now known the Peace Hotel. Its smartly uniformed elevator operator blends seamlessly with the elegant Art Deco lobby. My goal was to say something about both past and present in this portrait. I took about twenty or thirty pictures and never said a word. I just kept smiling and working from a vantage point on a balcony just above the elevator door. Eventually she grew disinterested in what I was doing, stood as far back as she could within the small niche in front of the elevator door, put her hands behind her back, and gazed up and away from me. She seems discrete, polite, yet also shy, boxed-in and far, far away. Surrounded by symbols of a colorful past, she must stand and wait until her elevator can carry someone else into the future. This portrait is one of my favorites because it deals with a bit of history and the nature of work, and simultaneously reveals the character of a very polite and patient young woman.