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The collection of Fritz Hoffmann’s China Work contains 200,000 images made in China from 1994 to 2018. This gallery of pictures selected from the collection provides a general sense of the diversity of subject and wide range of locations that Hoffmann’s photography in China covers. A new picture is added to the gallery daily. Follow the collection on Instagram at @fritzhoffmannschinawork
All content is Copyright 1994-2020 Fritz Hoffmann
President Jiang Zemin 8/17/1926 - 11/30/2022 (that is a long life) He was President from 1993-2003, fast moving years of China’s reform and opening.
1. Parade rolls on Changan Ave in Beijing marking 50 years of the PRC. 1999
2. The Politburo reviewing the parade. Jiang is above the left corner of Mao’s portrait.
3. At the 15th Party Congress in 1997. Jiang is center front between the two women pouring hot water.
4. A billboard outside Wuhan in 1998. Jiang is on far right, Deng Xiaoping in the center and Mao Zedong on left.
5. Jiang’s Three Represents on a propaganda board in Beijing where a man begs for money. 2002
Copyright 1997-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #jiangzemin #china #communism #politburo #beijing #fritzhoffmann
Summers at Peoples Square in Shanghai from 1996-1999. Being that the square is at a major interchange of subway lines, I often passed through and grabbed a few frames on my way. Also, there to photograph the Shanghai Museum once it was open - it’s the unusual looking round building seen in several of these, with a curved handle. The museum is designed to resemble an ancient bronze cooking vessel.
Frame #4 looks toward the opera house. Frame #6 is the earliest image - summer 96.
Copyright 1996-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #shanghai #peoplessquare #summer #shanghaimuseum #coolingoff #streetphotography #leicachina #fritzhoffmann
Laid-off workers protest under the high-flying road at intersection of HongQiao road in Shanghai Summer 1997.
I had recently become an accredited photojournalist, the first Shanghai resident with that official accreditation since the founding of the PRC in 1949. The cop saw me and asked with a look of WTF, who are you? I produced my J-card. He had not seen one before. I explained, it’s official and added, China is open now. There were many times that I had to call on Shanghai’s Office of Foreign Affairs and have them bail me out.
These situations, protests, were rare. I think this was the first I actually witnessed in Shanghai. By 1997, the man responsible for swinging the ax that broke China’s iron rice-bowl and shuttered outdated state-enterprises, Zhu Rongji was swinging hard.
These laid off factory workers were pissed off. They were China’s lost generation. When they were kids, famine starved them, then the cultural revolution shot their chance of a good education, then the shift from a planned economy to one market driven forced them into early retirement.
Copyright 1997-3022 Fritz Hoffmann #shanghai #ironricebowl #zhurongji #china #reformandopening #publicprotest #factoryworkers #laidoff #leicachina #fritzhoffmann
“Have you ever heard of Pudong.” Editors began to call me with that question in early 96.
From my two-room flat on Hongqiao Road I bicycled for the Dongjiadu dock where I could catch the ferry across the Huangpu River to Pudong. It was before private automobile ownership. Most residents of Pudong commuted by bicycle on the ferry to their work-units in Puxi. The deck was empty for me heading to Lujiazui in Pudong.
Lujiazui was a massive construction site and bicycle was the best mode of transport once there.
The location of frame number 3 is in Lujiazui near the front of the Shanghai Bank Tower. The buildings rising in the background are the Huaneng Union Tower, World Finance Building and the China Merchants Tower.
Frame 4 shows the intersection of Century Boulevard and Lujiazui Road. The guy was sweeping the entrance to the Jinmao Tower.
Frame 4 was shot for @fortune The article stated, “Shanghai wants to be nothing less than a global financial capital, in the same league as Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo. Fat chance.”
My collection of NFTs titled Dragon’s Head-Lujiazui is listed on Foundation.app Link is in my bio. Thanks for telling your friends.
Copyright 1996-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #shanghai #china #lujiazui #wallstreet #pudong #commuting #dragonshead #fritzhoffmann #leicachina #chinanft
Shenyang in June 1999 was a second tier city where development of infrastructure created an obstacle course for its 6 million residents, most of whom were commuting by bicycle or public transit.
These are a few unpublished frames from a @fortune assignment that brought me there.
Copyright 1999-2022 #shenyang #china #infrastructure #progress #obstaclecourse #fritzhoffmann #leicachina #commutebybike #
The 128 story Shanghai Tower stands on this lot (1st frame) in Lujiazui today.
Listed these images today with 7 others as the first set of NFTs in my Dragon’s Head- Lujiazui collection. See them on Foundation.app keyword Lujiazui.
You can read more about this and see more of the pictures at the link in my bio. Thanks for taking a look.
Copyright 1994-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #lujiazui #china #shanghai #pudong #dragonshead #nft #wallstreet #leicachina #fritzhoffmann
Westward view of the iconic Lujiazui skyline, China’s Wall Street, taking shape with crane-topped bank towers and the Shanghai Securities Exchange, that’s the square building with hole in center, in early 1996.
This first image here will be included in my collection of NFTs titled Dragons Head - Lujiazui. The first set of 15 images from this collection is scheduled to be released on Foundation.app on June 1.
Still deciding which of the other historic pictures from my China work shown in this post will be part of the collection.
#2 Morning Taichi
#3 PLA Colors guard at sunset
#4 Shanghai Stock Exchange rises above neighboring residential apartments where a private automobile is covered with red carpet.
Copyright 1996-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #lujiazui #shanghaistockexchange #pudong #chinaswallstreet #leicachina #fritzhoffmann #dragonshead #nftartist #foundationapp
We were standing at the very top of the Jinmao Tower, at the base of a straight shot of steel that went skyward, the spire. A ladder was bolted to it. “You can go up if you want”, the workers told me. We were without safety lines, nothing. Just open air. I didn’t want to push my luck but figured I’d never get another chance. Up I climbed. The Jinmao was the tallest structure in China then.
When the Businessweek editor said, “It’s for the cover. Knock yourself out,” slide #1 is the picture I imagined. I felt this picture was near perfect. But the picture in my last post here was the one that Bussinessweek chose. And it did make the cover, sort of. See it in the slide #2 here.
I returned to the Jinmao the very next day to climb to the top again. And again in the following months. Slide #3 shows men eating dinner on around the 80th floor in early 1998.
These pictures are included in the Dragon Head’s – Lujiazui collection, 龙头 - 陆家嘴 of 75 images. These will be minted as ERC721 NFTs and dropped in sets of 15. The first drop will be made on June 1st. Each image will be released in an edition of one. That is one of one (1/1).
The collection of pictures tell the historical story of constructing the iconic skyline in Pudong, Shanghai, which is recognizable worldwide today as a symbol of modern China, China’s Manhattan, and China’s Wall Street. These are rare views of long-gone scenes, made from 1995 to 2008, at ground level and from the tops of some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers as they were being erected.
Copyright 1997-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #jinmaotower #shanghai #lujiazui #dragonshead #fritzhoffmann #leicachina #nftdrop
龙头 - 陆家嘴 This is one of the pictures in the collection of mine I’ve titled Dragon’s Head – Lujiazui that will be available as limited edition 1/1 NFTs on June 1 on Foundation.app.
I made the picture in September 1997 on the 87th floor of the Jinmao building, where the Cloud Nine bar is today. This picture became the most widely published image of my China work. Swipe through to see a few tearsheets of the photograph published around the globe.
That’s me in the last image here. I shimmied up the steelwork to get the overhead view point. I had talked my way through the security gate to the site manager. I gave him my pitch. He handed me a hard hat and badge and said “be careful.” That was it. It was one of the most memorable days in my two decades photographing China.
The Dragon’s Head – Lujiazui collection of 75 pictures tells the historical story of constructing the iconic skyline in Pudong, Shanghai, which is recognizable worldwide today as a symbol of modern China, China’s Manhattan, and China’s Wall Street. These are rare views of long-gone scenes, made from 1995 to 2008, at ground level and from the tops of some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers as they were being erected.
I’ll be previewing images from the collection here.
Copyright 1997-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #chinanft #dragonshead #lujiazui #pudong #jinmaotower #nftcollectors #nftart #leicachina #fritzhoffmann
I’m excited to announce that my first NFT drop from the collection of 75 images I’ve titled Dragon’s Head – Lujiazui 龙头 - 陆家嘴 will drop on June 1 on Foundation.app
Lujiazui is in Shanghai’s Pudong New Area. It’s development was intended to be the Dragon’s Head of wealth that would lead Shanghai and the Yangtze delta forward in development. You may recognize the Oriental Pearl Television Tower in slide #1, a view from 1994. Since then, the Lujiazui skyline has become an iconic symbol of modern China, recognizable worldwide and referred to as China’s Manhattan and China’s Wall Street.
Slides #2, #3, and #4 are online screenshots that show how Lujiazui is used in illustration today.
Slides #5, #6, #7, and #8 are a few of the images in the Dragons Head – Lujiazui NFT collection.
These pictures tell the historical story of constructing the Lujiazui skyline. These are rare views of long-gone scenes, made from 1995 to 2008, at ground level and from the tops of some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers as they were being erected.
The Dragon Head’s – Lujiazui collection of 75 images, minted as NFTs, will be dropped in sets of 15. The first drop will be made on June 1st. Each image will be released in an edition of one. That is one of one (1/1).
With the decrease in the value of Ethereum, now is an excellent time to collect these unique historical images as NFTs. I will be previewing the images here in the coming days.
I’m still learning about NFTs, but I believe that WEB3 presents an opportunity for photography to be made available in limited digital editions. This is intriguing to me as the development of digital displays advances into the future digital realm where the use of those displays will become normalized.
Minting this collection of images as NFTs offers a unique means to have them appreciated beyond the original films held in my archive. I also firmly believe that nothing will replace mastered art prints. NFTs fill a different need, an altogether different niche.
Thanks for looking.
Copyright 1994-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #nftcollectors #lujiazui #dragonsheadnft #shanghaihistory #chinamodern #leicachina #fritzhoffmann #chinanfts
A few more frames from the streets of Shenyang May 1999 on assignment for @fortunemag
Many images always go unpublished. You’re seeing these here for the first time. I believe that all three of these were made around Shenyang’s old train station. Number 2 is the taxi driver pulling a passenger from his cab.
Copyright 1999-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #shenyang #chinastreetstyle #fritzhoffmann #leicachina #paintedface #sunscreen
Walking Shenyang streets in 1999. Outtakes from @fortunemag story on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. Writer Roy Rowan and I retraced his reporting of the final battles during the civil war.
Copyright 1999-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #shenyang #china #1999 #fashion #leicachina #fritzhoffmann
Aircraft inspection and visual check of fuel before flights of China Southern and Air Great Wall airlines at Guangzhou’s old airport back in April 2000 for British Petroleum.
Copyright 2000-3022 Fritz Hoffmann #aircraftmanintenance #britishpetroleum #guanzhou #airport #checkengine #china #fritzhoffmann
The army of youthful workers at Wanli Stone in Tianjin listen to the company leaders speak (2) about their achievement - taking a leading position in the global market for stone work.
At the time I visited Wanli 2002 the company was raising concerns in Elberton, Georgia, a town in the USA known as the “Granite Capital of the World” with 150 companies producing gravestones. Elberton had produced 250,000 of those in the previous year. Wanli had even set up a warehouse in Elberton from which their China made stones were sold at half the price.
Copyright 2002-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #wanlistone #gravestone #chinafactory #youngworkers #madeinchina #fritzhoffmann #leicachina
Shanghai is a city to be experienced on foot. Best thing about my move there in 1995 was not driving. I had put 33,000 miles on my car the previous year driving on assignment in the USA.
It’s wonderful to live in a city where pictures can be handily made with a quick shutter while walking to your destination - an art gallery, a grocery store, the office of immigration control, a coffee shop, home - the pictures here. All unpublished and that is the positive about this social media. Published here today. Thanks for viewing them. Have a terrific walk about your town.
1) Moganshan Road
2) Near Beijing Road
3) Near Hankou Road, I think. Guy is a sewer cleaner.
4) Huai Hai Road.
5) Zhabei near Fujian Road
Copyright 1996-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #leicaphotography #streetphotography #shanghaistreets #shanghaistyle #leicachina #rangefinder #filmphotography #fritzhoffmann #goingsomewhere
It’s Earth Day - Hug a tree.
1) Monks hugging a cedar tree at the Shaolin Temple, Dengfeng Henan. 2010
2) Feeling the qi of her favorite tree - Fuxing Park Shanghai. 2000
3) Greening Shanghai began in earnest in 2001 with plantings of trees in lots that had become vacant with the development of the city.
4) House plant vendor Guangzhou, 2000
5) The pine tree on the mountain in Zhejiang that I frequented during tea harvests. 2001
Copyright 2000-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #earthday #treehugger #ilovettees #treesinchina #shaolintemple #greeningshanghai #plantatree #mountainpine #fritzhoffmann
Easter weekend 2008 when I spent it with parishioners in their Catholic Church in Liuhe village in Shanxi, China. They welcomed me, gave me full access and fixed a cot for me to sleep on.
The church was demolished during China's Cultural Revolution then rebuilt in 1985. With over 6,000 Catholics, Liuhe parish is one of the largest in mainland China. Catholicism in China is split between the authority of Beijing and the Vatican.
Copyright 2008-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #fritzhoffmann #oldhundrednames #老百姓 #china #leicachina #chinaeaster #catholicsinchina #easterinchina #fujichrome #liuhe
A series of candid portraits made within an hour meandering the perimeter of the Labrang Monastery where I had been staying in the home of a friend after traveling overland from Chengdu.
I first arrived in China on a one month tourist visa. At the time, 1995, it was not possible to renew that visa without leaving. I didn’t want to leave so I enrolled in university language studies. Learning Mandarin in a classroom 5 hours a day, 5 days a week was tough but it turned out to be well worth it. To be able to strike up conversations with strangers while photographing in China made my work and life there so rich.
In the last frame a heavy rain broke and I ducked inside a room off street at the same time the man pictured did the same. The downpour lasted a good 30 minutes. There we were. It was good to share our stories with each other. Then we parted.
Copyright 2004-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #labrangmonastery #china #xiahe #streetportraiture #leicachina #fritzhoffmann
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Thank you!
(Link in my profile)
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See all the images and get involved today at vitalimpacts.org/collections/impact-now
(link in profile.)
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Feeding those without as they break their fast during Ramadan in Kashgar, Xinjiang 2007.
And a few pictures of locally grown foods in the market.
I’ve traveled to Xinjiang several times and always felt warmly received there by the Uyghur people. Thank you.
Copyright 2007-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #Ramadan #Kashgar #Xinjiang #china #breakingfast #uyghurmuslims #leicachina #fritzhoffmann
It was this last frame at the end of a long day of photography that made it to print. This is near Lugu Lake in Yunnan province where the Mosuo minority lives. But I didn’t find a picture at the lake. It had become developed for tourism by 2007 when I visited. So I hiked a couple hours up to a remote Mosuo village, made some pictures and hiked out.
It was end of the day by the time we returned to the car. We hadn’t driven but a short distance when I spotted the small, young white horse in the distance standing in the center of the road. The sun lit it so nicely. I got out of the car and walked slowly forward but the horse moved to where it is here in the photo. The residents of the village were active and I made some quick frames before curiosity and suspicion of me changed the scene and those last rays of sun were lost.
The picture stood out in our edit and was printed as a two page spread in the National Geographic cover-to-cover special edition on China that was published ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The people living there are actually of the Yi minority, not Mosuo. The Yi usually dwell in the hills but the people I photographed here told me, actually told my hired driver, that poverty had motivated them to move down to this valley.
Copyright 2007-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #china #yiminority #lugulake #yunnan #beautifullandscape #goldenhourlight #filmphotography #leicaMP #leicachina #fritzhoffmann #nationalgeographic
Tsingtao beer bottle watchers on the line at the brewery in Qingdao, China. I remember that day because I drank too much. I was given half an hour to photograph and then in the next half an hour the management asked my opinion on some new beers they had bottled. I had just sweated my butt off hustling around the humid brewery to get a picture so I was very thirsty. The beers were ice cold. And I chugged the beers because I had to get to the airport for a flight to Beijing. Then at the Beijing airport I hired a cab to run me up to the Great Wall at Badaling to photograph small businesses catering to tourists. All for Businessweek. Then back to Shanghai that night for another assignment the next day. As it was in the spring of 1997.
Copyright 1997-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #tsingtao #qingdao #chinesebeer #brewery #bottlesofbeeronthewall #productionline #fritzhoffmann
The first factories I photographed in China I accessed by way of a taxi driver, Jiang Jianhua. Met him on my first trip to Shanghai when I hired a taxi to tour me around. “What do you want to do” he asked? Factories, I said. He drove straight away to a shoe factory and then a tannery. We arrived at the shoe factory just in time for lunch and that was my first traditional multi-course Chinese meal.
Then in October 1995 while I was studying Mandarin at a university far from Shanghai’s center, @fortunemag assigned me to make some pictures about the motorcycle market. They wanted a factory. I paged Jianhua. He picked me up and wisked me off to the Xingfu factory in Baoshan.
He had been driving cab for 14 years. Said he was tired of it. He wanted to learn photography. There was a demand for pictures of Shanghai and the wire services kept after me to help them out as there were no other foreign photogs in Shanghai then. So a friend sent some old cameras for Jianhua and as I coached him along he began sending pictures through me to Reuters in Beijing.
A taxi driver in Shanghai then would be lucky to make 2000 yuan (approximately $240) a month. One picture to Reuters paid him 400 yuan. It was a good deal for all. But then the State Security Bureau visited Jianhua at his work unit, told him to stop and either start snitching on me or cease assisting me. Sadly we lost touch after that.
Over the 25 years photographing in China so many Chinese have helped me. Thank you all! Miss you Jianhua.
Copyright 1994-2022 #chinafactory #madeinchina #shoefactory #tannery #xingfumotorcycle #chinesefood #fritzhoffmann #leicachina
Make an IMPACT NOW, for Humanitarian Relief! I am honored to participate and offer this image in the new flash print initiative spearheaded by @Vital.Impacts with the photographers of @NatGeo. 100% of profits will be donated to @directrelief who are allocating these funds to the regions in the world in most need of humanitarian aid. They are working in Ukraine now to provide medical aid to people affected by the conflict. Act now. It ends April 20, 2022.
See all the images and get involved today at vitalimpacts.org/collections/impact-now (link in profile.)
Thank you to @cansoninfinity for donating all of the paper for this sale.
#vitalimpacts #ukraine #peace #humanitartian #solidarity
This image of Shaolin Kung fu Master Shi Dejian at his Chanwuyi center high in the mountains called Songshan in Dengfeng, Henan, China stirs strong memories in me. I was moved by Master Dejian and his life of devotion.
Shi Dejian left the Shaolin temple when it began to stray further from it origins and expand commercial ventures. He built the center from granite cut from the mountain. It is breathtaking to visit.
Chan is zen. Wu is martial arts and Yi is Chinese medicine.
Shi Dejian is a practicing Buddhist monk, a vegetarian. Many times martial artists have sought him out to challenge him. While I was there a Thai kick boxing champ arrived with film crew in tow. Master Dejian refused to fight him. The challenger persisted and finally Dejian offered that his novice apprentice would stand in for him. Within seconds, the kick boxer met his fate and was laid out by the apprentice.
Copyright 2010 Fritz Hoffmann #chanwuyi #shaolin #kungfumaster #shidejian #songmountain #monkonmountain #fritzhoffmann #natgeo
Scenes from mega-city Chongqing, spicy and hot pot. (Zoom in on frame 2 for local hotpot dining)
Copyright 2004-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #chongqing #hotpot #spicy #megacity #chinesefood #hotandhumid #leicachina #fritzhoffmann #redhotchilipeppers
Before I moved to Shanghai I lived in Nashville - Music City. Music wasn’t my gig but I was the photographer on the George Jones Bradley Barn Sessions in 1994. The negs have been buried since. Now editing those for a book project. If interested, please follow progress at my other IG feed @the_bradley_barn_sessions Thanks!
George Jones and Ricky Skaggs at Owen Bradley’s Barn on the day they recorded the song, Why Baby Why, sung together for George’s duets album, The Bradley Barn Sessions.
This has always been a favorite image of mine from the sessions. Perhaps because it’s a real moment between these two men, friends, and when I see it I recall slowing my breath to steady my hand as I gently squeezed the shutter at a slow shutter speed necessary in the low light.
This is the second frame of the two country music legends. After the first frame, George noticed I was focusing in on the moment and hid his right hand that held a cigarette. But he let me get another shot off before he walked away.
While I did not pose or direct any of the pictures at the sessions, photography is a collaboration between photographer and subject. George was a skilled collaborator in that regard.
Tech note - Leica M6 with 50 Summicron lens and Kodak Tri-X film. I processed all film daily in my small darkroom.
Copyright 1994-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #georgejones #rickyskaggs @rickyskaggs #whybabywhy #bradleybarnsessions #countrymusiclegend #nashville #musiccity #leicaphotography #fritzhoffmann
Although located far in China’s interior, being that it is at the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, Chongqing feels connected to other places by the waters that flow east.
The waters edge provides one with endless opportunities to watch and interact with Chongqing residents and river travelers.
Copyright 2004-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #chongqing #yangtzeriver #jialingriver #riverlife #china #rivertown #rivercity #leicachina #leicaphotography #fritzhoffmann
Looking for views of the emerging mega-city Chongqing in 2004. Outs from @fortune assignment.
The story opened with, “Even the locals get lost in Chongqing, a city obliterating it’s past before the future has been built.”
Chongqing is a favorite city. I even considered relocating there from Shanghai.
Its not flat. Glad I was only packing rangefinders as I footed around the hilly city for 10 days. It is positioned at the confluence of rivers. I’ve always enjoyed photographing there.
Copyright 2004-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #chongqing #china #megacity #metropolis #cityview #longgone #leicachina #leicaphotography #fritzhoffmann
The memorial hall of the Nanjing Massacre is at the site of mass graves of thousands of Chinese civilians who were raped and slaughtered by soldiers of Imperial Japanese army in 1937-38.
I visited the memorial for Finlands newspaper Helsingin Sanomat in 1998.
In the first frame we see the young projectionist, a PLA soldier, who was tasked with keeping a film about the massacre running.
A portrait of a young couple - students at Nanjing University. They were visiting the site.
Human remains exposed for viewing at the grave called “pit of ten thousand corpses”.
Some young enlisted soldiers touring the grounds.
Nanjing was the capital of the Republic of China then and the massacre took place following the Battle of Nanjing during the second Sino-Japanese war. Estimates of Chinese killed in the six week period are from 200,000 to 300,000.
Copyright 1998-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #nanjingmassacrememorialhall #nanjing #china #sinojapanesewar #sinojapaneserelations #leicachina #leicaphotography #fritzhoffmann
A brief stop at Nanjing University, May 1998, on a trip down the Yangtze River from Yibin to Shanghai for @time. We just followed our noses interviewing and photographing spontaneously along the way. Showed up on the campus here. No appointment. Kept moving on a brisk walk through. Talked to students and made the few pictures possible before the window was closed by suspicious security.
To kick off the trip we bought a bottle of the best Wuliangye baijiu at the distillery in Yibin.
Copyright 1998-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #nanjinguniversity #yangtzeriver #reflexphotography #streetphotography #china1990s #chinayouth #fritzhoffmann
Walking the streets of Chairman Mao’s petroleum frontier town Daqing in Heilongjiang, China for @time back in 2004. Uninvited, it was a quick overnight trip.
The two characters with the neon palms 长城 is Changcheng - Great Wall (long wall)
Copyright 2004-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #daqing #dongbei #china #heilongjiang #petrochina #oil #leicachina #leicaphotography #fritzhoffmann
Losar, Tibetan new year starts March 3. The year of water tiger this year. You still have time to get to a Tibetan region for festivities. It’s worth attending. Be sure to have some yak butter tea.
These pictures from the Labrang monastery near Xiahe, Gansu.
Copyright 2006-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #labrangmonastery #losar #tibetannewyear #gansu #crimson #buddhistmonks #fritzhoffmann #leicachina #leicaphotography #china
In Jingdezhen, China’s porcelain capital, I was determined to find the source of the figurines that depict scenes from China’s Cultural Revolution that, in the early 2000s, were being sold at the Dongtai Road antique market in Shanghai.
Found them in a home factory where Wang Qianwei (dressed in her night clothes) was painting glaze on them.
Jingdezhen is a very interesting city. I’ve made a couple of trips there. These are some old scans from two different trips. In the early 2000s.
The size of these decorative vases increased as demand for them grew with China’s economy.
Two views of the production line of blue & white ware.
Mao Zedong and Guanyin, Goddess of Mercy, side by side.
Copyright 2002-2022 Fritz Hoffmann
#jingdezhen #porcelain #china #ceramics #pottery #bluewhite #ancientart #guanyin #maozedong #culturalrevolution #fritzhoffmann #leicachina
Its fitting to share some love on this Valentines Day for the restaurateur Michelle Garnaut and staff at the fabulously wonderful restaurant she launched in Shanghai - M on the Bund. When M was opened in 1999 it brought a new day for Shanghai. Sadly, M is closing today 2/15.
Michelle pioneered the way for so many in Shanghai and China too. I don’t recall the exact year when Shanghai was no longer considered a hardship post by multi-national offices based there. The opening of M signalled the change was near.
Hands down it was the best restaurant in town. Had many wonderful dinners there with friends and alone too after arduous assignments in the provinces. It was the perfect place to come after a long bus trip or having been detained for being someplace you were not welcome - like a dam construction site on the Nu River. Then when you’d walk into M, it was perfect. The brunches on the veranda were the best, up above it all with fog horns sounding in the harbor and views of the changing Lujiazui skyline. And let’s not forget Glam Bar. The place to be any night and most certainly on New Years Eve. Fireworks on National Day - meet you at M.
The closure of M truly is the end of an era for Shanghai. So sorry to see you go Michelle. May your next venture be as fulfilling for you as M and Glam have been for us.
My snap shots of good times at M are buried in my files. Here are a few images from a September 2001 assignment for The NY Times Magazine travel special.
Copyright 2001-2022 Fritz Hoffmann
#monthebund #shanghai #bestrestaurantsintheworld #bund #sadgoodbye #leicachina #fritzhoffmann #china #michellegarnaut
We could smell the garlic from a good distance as we came to this village near Xuzhou, China where the Battle of Huaihai took place in 1949. The Communists beat the Nationalists in that decisive battle.
Always fascinating to come to a place in China that focusses on a single commodity - in this case garlic.
I was with journalist Row Rowan as he retraced his coverage of China’s war in the late 40s as a LIFE magazine correspondent based in Shanghai. This reporting was for the @fortunemag story for the 50th anniversary of the PRC. We traveled for three weeks together. Roy was in his 80s then.
Copyright 1999-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #garlic #xuzhou #huaihai #china #villageeconomy #villagers #leicachina #fritzhoffmann
Touched down in Xining, Qinghai airport while on my return home to Shanghai from Kashgar, Xinjiang where I had gone to photograph the earthquake of 2003.
Skids marks on runway. Everyone off!
Copyright 2003-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #xining #qinghai #airportrunway #skidmarks #thelongwayhome #china #fritzhoffmann #leicachina #leicaphotography
I do not recall the significance of this tiger motif on the wall of this village building near the China- Singapore-Suzhou Industrial Park, on the outskirts of Suzhou, photographed in 1995. But being that it is the year of the tiger, here’s my tiger picture.
I made several trips on assignment to photograph this industrial park while it was under construction. It covers a massive piece of land. I’d hire a motorcycle and driver to tour me around. Motorcycle worked best for a quick off and on.
I could not get over the amount of work being done by manual labor. Even the deep, long trench for underground power lines was dug by hand. What an effort! The guys carrying stone to build a canal sang work songs to keep their feet moving in sync.
The park is 278 square kilometers or 107 square mile in size and today has a population of 800,000.
Copyright 1995-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #singaporesuzhou #china #industrialpark #tiger #reformandopening #manuallabor #construction #leicachina #fritzhoffmann
In 2001 chicken was outselling beef in China. (At KFC the chicken got spicier the further inland you went.) KFC had 500 stores there and each month 10 more were opened.
FORTUNE needed pictures for a story on fast food giant Tricon, KFCs parent company. I have done some big visual stories for FORTUNE - pollution in Asia, emerging car culture in China, Wal-Mart in China, the 50th anniversary of Communist China, among others - I also helped out on some less significant pictures like this assignment.
I’ve always approached photographing with the belief that pictures are everywhere. In some situations you may have to work harder to see them, compose them.
It’s hard for a westerner in China to be the fly on the wall. For these pictures I took the opposite approach and went in with camera rolling and talking to anyone who made eye contact with me. It was a fun couple of hours.
None of these were published. @Fortune went with an exterior view.
Copyright 2001-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #Tricon #Yum #kfcchina #shanghai #fritzhoffmann #spicychicken #trythechickensandwich
Ringing in Chinese Lunar New Year in China - Henan and Hunan. Best wishes to you.
Copyright 1999-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #chinesenewyear #henan #hunan #rocket #fishdinner #templefair #leicachina #leicaphotography #fritzhoffmann
He will break the steel wire wrapped around his chest.
During Lunar New Year in China, railway stations present buskers with rapt audiences - travelers waiting for their train home.
These young boys held the attention of the crowd in Zhengzhou, Henan. While one boy performed, the others kept the crowd at bay. They were surprisingly good at that. They said that they were students of one of the Kung Fu schools in nearby Dengfeng, where the Shaolin Temple is located. I can imagine that some of those students might find activities to pursue on their own during the long holiday.
A few years later I photographed the Kung Fu schools and the temple for the National Geographic story, Battle for the Soul of Kung Fu. I’ve included a couple of unpublished pictures from that story here to lend some background to this training.
Much of the training is performance. I never saw anyone do Houdini-like stunts like what these boys were doing at the train station. But what I saw students from the Shaolin Temple Fighting Monk Disciple School doing in a performance at the 10th anniversary party for the Shanghai Haiyi Scientific and Trading Company was real enough - the nunchucks and those spear tips.
After many years of eating bitterness and seriously difficult training under poor conditions, the best a student might hope for is a job as a body guard, like Zhao Yong, eyeing his boss in Suzhou in the last picture.
Copyright 2007-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #kungfu #chunyun #chinesenewyear #zhengzhou #bitterness #leicachina #leicaphotography #china #shanghai #fritzhoffmann
You should be on your way home by now for Chinese New Year. I hope you got the ticket to travel as you wished.
Here are a few images from CNY 2007 at the Guangzhou railway station.
1. Two brothers tucked in for the night on their duffle bags. Their train to Guizhou wasn’t leaving for another 6 days. This is where they planned to sleep each night.
2. Deng Xiaohui and Lifeng Xin will return to Zhengzhou. They worked in a garment factory in Shenzhen.
3. The PLA is called on to control the crowd. I was at the station as a guest of the railway administration. The guy with the megaphone kept turning around and yelling at me, “stop taking pictures” while at the same time the young woman from the railway who was minding me kept yelling, “take your pictures.” I was very impressed with her.
4. A group of men from the village Lilu in Shandong waiting. They had been building a railroad in Dongguan.
5. Waiting
6. A restless crowd
7. The train to Yongzhou. 3 year old Hou Jiafei with parents.
8. A young woman waits for the train to leave the station for Chongqing. She had a good seat at a table in the dining car. I wonder if she was able to keep it.
Copyright 2007-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #chinesenewyear #guangzhou #railwaystation #chunyun #migration #china #fritzhoffmann #leicachina #leicaphotography #lunarnewyear
Pictures from the 2007 Millionaire's Fair in Shanghai. Upon setting China on its path of reform and opening in 1978, leader Deng Xiaoping said, “Let some people get rich first.” By 2007 there were 250,000 dollar-millionaires in China’s 1.4 billion population. In 2020 China had 5.3 million dollar-millionaires and 1058 billionaires.
China defines the line of poverty at earning less than $2.30 dollars per day. By that measure China says it has reduced poverty today to 0.6 percent. But China is no longer a low-income country. It falls in the upper-middle income category. The World Bank standard for those countries is $5.50 per day. 13 percent of China’s population falls below that line.
The purpose of the Millionaires Fair was to establish a benchmark for luxury goods. Some of the items for sale were a $5000 gold plated toilet, a diamond encrusted cell phone, fast cars and pure bred pets.
The Millionaire’s Fair started in Europe in 2002 with events in Amsterdam, Moscow, Cannes and Dubai.
Photographed for National Geographic. Picture 1 was published in the special cover-to-cover edition of the magazine that introduced China at the start of the Beijing Olympic Games.
Copyright 2007-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #china #millionaire #millionairesfair #luxurylifestyle #lifestylesoftherichandfamous #leicachina #popflash #filmphotography #shanghai #fritzhoffmann
My neighborhood in old Shanghai was under the slow process of demolition.
I had lived in Shanghai on Huai Hai Road in the former French Concession for 10 years, 7 of those in an Art Deco building from the 20s. I decided to change things up and move outside the area, which had become an expat bubble. I moved to Zhabei district on Suzhou Creek near Fujian Road.
My flat was in a new tower building (seen in images 2 & 6) and to get to it, or leave to find a taxi, I would walk through the neighborhood. Camera in hand I always made a few pictures along the way. These frames from 2006-2008.
Unfortunately my time in Zhabei was cut short when my landlord broke my lease. I returned to the bubble.
Copyright 2006-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #shanghai #china #zhabei #oldshanghai #shanghaistyle #leicachina #fritzhoffmann #filmphotography #streetphotography
(1) “The model workers were awarded The Selected Works of Mao and diary books for you to record your thoughts everyday.” Fang Rencan explained to me as he paused from the rice harvest with his wife on their plot of land in Gongnong (workers and farmers) village on the back side of Fushun Xinfu Steel Mill in the “City of Coal” Fushun in Liaoning province China 2005
Fang had worked in the PLA No.301 Arsenal, which produces materials for fighter jets wings. He was a city level model worker in 1973, 74, 75, and 76. Fang recalled that, “At that time we didn’t know nothing but working hard, the best workers are those who never cares about their family but only work.”
(2) Further west in Tian Tun (Tun is village) Liu Linseng, 59, and wife Li Guizhi, 58, were harvesting from their plot of land next to the Fushun Carbon-black Factory and Fushun Coking Factory.
(3) While the ten members of the Li family cut their rice, their youngest boys Li Pengfei, 12 and Li Yuchen, 9, entertained themselves.
Copyright 2005-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #fushun #liaoning #dongbei #riceharvest #workersfarmers #china #leicachina #leicaphotography #fritzhoffmann #filmphotography #chrome
Wanderings about the Zhangjiang high-tech park in development in Shanghai 20 years ago.
Nearly every coastal city in China had something it was developing as a “high-tech” park.
Zhangjiang was begun in 1992 but it wasn’t until 1999 that it took off. Key businesses located there today cook up artificial intelligence, bio pharmaceuticals and integrated circuits.
I found that the only practical way to get around these expansive properties was by motorcycle. Easy to hop off quickly. I usually hired one outside the nearest subway station.
Photographed for LOOP magazine (Japan).
Copyright 2002-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #zhangjiang #hightechpark #china #leicachina #loop #fritzhoffmann #streetphotography #shanghai #pudong
“Big-hearted” billionaire Lai Changxing was on the run when this team of investigators from China’s State Security occupied this hotel in Xiamen where they methodically investigated and interrogated the extensive network of Lai’s cohorts in smuggling and other crimes of corruption they were accused of.
Lai ’s guanxi (connections) ran deep and many government employees, officials and cadres were pulled into the case and convicted - some were executed.
Lai made it to Canada where he fought extradition for a decade before China got him back.
In January 2000 @time sent me to Xiamen to photograph whatever I could find for the story. The most visual picture was the abandoned construction project, a giant hole in the city with unfinished high-rises. Those sat idle for years as the investigation labored on.
I couldn’t walk into the hotel where the investigations were taking place. In fact, just showing up at the gate with a camera set off alarms. I figured I had one shot at a picture and chose lunch hour for a slow walk by. Got lucky to meet these investigators walking back from a noodle shop.
The best article you can find online about Lai is the story by Hannah Beech @hkbeech titled Smugglers Blues in @time 2002. Hannah interviewed Lai in Vancouver.
Copyright 2000-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #yuanhua #laichangxing #xiamen #chinacorruption #stakeout #fujian #leicachina #fritzhoffmann #redmansion
Slow tai chi and fast - 430 KPH fast - Maglev train. I was lucky to happen upon this man practicing when the Maglev flew past. Oh, and there’s a waterfall too.
And then the train and the man were gone.
The first maglev - magnetic levitation - train in commercial use in the world opened for passengers in Shanghai in December 2002.
Tough to photograph because you wait and wait for it to pass and then it passes so fast that everything, if luck will have it, lines up in only one frame each time.
The Maglev doesn’t go far, 30 kilometers - 19 miles, but it gets you there fast - at a speed of 430 kph, that’s 270 mph.
It was costly to build but was another notch on the belt of firsts that China could claim. It is still in operation. Rumbles as it takes the turn.
Passengers on board had mixed reactions to the speed.
Copyright 2002-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #maglev #shanghai #pudong #taichi #taijiquan #taichichuan #waterfall #china #leicachina #fritzhoffmann
“Welcome to Yiyaya KTV”, Be considerate in service and confident in life”.
(2 images of the same staff made a couple months apart)
Male employees at Yiyaya karaoke club in Shenyang, China stand at attention during training as they rehearse greetings and work slogans.
Renovations of the club had just been completed when I happened upon these new recruits out front as scaffolding that covered the facade was coming down. A couple months later I found myself again passing by. It was shift change and the staff had been transformed. (See the second frame)
Copyright 2005-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #ktv #karaoke #shenyang #china #menatwork #mascarade #partyhard #leicachina #leicaphotography #fritzhoffmann
In the belly of state-industry in China’s Dongbei (Northeast)
These frames show the Yida coal cokery and workers village in Heilongjiang province and Tonghua Steel in Jilin province.
From the story “Manchurian Mandate” published in @natgeo These images didn’t make the cut but I sure had a good time making the them.
Copyright 2006-2022 Fritz Hoffmann
#winter #coalcokery #coalvillage #heilongjiang #industry #jilin #tonghua #fritzhoffmann #steampunk #chinanortheast #dongbei #leicaphotography #leicacamera #leicachina
New Years resolution - dance, dance, dance and dance like it’s nobody’s business.
May your resolutions come true in 22!
1) Beijing, Temple of Heaven. 1994
2) Shanghai, The Bund 1994
3) Shanghai, Fuxing Park 1999
4) Shanghai, Fuxing Park 2001
Copyright 1994-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #waltzingchina #strictlyballroom #templeofheaven #beijing #shanghai #waitan #fritzhoffmann #leicachina #leicaphotography
At the 2005 auto show in Changchun, Jilin China, pictures from the 28-page National Geographic story - Manchurian Mandate. (Images 2&3 unpublished)
People arriving pass by an advertisement for a Ford Focus manufactured at Ford’s plant in Chongqing, China.
The top of the line Hongqi (Red flag) limousine spins on a turntable with the signature red flag hood ornament for all to see-look but don’t touch. Made in Changchun, the Hongqi was built as the state vehicle for China’s high-ranking government leaders.
Young women in western wear were posted at each car to draw attention to the new models.
Copyright 2005-2021 Fritz Hoffmann #china #carshow #changchun #fordfocus #hongqi #redflag #chinacar #leicachina #leicaphotography #fritzhoffmann
Inside the state-owned Changchun Rail Car Company in the wonderful northern Chinese city - Changchun, Jilin. I was there in 2002 for @time on a story about labor in China.
Interesting to see that the company has opened a 240,000 square foot factory on the site of former New England Westinghouse Company in Springfield, Massachusetts, not far from my home today. It produces rail cars for Boston, L.A. and Philadelphia among other cities.
Copyright 2002-2021 Fritz Hoffmann #changchun #china #crrc #railcar #manufacturing #leicachina #fritzhoffmann #leicaphotography
A few frames made while passing through Changchun in Spring 2002. I was on my way to a factory that makes rail cars. On assignment for @time for a story on labor.
1. Men advertise their trades next to a newly erected billboard that had yet to have advertisement pasted to it.
2. A corn farmer employing his mule team to turn the soil.
3. A woman sells house plants on the street from a tricycle cart.
Copyright 2002-2021 Fritz Hoffmann #changchun #streetphotography #leicachina #leicaphotography #menatwork #houseplants #china #fritzhoffmann
Nanjing Road in Shanghai is one of the busiest shopping streets in the world. I always tried to avoid it but that was difficult to do because of its length. And then the eastern section became a pedestrian mall, which made it a challenge to cross by car. It is a good place to practice your street photography and easy to duck into a shop and back outside again.
I always liked the first image here - a one shot deal - for the way the red stripes align with the columns of numbers on the screen and how the young woman’s expression is one with China’s President Jiang Zemin.
Copyright 1994-2021 Fritz Hoffmann #nanjingroad #fritzhoffmann #streetphotography #leicachina #leicsphotography #shanghai
Two views, eight years apart - 1999 and 2007- of a tourist spot near the Terracotta Warriors Museum in Shaanxi, China. On my last visit to the museum, 2017, I did not see this pyramid. Anyone know if it’s still there?
Copyright 1999-2021 Fritz Hoffmann #pyramid #china #shaanxi #terracottawarriors #xian #leicachina #fritzhoffmann #leicaphotography
A tractor with a wood coffin tied to it chugged through Lizhang, the village that had become my second home in China. My friend Haitian said a funeral was planned. Could I go? I asked. He inquired for me and soon we were on our way up a mountain road. The family kindly allowed me to photograph the day.
Months later I returned with 25 - 5x7 inch black and white prints in a box that I made and went to find the family. It was planting season and family members came from the flooded paddies to their home. The interior was not decorated. They didn’t have much. I handed the box of prints to the eldest child. Everyone gathered and handed the glossy prints around. Many villagers came to see what was happening. Soon the prints were dispersed among them all. It’s possible that many of them had never seen themself in a photograph - certainly not in this way.
On my next visit to Lizhang a young man came to invite me to photograph the funeral of his father. I had become the funeral photographer.
Copyright 1997-2021 Fritz Hoffmann #funeral #ruralchina #blackandwhite #leicaphotography #leicachina #zhejiang #fritzhoffmann
1. A New Century gasoline station constructed next to a family gravesite - Jiangxi province.
Filling stations were constructed around rural China before private automobile ownership increased demand for gasoline. I photographed these stations while working on a story I pitched to @fortunemag on China’s emerging car culture.
2. Until cars arrived, the station concrete pavement made a perfect surface for drying the local grain harvest.
The story, titled “China Goes Car Crazy” was splashed out over a sweet 12-page spread. You can find the published pages of that story under Publications on the website link in my bio.
Copyright 2003 Fritz Hoffmann #chinacars #chinagasstation #harvest #ruralchina #beforecars #chinagoescarcrazy #leicaphotography #leicachina #fritzhoffmann
Jia Liangyu hauls chunks of coal up a switchback path worn into the steep hills of yellow earth in northern Shaanxi, China. I met Jia while wandering Shanbei on assignment for @natgeo
Copyright 2006-2021 Fritz Hoffmann #fritzhoffmann #leicaphotography #leicacamera #shanbei #shaanxi #coal #16tons #china
A few more scenes from the ground of the Lujiazui Financial Center in the 1990s during construction of the iconic mega-structures there - residents and construction workers.
Copyright 1995-2021 Fritz Hoffmann #shanghai #lujiazui #pudong #streeteats #china #leicachina #fritzhoffmann
The Central Green in Lujiazui, Shanghai - 1996 and 1999 - from locations not far apart.
The first frame is right behind the building that is now the Wu Changshou Memorial Hall. The second frame of the young couple, English majors at Shanghai International Studies University, was a short distance north of the hall.
It has been noted many times that Lujiazui was built on farmland. That is incorrect. Farmland in Pudong was located some distance away from the land where the New Financial District, Lujiazui was built.
Copyright 1996-2021 Fritz Hoffmann #lujiazui #pudong #shanghai #centralgreen #beforeandafter #china #1990s
#leicachina #fritzhoffmann