Home
» City specials
» Hangzhou
Shutterbug’s exhibit shows humans in nature
Print Edition
ON a path heading to an exuberant bamboo forest under construction, people stop, hold cameras and frame views, avoiding brick, concrete and guard lines. But photographer Cindy Bajema focused her lens on them, as well as bamboos.
It is one of the hundreds photos of her on-going conceptual project “Green in Winter,” which records Hangzhou’s natural beauty, in a way — not showing ordinary pictures, but representing how “humans and nature interact with each other.”
“It is a response to what I observe,” the American woman said. “Gardeners here are active in winter, protecting greenery so it continues to grow next year.”
She came to Hangzhou in the winter of 2012. Before, the photographer spent six years in a tropical land where nature usually looks wild, and when she came to the Chinese city, she realized the difference at the first sight.
After years in the country, she has adopted a Chinese phrase to describe the interaction: tian ren he yi, literally meaning that man is an integral part of nature. The phrase is found in the book “Chinese Environmental Aesthetics” by Wangheng Chen, Bajema’s major knowledge resource for her project.
Bajema has travelled several countries with her husband. She started working in India in 2008, and has also lived in the Philippines and China.
This autumn the couple is about to move on and Bajema who claims she is “still in love with Hangzhou” will finish the project before she leaves.
Bajema focused on social documentary before she came to Hangzhou. “Guajeros: Finding Fortune” is a series recording life of people who make a living on picking up recyclable garbage in a landfill on the outskirts of Guatemala City, Guatemala.
She has won several awards, including Jury Award of Merit in International Fine Art Photography Competition: Grand Prix de la Découverte, Paris France (2012), and People’s Choice Award in OWC Photography Competition, Bangalore, India (2013). She held exhibitions and lectures at many places in Asia.
Since she came to Hangzhou, a city known for its leisure atmosphere, Bajema decided to take a break. She turned to creating visual art focusing more on lyrical documentary and conceptual documentary works.
“I have made less response to what people tell me to do, but have said what I want to say,” she explained.
With her Cannon 5DIII, Sony cameras and iPhone, she took hundreds of photos for “Green in Winter,” and her lyrical documentary series “Where She Was” about how her mother suffering from cancer was exhibited in a group exhibition in the city.
The artist studied art in school, wishing to be a painter, yet found that she preferred cameras over brushes. She said she was so into it that she “spent all day long in a dark room and felt like I only stayed here for 30 minutes.”
Her curiosity helps. Her husband calls her a “flirt,” because “she loves people and is always curious.”
Her focus on work switched from recording social reality to showing society in a less direct way, because her perception responds less to what people ask her to do.
Bajema’s advice for other photographers is: Light is important; always look at what’s behind the main objects; listen to your own voice, don’t just make other people happy; open your heart and feel empathy when snap the camera at people; and sometimes use smaller cameras so people don’t change their behavior when seeing the big lens.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
