My China photos were actually preceded by my Chinese photos. Sometime during the 1980's I started documenting family events. I also figured out how to photograph firecrackers going off during Argyle's New Year festivities. A thick leather jacket, face mask, motorcycle goggles, earplugs from my days on the shooting range, I would walk in and start shooting. With all the noise, smoke, explosions and red paper flying around it was hard to focus and exposure was preset.
The first time in China was 1988 and I still remember it as a magical time. Landing in the old Hong Kong airport with high rise buildings on either side to taking the train to Guangzhou and crossing into a Communist land, waiting for an evil but it did not appear. Meeting relatives, relatives of relatives, their friends and relatives of their friends, it went on forever. But for me, I was the observer. The trip was for my mother, it was her homecoming after more than 40 years away and one of her brightest moments.
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