Very interesting, Kal.
I understand with your explanation. Of course if Coffee is associated with such shops as "Starbucks" and is something foreign to the culture, it may be considered as such.
This picture is well composed, with a very good lighting.
Guest
18-Nov-2005 16:40
I admit I needed some explanations.
The opium of capitalism..... ah... fantastic.... respect, Kal...
Of course! The tea house becomes the coffee house. A cultural turnabout, right? But your image takes it one step further as the dehumanized, automated, and individual coffee house. And that, to me is an even greater incongruity.
Thanks Phil. I wanted a modern image of Shanghai for a change. This was the ultimate contrast to the old for me. Let me explain. China is where tea was invented. Tea is the national drink, it is the representation of the Chinese culture and tradition. Yet here juxtapaosed against modern China (the Bund) is a coffee house...the modern drink Vs the lost Tea of the past. Every day, I see a new coffee house (there is a Starbucks within 20 minutes walk of anywhere in Shanghai). And so this is the Great Conspiracy.....Coffee, the opium of capitalism.
The color gives this image an immediacy that it would not have in black and white. It is a lonely scene, but instead of falling into a cliche of the lonely figure staring at the skyline across the river, you give us an incongruous vision of a traditional Chinese maiden sipping from a drink in a kiosk that represents the essence of commercialism. The fact that nobody is there makes it poignant and memorable. The future is now in Shanghai -- the automated, individual coffee house beckons but nobody comes.
