A Glimpse of the World

writings

Disappearing Shanghai – Available Now

Posted September 3, 2012

“It’s not often a writer learns to make photographs. Howard has, big time. These rooms glow with light. The intimacy of stepping into a bedroom; a child reads on the bed, a father, with his laptop, a room of mahjong players, grandpa crashed on a chair, the TV always on. These are tiny spaces, intensely alive in black and white, the future of towering apartments looming outside, the market in the street, the Brooklyn burst of pigeons, crossing the old Shanghai neighborhood, the beds and people on them filling half the room. All doomed to live forever in these gentle loving docs.”

- Danny Lyon, Photographer, author of Memories of Myself, and Deep Sea Diver: An American Photographer’s Journey in Shanxi, China.

“Looking at Howard French’s Shanghai, one thinks of Eugène Atget and Berenice Abbott, photographers who captured Paris and New York on the cusp of great change. This is ambitious work, with compositions that are balanced and tight, with beautiful light, devoid of hard shadows, that renders the old Shanghai in vibrant detail. We should thank the photographer for realizing that no number of articles written about these communities could ever bring us this close to the lives he has immortalized on film.”

- Ken Light, Photographer, author of Valley of Shadows and Dreams and Witness in Our Time: Working Lives of Documentary Photographers.

2 Responses to Disappearing Shanghai – Available Now

1. Jos Runarko says:

   December 16, 2012 at 3:15 am

   Dear Howard, since our first encounter I always loved how you capture moments you saw. They are very balanced and well composed. It gives some peace to the eyes but also stimulate the brain to see other things below the surface. Very good work! Best regards from Leiden, Sari and Jos

   Reply
2. Datumza says:

   January 25, 2013 at 7:16 pm

   I'm really inspired along with your writing abilities and also with the layout to your blog. Is that this a paid subject matter or did you modify it your self? Anyway keep up the nice high quality writing, it is rare to peer a nice blog like this one these days.

   Reply