Beyond the seen - Shangheye

06/12/06

Beyond the seen - Shangheye
(shanghai daily)
Updated: 2006-12-06 09:11

Photographer Kal Khogali freezes Shanghai's human kaleidoscope in a black-and-white world, capturing extremes and contradictions that people themselves take for granted or are too busy to notice, writes Chen Qing.

China is a country of changes and opportunities. And for Kal Khogali, it came together when he went to Shanghai's Yuyuan Garden two years ago during the Chinese New Year.

He saw people devoutly praying in the City God's Temple. "At that moment, something of the Chinese people touched me," he recalls. "There is an eternal truth beyond what we see here."

Last month Khogali published his first book, "Beyond the Seen - Shangheye," a photography book about Shanghai published by Justc Design.

Khogali, a British businessman in his late 30s, is working in Shanghai, managing a US chemical company. He first came to the city in 1997. Later he came every couple of months on business trips and in 2003, he moved to Shanghai with his family.

As an avid amateur photographer, he records telling moments of life, all in black and white, mostly in Shanghai, but also in Beijing, Yunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. He uses a Canon 20D.

"My pictures are 99 percent people. I call it 'life photography.' It is not only about facts, but also about the feelings behind them," Khogali says passionately of his two-year photo project.

"Shanghai and China grow at the speed of light. What appears the norm today, tomorrow is gone forever; the buildings, communities and the atmosphere. Only people remain," says Khogali who wants to leave something behind that will last longer. That is his book of 150 stunning photographs.

Divided into three parts - tradition, transformation and the new - "Beyond the Seen" is about Shanghai life seen through a different eye.

Khogali thinks the world is composed of images. A picture says a thousand words.

"My pictures are usually full of contradictions. I believe (juxtaposing) extremes in photography is a powerful expression," he says.

During the Chinese New Year in 2004, when Khogali caught a view of people praying at the Yuyuan Garden, he was touched by the eternal spiritual needs of all people.

"I suddenly realized even in Shanghai, a city full of urban energy and rapid changes, spirituality is still there," he says. "At that moment, the soft underbelly of Shanghai, the alter ego that represents the contradictions of this city and country was suddenly there before me, and I realized I was watching history in the making."

Khogali then made it a habit to keep an eye on Shanghai. Many times the things that local people take for granted and usually ignore, are sensitively framed and recorded.

He chooses black and white because most of the time color distracts from the point of the message.

"I like simplicity. The meaning is there, clear and sharp in the black and white images. My theory of color is the subtle link to bring a picture together," he explains.

All the images in the book are casual. People often smile, or just ignore him. "It is my passion to walk around alone with my camera to catch moments of life. Sometimes you have to react quickly, say in 10 seconds. Sometimes you have to wait, for hours," he says.

Before Khogali moved to Shanghai, he took pictures, too, but only as a tourist. Now with his experience in China, he sees things differently.

"I think China changed me. The possibilities are greater here. I don't think I would have taken pictures if I had always lived in Europe. Maybe age brings wisdom, too," he says.

As a photographer, Khogali says, "I'm searching for meaning. All the meaning is there in each image."

He calls photography a unique art medium. "No other medium captures, in a fraction of a second, a decisive moment of human existence and records it for eternity. It is fleeting in its sight, it sees what we sometimes cannot see, and it allows us to ponder on that fraction of time at our leisure, and for all time," he says.

"That is why I love it so," Khogali notes in the foreword to his book.

"Beyond the Seen - Shangheye"
Cost: 350 yuan (US$44)
E-mail: justcdesign@gmail.com or shangheye@gmail.com
Tel: 135-2418-9971