ARCHIVE FOR October, 2009
SHANGHAI 25° C
Hellooooooooooo people from the world, China and Germany. Maybe also Pakistan or India. (Or Russia, who knows) Whoever reads that blog, I am happy to see you here. After 2 and a half weeks in the states with my girlfriend Shawn Kathleen Russell, her daughter Zoe and actually the entire family, I am back in Shanghai. Actually I had serious breathing problems over there in Seattle. The air was so dry, that I had to pick my nose all the time. I guess I appeared as such a rude guy, people didn’t believe I am German. Now, back in 60% humidity, my nose holes are free like a bird and I can concentrate on more important facts. Sweating for instance. Its so hot here. Today we had 27°C and I can’t believe its almost November.
I do have a couple of jobs now I am working on which is a logo for a music producer in Hamburg, a website for a advertising company in Shanghai and a wedding I gonna photograph on the weekend in Nanjing. And lets see what else comes in next week. More meetings.
The picture you see above is the look out from my room I live in temporarily until the end of January. On this picture we can see the rising sun and the downtown monster buildings close to Jing’An temple. Well dear friends, that’s it. So far so good.
IN TRANCE, MAYBE
Right now, I have this weird feeling again.I remember having it a couple of times already in my life. Very rarely though. I am working on something and all of the sudden I get all those thoughts, ideas, unspoken sentences back in my head I had a couple of days ago. Maybe they are the leftovers from a dream I just had last night. All this weird thoughts come up and I want to remember them so much, because I know I had them before and I want to keep them, want to finish work on those thoughts, but I can’t, because they come all at once and really fast, like a shower of sweats: You want to catch all of them, but you have only 2 hands and are not fast enough. While having this weird moment of about half a minute, I totally forget about where I am, what country I am in, what place I am at, how the room looks around me and who the person next to me is. I have to actually look around and get a feeling of where I am and how I got here. I am totally lost in memories and flashbacks. Its actually a beautiful feeling and it usually comes in very intense moments of concentration. I don’t have to worry about anything anymore. What my problems are, where I live, issues with my life, problems, doubts, anger, fear, anything, because I don’t know anything anymore. Nothing is there anymore, because I am nowhere and I am a no one. A state of trance almost.
By the time I turn around and I realize where I am, look to my neighbour to see his face and look on my laptop what i am actually doing right now, I slowly remember everything. This moment though, where everything comes to mind again I experienced subcontiously the thoughts of the past few days, its beautiful. It tells me that nothing gets lost in my head. While writing this I am still in this state of being and I enjoy it. Its peaceful and quite and it feels good.
I don’t want to wake up again. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
COUNTRY CHARTS ON PFLOCK.COM
Hello. I just have a little note on the site, everybody is probably so excited about it. Back in the time the menu of my website used to be in order of the countries I visited. The new website doesn’t really tell that anymore, so I decided to bring a chart up front a series what tells you about the location in this world. So, it doesn’t tell you about every single picture where I took it, but I like it that way more anyways. I think about the idea to bring up a menu what lets you choose from what part of the world you want to see pictures. Still, I just think about it.
BOOK ILLUSTRATION AND VISA
After I told you about doing more illustration, I actually do and its so much fun, oh my god … haha. The one above is for the next book from Robin Russell. The first one was for A Prince in Peril. After spending a month in Shanghai and my visa expired, I had to make a decision going to the US or to Hong Kong. I actually planned to renew my visa in Shanghai, but obviously I have chosen the best time in the year, where everybody is asleep in Shanghai since the national holidays are more important than a a Germans problems, unbelievable. So, I have to leave the country and actually it makes a lot of sense going to Hong Kong. Funny though to got to the US, is more or less the same price as I would spend in Hong Kong. The travel costs are much more expensive, but the visa is way cheaper. So, in the end same same, but I see my girlfriend and have the chance to practice my English hihi. Its crazy how much I travel and how normal that feels to go to China, US, China, Germany, China, US, Germany and so on …. When I started to travel in June 2007, I didn’t know it will become a never ending story. Once a traveler, always a traveler, I suppose.
In Shanghai my job searching machine stopped for a while, first everybody is on holiday, second it takes some time to meet the right people. Although i have to say how amazing it is how many contacts I made in less than 2 weeks in Shanghai. 6 really new good contacts, and 20 new friends haha, maybe 508. What I really like about being here in Shanghai. When you talk to other foreigners, they first “welcome to Shanghai” instead of looking up and down on you, telling you within 5 minutes after viewing your portfolio to come back a year later like in Hamburg, Germany. I think I have chosen a very good time to leave Germany and go to China.
By the way: Anybody ever thought about going to China, who is also reading my blog and is a very big fan of my stuff and also things that I am a really handsome and intelligent person and met me at least once in person …. you are welcome to visit me and stay at my place. All the best and thanks to all the people who helped me through this really hard time the last 30 days. Special thanks to my mom and Shawnee.
AND ANOTHER NEW BEGINNING.
Now, a month later, I eventually arrived in my new home. Shanghai, Jing’ An District. I share my apartment with a bloke from England, and a couple from Iran and the Philippines. Very international as you can see. It took me a long time to relax and calm down from all the moving around stress. I met already a lot of different people and its great to get a little overview of Shanghai, a city I don’t really know very well. But for sure I can say that I have a good feeling here. I like this city. Today, the first time after 30 days I want to go out and take pictures again. I will try to just enjoy what I am doing and don’t think about how great the picture has to be. I don’t really have much more to say. The illustrations you see above is for an event in Hamburg, Knust. Ok.. I am not very creative in writing today. Take care people and make love.