Granny grabs her camera and goes
By Tan Weiyun |
March 7, 2011, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A spry 78-year-old grandma in sneakers sees the world through her camera lenses, not her reading glasses. Tan Weiyun chats with the lively shutterbug.
Chen Qi likes watching people and for 23 years the retired auditor has been capturing the lives of ordinary folks with her camera. No knitting or sitting in a rocking chair for her; this grandmother is on the move, lacing up her sneakers and traveling with her digital camera wherever fancy takes her.
She travels around the city, throughout southern China and has visited the scorching deserts of China's northwest.
The 78-year-old takes pictures of children in the park, beggars on the street, commuters on the Metro, passersby, vendors in wet markets, craftsmen in the countryside and all manner of people doing all manner of things.
"I see the world through camera lenses, instead of my reading glasses," Chen says with a broad smile. She wears a comfortable jogging suit and her gray hair is sensibly cut and neatly combed.
"My life began after retirement," she says.
Twenty-three years ago she put down her auditor's pen and calculator and picked up her first camera. She has been through seven cameras and even has a darkroom in her house.
Chen loves seeing new sights and has traveled along the coast to Fujian, Anhui and Jiangxi provinces, Hong Kong and Macau, as well as Hunan and Sichuan provinces. This month she and her husband plan to visit Taiwan.
Stepping into Chen's small tidy flat in Nanqiao Town, Fengxian District, is like walking into a mini-exhibition. The walls are decorated with her big framed photographs.
Every picture has a story behind it and Chen is happy to share her experience.
She points to a picture of an old bearded peasant smoking a long-stemmed bronze pipe and sitting on a promenade in Chongqing Municipality. It was taken in 1998.
"His old pipe caught my attention first; it's rarely seen today," she says. "And I was also drawn by his carefree attitude in the middle of the hustle and bustle. He enjoyed the sunshine without noticing the crowds."
The photo hangs in the sitting room and whenever Chen gets stressed she looks at the laid-back old guy with his pipe.
Next to it is a picture of a woman carrying a baby on her back in a bamboo basket in Yunnan Province. She's walking through a crowded food market and looks off in the distance, while the baby is wide-eyed at the big colorful world.
"I found them beautiful and peaceful," Chen says.
She is also proud of a photo of "Hallelujah Mountain" in Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province. It's the "original" of the mountain in the 3D movie "Avatar."
In another, a ragged scavenger with tangled hair sits near a railroad track, his back to Chen. Beside him are bags of rubbish.
She took the picture from a train stop. She couldn't see his face, his expression or tell his age, "but I could feel the loneliness and the desperation just from his slumped back."
She may not be a professional, but her photos reflect her enthusiasm, concern and humor.
Chen tours food markets to find "resources" - a cut of pork, fresh eggs and brightly colored fruits and vegetables. She takes them home and photographs them. Then she cooks them.
Once she bought home a big bunch of luscious, shiny red grapes. "My husband wasn't allowed to eat. He had to wait until I took pictures of them," Chen says, laughing.
She selected one photo, enlarged it, framed it and hung it in the kitchen. "It helps cheer me up while I'm cooking," she says.
After two decades of shooting, Chen definitely knows her way around cameras. She has had seven, starting with the old-fashioned BALDA CE35 and the early Seagull DF-1 popular in the 1980s; today she has digital Canon, various lenses, flash attachments, equipment and a tripod. In the corner of the bedroom there's a tiny darkroom.
Since cameras are digital, Chen had to learn how to use them, how to use a computer and retouch photos with different software.
"My son-in-law taught me and now I'm quite good at it," she says.
Chen has 93 CDs loaded with digital photos and keeps a notebook index of her work.
Now her 82-year-old husband Bai Wan has started taking photos with her.
"For us life began after retirement," Chen says. "Photography makes us happy and rejuvenates us. It even has cured my heart problem like magic."
Chen Qi likes watching people and for 23 years the retired auditor has been capturing the lives of ordinary folks with her camera. No knitting or sitting in a rocking chair for her; this grandmother is on the move, lacing up her sneakers and traveling with her digital camera wherever fancy takes her.
She travels around the city, throughout southern China and has visited the scorching deserts of China's northwest.
The 78-year-old takes pictures of children in the park, beggars on the street, commuters on the Metro, passersby, vendors in wet markets, craftsmen in the countryside and all manner of people doing all manner of things.
"I see the world through camera lenses, instead of my reading glasses," Chen says with a broad smile. She wears a comfortable jogging suit and her gray hair is sensibly cut and neatly combed.
"My life began after retirement," she says.
Twenty-three years ago she put down her auditor's pen and calculator and picked up her first camera. She has been through seven cameras and even has a darkroom in her house.
Chen loves seeing new sights and has traveled along the coast to Fujian, Anhui and Jiangxi provinces, Hong Kong and Macau, as well as Hunan and Sichuan provinces. This month she and her husband plan to visit Taiwan.
Stepping into Chen's small tidy flat in Nanqiao Town, Fengxian District, is like walking into a mini-exhibition. The walls are decorated with her big framed photographs.
Every picture has a story behind it and Chen is happy to share her experience.
She points to a picture of an old bearded peasant smoking a long-stemmed bronze pipe and sitting on a promenade in Chongqing Municipality. It was taken in 1998.
"His old pipe caught my attention first; it's rarely seen today," she says. "And I was also drawn by his carefree attitude in the middle of the hustle and bustle. He enjoyed the sunshine without noticing the crowds."
The photo hangs in the sitting room and whenever Chen gets stressed she looks at the laid-back old guy with his pipe.
Next to it is a picture of a woman carrying a baby on her back in a bamboo basket in Yunnan Province. She's walking through a crowded food market and looks off in the distance, while the baby is wide-eyed at the big colorful world.
"I found them beautiful and peaceful," Chen says.
She is also proud of a photo of "Hallelujah Mountain" in Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province. It's the "original" of the mountain in the 3D movie "Avatar."
In another, a ragged scavenger with tangled hair sits near a railroad track, his back to Chen. Beside him are bags of rubbish.
She took the picture from a train stop. She couldn't see his face, his expression or tell his age, "but I could feel the loneliness and the desperation just from his slumped back."
She may not be a professional, but her photos reflect her enthusiasm, concern and humor.
Chen tours food markets to find "resources" - a cut of pork, fresh eggs and brightly colored fruits and vegetables. She takes them home and photographs them. Then she cooks them.
Once she bought home a big bunch of luscious, shiny red grapes. "My husband wasn't allowed to eat. He had to wait until I took pictures of them," Chen says, laughing.
She selected one photo, enlarged it, framed it and hung it in the kitchen. "It helps cheer me up while I'm cooking," she says.
After two decades of shooting, Chen definitely knows her way around cameras. She has had seven, starting with the old-fashioned BALDA CE35 and the early Seagull DF-1 popular in the 1980s; today she has digital Canon, various lenses, flash attachments, equipment and a tripod. In the corner of the bedroom there's a tiny darkroom.
Since cameras are digital, Chen had to learn how to use them, how to use a computer and retouch photos with different software.
"My son-in-law taught me and now I'm quite good at it," she says.
Chen has 93 CDs loaded with digital photos and keeps a notebook index of her work.
Now her 82-year-old husband Bai Wan has started taking photos with her.
"For us life began after retirement," Chen says. "Photography makes us happy and rejuvenates us. It even has cured my heart problem like magic."
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