Boston Chinatown
Model: Charli
We took these photos in Boston Chinatown. Generally, because we want to show Chinese culture in our photos completely through capture pictures that full of Chinese style. More specifically, there is an interesting thinking spring up in our brains that motivates us to pursue how Chinese people maintain their Chinese culture, even though they are living in another country. And we also want to use these pictures to shnow that Chinese culture can be found all around the world, since Chinese people bring their country’s culture to everywhere, spreading and carrying forward these cultures which let more and more people to realized Chinese culture and also can make them have chance to absorb the essence of Chinese culture.
The model we chose literally represents a collision between Chinese and American culture. She is a Chinese, but her blonde hair and makeup are both typical of Western style, showing what Chinese-Americans look like in most people’s eyes; while her costumes are of Chinese style, such as the tunic suit and cheongsam, showing the true look of Chinese people in U.S.. That is, even if they live in a foreign land and accept a completely different culture, they would still maintain their Chinese heart and the unique Chinese culture.
In our Chinatown photography project, we decide to use color and tone of Chinese style. In traditional Chinese art and Culture, red, yellow and Qing (the conflation of the idea of green and blue). Influenced by one of the well-known director in China Wang Kar Wai’s chief cameraman Christopher Doyle, we use different kind of light and large area of color to express this traditional Chinese Style. And we also wanted to make our photos more film style, so we use ratio 16:9.
In these photos, the model is looking at several Chinese playing the chess (Xiangqi), which is one of the traditional cultures of China. The game is welcomed by both the older generations and young people. Chinese brought it here and firmly retained it for love and respect for their culture. The chess itself also carries their miss for families and homeland. The model is wearing the unique Chinese tunic suit that modified by modern designers, showing today people’s love for Chinese costume, and their love for Xiangqi. Meanwhile, we set the second photo to Chinese yellow, representing another Chinese national treasure----the dragon robe, which means power, glory, and hope.
The set of photos take place in traditional Chinese restaurant “Dragon and phoenix” (龙凤). In the restaurant, people usually eat Chinese brunch here. We use a large amount of red lanterns as background. In the foreground, the model wears red chirpaur to echo the background. And we also use shadow to let the background light standing out.
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The photos took place in a Chinese barbershop, showing the real daily life of most Chinese people in U.S.. The model’s dressing style shows a typical of Hong Kong modern style in 80s, fashionable and attractive. We used a green filter for this set of photos, since the color of green is one of the Chinese traditional colors that represents the Chinese national treasure—— jadeite, and green means life, kindness, and gentleness.