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Beyond The Frame | Yan Yang Tian Troupe | GFX 50s

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Photo � Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved Although the Fuji GFX50s might not really be the most appropriate format to photograph theatre and opera, it produced interesting images while using it to photograph a live performance by the Yan Yang Tian opera troupe in at the    Leng Eng Tian Khiew Ong Tai Tay temple  in Kuala Lumpur during the annual Taoist Nine Emperor Gods Festival.  For nine days, Taoists gather at various temples around the country to celebrate the Nine Emperor Gods festival, which begins on the eve of the ninth month of the lunar calendar. The troupe performs traditional Cantonese opera, and has been on stage since its founder opera troupe owner Elizabeth Choy was 7 years old. Now in her late eighties, she is considered a treasure by the Chinese-Malay communities in Malaysia as well as those in neighboring countries. While the popularity of Cantonese opera has dwindled, especially among the young, her troupe has continued to perform in local and international venues
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Ye Hong Qi | The Miao Portraits

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Photo � Ye Hong Qi - All Rights Reserved It's been a few weeks since my last post...but I needed a break to re-energize my blogging appetite, and with my time swallowed up with a forthcoming photo book, and the incessant demands of social media, blogging took a back seat. However, I chanced on wonderful images by the Chinese photographer Ye Hong Qi whose long term project " The Portraits of Chinese Miao Nationality " (???????) is just a delight for those who are interested  -not only in portraiture- but in anthropology and ethnic minorities. Ye Hong Qi tells us that he started his project in 2012, seeking to document the Miao culture through portraits made in situ, eschewing artificial lights and other devices. The Miao is an ethnic group belonging to South China, and is recognized by the government of China as one of the 55 official minority groups. They live primarily in southern China's mountains, in the provinces of Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi,
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Faces of Chinese Opera

I've been photographing Chinese opera performers at performances and backstages in New York City's Chinatown, various locations in and near Kuala Lumpur and in Shanghai for the past 18 months or so. My intention is to eventually produce a photo book of these photographs; a long term project if there was ever one since Chinese opera is a subject of immense complexity and depth. Influenced by the square format portraits by Andres Serrano (see my previous blog post), I chose 24 portraits of artists (12 male and 12 female characters) who performed in Cantonese, Hokkien and Jingj� performances. I mentioned the complexities of Chinese opera; it is said that there are as many variants as dialects in China. For instance, there's the Beijing Opera , known also as Peking Opera ?? (Jing Ju) which I've photographed in Shanghai;  Cantonese Opera , known as ??   Yue Ju, which is popular in the Canto nese speaking regions, such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore and Ma
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Andres Serrano | Made In China

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Photo �  Andres Serrano | All Rights Reserved Readers of this blog are well aware of my current "chinoiserie" phase, of my interest in creating Chinese fashion themed multimedia stories and of my working on a photo book on Chinese Opera. So it's with great pleasure that I discovered the work of the famous photographer Andres Serrano, and his wonderful portraits of Chinese men and women in traditional garb and costumes in his Made In China gallery. One of the most famous traditional Chinese clothing type is the Han Fu style. This is the type of dress worn by the Han people from the Yellow Emperor (about 2698 BC) till the late Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644 AD). It became known as the Han Fu (�fu� means �clothes� in Chinese) because the fashion was improved and popularized during the Han Dynasty. It is usually in the form of long gown, cross collar, wrapping the right lapel over the left, loose wide sleeves and no buttons but a sash. My very favorite is the qi pao or cheongsam
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POV : William E. Crawford | Hanoi Streets

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Photo � William E. Crawford | Courtesy The New York Times I don't recall writing a blog post about an article that appeared on The New York Times' Lens feature, but I could not let the wonderful photography of William E. Crawford on Hanoi Streets go without giving it its due merit on the pages of this blog. One of the photographs that I couldn't stop looking at is of this Vietnamese general. I have no idea who he is or what his history may have been...but I've met Vietnamese men (and women) of his age with similar facial expressions, whose astounding gentleness and courtesy to me -as a visitor to their country- are the most rewarding experiences I took away from my travels in Vietnam. In the Lens article, Mr. Crawford is quoted as saying  "despite the embargo and the wounds of the American War there was no obvious anti-American hostility ... the lack of hostility towards Americans, at least in the North, was a relief to me." This is so true! Everywhere I went
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Jaranan In Java | Jay Tindall

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Photo � Jay Tindall- All Rights Reserved I've always been interested in documenting the unusual or lesser known religious traditions (especially those of Asia) whether these were derived from mainstream religions or were stand-alone. It was this interest that guided me to photograph a number of such traditions, including Vietnam's �?o M?u which I documented for two years and produced a photo book of which I'm very proud of. It's with this frame of mind that I discovered the tradition of Jaranan; an age old Javanese tradition though the photo blog post  Exorcism In The Volcano's Shadow by photographer/entrepreneur Jay Tindall. His blog post describes this tradition as "...an intense ritual of spiritual passion and trance-induced savagery", so I won't duplicate the interesting contents of his post, except to say that Jaranan is a dramatic genre of a horse dance performed in Java. The most prominent feature of these performances is the trance dancers who
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Beyond The Frame | Qu Hui | X-Pro2

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Photo � Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved I was officially recognized as the photographer for The Shade of Butterfly & The Red Pear Blossom opera at the community center theater in NYC's Chinatown. It was the first opera of the season, and is one of the most famous Cantonese operas, and described as a masterpiece. The plot centers on a scholar Yu-chow and the courtesan So-chow who write poems to each other and fall in love despite having never met. The scholar is attached to the court of a treacherous high official who schemes to keep the lovers at bay. The two lovers meet in the final act much to the delight of the audience. I was introduced to Mr. Qu Hui, a mainland Chinese performer, who was to perform one of the lead roles in the opera, and also to sing a few more modern songs. A charismatic tall man, seemingly very comfortable in high heels, he posed for my camera for a few minutes before the show. Cross-dressing has been an integral part of Chinese Opera from its begin
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