My people project

I'm working on collecting some decent portrait images of Chinese people I meet or see on the street. I'm not very good at getting my friends to pose for me but I will try to get better. The couple are friends we met through English Corner. Actually I really met the husband through English Corner. His wife doesn't go out much because she has a bad back and she doesn't like to walk up and down stairs so she stays home most of the time. He is an English scholar who studies English with deliberateness and rigor. Every morning he listens to an English language broadcast on the radio at 6:00 AM. I think he spends several hours a day studying English and comparing English and Chinese translations. He retired several years ago. His is one of the most active minds I have encountered. Often at English Corner on Sunday morning he will have a question for me about some expression or sentence in English he has come across and does not completely understand. The man with the red canopy over his tricycle approached me unasked and engaged me in conversation. I think he wanted me to rent his trike. He gives people rides around the area of the Italian Concession. His English was also quite good.

I'm pretty sure the man walking away from me is a migrant worker. He had what looked like a feed bag roped to his back. I suspect it contained everything he owns.

The old woman sitting is the only photo I took on the sly. She was eyeing me suspiciously on Saturday morning as I walked Nanjin Rd. taking pictures. On the way back to Starbucks, I held my camera at waist level, pointed in her direction. I snapped this when I pause to "look" at a couple in front of me. She still looks suspicious to me.

The man with the white hair is a beggar who asked me for money on Saturday morning. I gave him some and asked if I could take his picture. He posed for me in this very pensive way. He may have cataracts, I'm not sure.

I'm going to try to capture more people as I go along in our remaining time here in China. One thing I have found out is that most Chinese people don't seem to mind having their pictures taken and if they do they don't mind telling you so.

This is the third post of the day.