{"title":"The China Tour","description":"\u003cp\u003eThree weeks on tour with an orchestra and a Fujifilm X100F. Canals at Shao Xing, street food in Shenzhen, a lake at Huizhou that I did not want to walk round and could not then leave.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"reflections-on-the-canal","title":"Reflections on the Canal","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReflections on the Canal — Shao Xing, China\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt was one of the last mornings of the tour. The parenthesis, as I'd come to think of it, was beginning to close.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMy colleagues had discovered a hidden residential quarter the evening before — the kind of place that doesn't appear in guidebooks. Round entrances leading to inner courtyards. Red lanterns going up for Chinese New Year. Fish drying under the rafters. Boats drifting on ancient canals.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI was told to turn left outside the hotel, walk ten minutes, and I couldn't miss it. Which is, of course, exactly the kind of direction I usually do miss. Not that morning.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe quarter was just waking up as I arrived, camera in hand — my wife having specifically asked me to remember to shoot in colour this time. People were clearing their throats, eating their rice for breakfast, mopeds carrying their passengers gently to work. The canals reflected the old white walls and tiled rooftops in the still morning water.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt was authentic China. Not the gleaming towers of Shenzhen. The China that has existed for centuries and quietly continues to exist, unhurried and completely itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI didn't want to leave.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eShot on Fujifilm X100F — Shao Xing, China, January 2025\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePrinted at 30 × 45 cm through WhiteWall in Berlin. Choose the bare print, acrylic glass, a mounted frame, or a floater frame — \u003ca href=\"\/pages\/about-the-prints\"\u003ewhat the finishes actually mean\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"IJM Photography","offers":[{"title":"30 x 45 cm \/ Just the print","offer_id":57220427678079,"sku":"1-32141602-300000-450000","price":69.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"30 x 45 cm \/ Acrylic glass","offer_id":57219985736063,"sku":"4-32141602-300000-450000","price":155.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"30 x 45 cm \/ Framed","offer_id":58254525333887,"sku":"628423-32141602-300000-450000","price":209.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"30 x 45 cm \/ Floater frame","offer_id":57219985703295,"sku":"7-32141602-300000-450000","price":279.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7847\/8207\/files\/89d3b26b-7d5f-40d5-9d59-dad188cd1e8a.png?v=1787485492"},{"product_id":"steam-and-sizzle-shenzhen-night","title":"Steam and Sizzle, Shenzhen Night","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSteam and Sizzle, Shenzhen Night\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThey called it Operation Shenzhen Nights. Corentin and Paul had planned it with the enthusiasm of five-year-olds at a zoo — a night out in Shenzhen, no concert, no schedule, just the city.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe took the tube across town, red lanterns swaying overhead for Chinese New Year, and emerged into organised chaos. Street food stalls everywhere. Skewers of chicken, octopus, and things I decided not to look at too closely. Scorpions and crickets were offered. I drew the line there. Some adventures have limits.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut the steam rising from the food stalls against the neon-lit night — the sizzle and smoke and smell of a city that never quite stops — that was something else entirely. I had my camera out and I wasn't putting it down.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShenzhen at night is a city in perpetual motion. Young, electric, completely alive. Standing there amid the chaos — nearly 53 years old, gammy knee and all — I felt something I hadn't expected. Completely present. Completely there.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat happens on tour stays on tour. But some images deserve a wall.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eShot on Fujifilm X100F — Shenzhen, China, December 2024\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePrinted at 40 × 40 cm through WhiteWall in Berlin. Choose the bare print, acrylic glass, a mounted frame, or a floater frame — \u003ca href=\"\/pages\/about-the-prints\"\u003ewhat the finishes actually mean\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"IJM Photography","offers":[{"title":"40 x 40 cm \/ Just the print","offer_id":57220256694655,"sku":"1-32141603-400000-400000","price":69.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"40 x 40 cm \/ Acrylic glass","offer_id":57220256629119,"sku":"4-32141603-400000-400000","price":154.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"40 x 40 cm \/ Framed","offer_id":58254530642303,"sku":"628423-32141603-400000-400000","price":209.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"40 x 40 cm \/ Floater frame","offer_id":57220256563583,"sku":"7-32141603-400000-400000","price":279.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7847\/8207\/files\/f4f3f21a-1d51-42bd-ac1f-58875e9c5232.png?v=1787485575"},{"product_id":"path-to-the-pavilion","title":"Path to the Pavilion","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePath to the Pavilion — Huizhou Lake, China\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen they told us we were stopping at a lake before the evening concert, I wasn't exactly thrilled. A leisurely stroll around a lake? Moi?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut China has a habit of surprising you.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen we arrived at Huizhou, surrounded by hazy sunshine and bamboo groves, pagodas rising from still water, temples half hidden in trees — I felt something I hadn't expected. Happiness. Pure, uncomplicated, unexpected happiness.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI was walking slowly with Mathilde, one of our violinists nursing a bad foot, taking our time while the others rushed ahead. It was that unhurried pace that did it — the kind of walking that lets you actually see things. The light was filtering through the trees, sparkling on the water, and the path curved gently ahead of us toward a pavilion that felt like it had been there for centuries.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI raised the camera and didn't think twice.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere are days on tour when the music and the place and the people all align into something you know you'll carry for the rest of your life. This was one of them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eShot on Fujifilm X100F — Huizhou Lake, China, 2024\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePrinted at A3, 29,7 × 42 cm, through WhiteWall in Berlin. 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