The Gucci on 5th Avenue.

What happens when the tightly woven, monied and powerful ignore, for too long, millions of people living on the fringe, who barely survive, if they are lucky

Pumpkin carriage and shiny stallion

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~ departure

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Barcelona - Candid

Off Highway 99 - Visalia, California.

This classic A-list comedy gets the Korean VHS treatment via the CIC label. The back cover promises "high comedy" and plays up the film's boffo box-office take back in 1983. A 'common' during the rental era, now scarce.

This area of Lanzhou sprawls westward toward Xining. Amidst gaggles of glittering high-rises, there are still some areas where Oscar the Grouch would feel right at home. ;-)

A World War II mine sweeper converted to a yacht that was owned by John Wayne from 1962 to 1979.

Kunming, China, September 2005.

As all the major cities in China, Kunming is tranforming in an incredible speed. When walking around in the cities, you just can't escape all the contrasts (read the tags). For me, this picture give testemony for this state of transformation. Old houses are being torn down, whole new districts are being build at a speed that the Chinese themselves get difficulties to follow the development. The pictures also brings another contrast together: modern technology (often co-financed by foreign investors) and equipment and cheap labour - you can imagine how unevenly the returns are for the investors and the poor day-workers. In communist China, this devide is as big - or even bigger - than in any other western economy.

And one more thing:

With this picture and the above comment, I do not want to and cannot judge whether this transformation is good or bad, whether it is fast or too fast. But from listening and talking to people in China, we shouldn't be too fast in condemning or praising the development in this incredible country. Distringuishing between honest opinion and propaganda is difficult - difficult for you as a visitor but perhaps for the Chinese too.

Stay tuned, more to come.

Guido

PS: I know, you need quite a good screen to see the details in the shadows of this picture. but I didn't want to change to mood of the rather dark, rainy day and lighten up the picture too much (I already did a little resulting in some artefact).

PPS: And regarding the photo-thing:

it is interesting to observe that pictures that I find rather ordinary (e.g. the Umbrella shot in this China set) evoke some interesting reactions and feelings and as a consequence much more views, comments and fav's than pictures I like for their content, for what I read in them or what I want to express (e.g. the street shots in this set). That's what I really like about flickr: it opens up my eyes for my own pictures ... . Lucky me that I do not have a particular style and that people might find both types of pictures when browsing through this set ... ;-)

btw: Kunming is the partner city of Zurich (where I'm living now)

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

—Robert Frost

My eighth grade students liked that poem. They encountered it in a young adult novel called The Outsiders, set in Oklahoma and written by S.E. Hinton. She was fifteen to sixteen years old when she wrote it (quite an achievement). Its strengths outweigh its weaknesses, of which there are several, but kids get caught up in the action and characters. It was a book I knew they would read, that would foster good discussion.

Two groups of youth have become bitter rivals, the Greasers and the Socials, the poor kids who have little vs. the rich kids who have everything. Hinton borrows from Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet) and Westside Story (itself a reinvention of R & J). The Outsiders, too, has violence and the loss of life. The main character, on the run from the law with his friend, who's killed a Social, recites the poem at a golden sunrise. We get that he and his friend feel the loss of innocence, and both understand that their lives will never be the same again.

Frost understood human nature and sees the loss of innocence ("So Eden sank to grief") as the natural order of things. The church I was raised in called it original sin, an inescapable fact of the human condition, but also one for which there is redemption. Do the characters in the book redeem themselves? Yes, but at great cost and sacrifice.

I wonder who got Park Place? Do you think these two could play a marathon game of Monopoly and decide the election that way?

Poor John McCain. Now who's he going to stick his tongue out at now?

www.flickr.com/photos/paypaul/2888101209/in/set-721576075...

John McCain is still sticking his tongue out. He's threatened that there "will be no cooperation for the rest of the year" because the HCR passed. Awww poor little Johnny Mac lost the election and now Barack Obama has triumphed against even greater odds.

President Barack Obama at the recent White House Correspondents Dinner quipped about John McCain who “recently claimed he had never identified himself as a maverick," said the President. "And we all know what happens in Arizona when you don't have ID.”

Read more: swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/05/02/leno-at-the-white-hou...

This uber-rare vintage postcard, circa 1908, was part of an early 'globalization' promotion by a German manufacturer. Each postcard had a 'representative' depiction of life in the given country. And for Korea (Corea)? An A-frame toting peasant bowing down to a pipe-sucking yangban (noble). Ah, the good ol' days... ;-)

Snapshot taken around the mega-exclusive Dogok Station area....The candidate is now Korea's new president :-O

Elite Avarice editorial published in Vigore! Magazine March 2013

Model: Jewel Pi

Photography assistant: Ashton Boni

Hair, Makeup and styling by Marie Fuentes

head dress by Straight-Laced boutique

pgs 126-136

vigore-mag.com/

This hillside slum in Dongdaemun, with run-down tenements perched WAY up steep alleyways (forget about reaching the top even with a Sno-Cat on icy days), does over a view of the ritzy areas below. Will 70s-style slums make a comeback in the ROK too? ;-)

Elite Avarice editorial published in Vigore! Magazine March 2013Model: Jewel PiPhotography assistant: Ashton BoniHair, Makeup and styling by Marie Fuenteshead dress by Straight-Laced boutiquepgs 126-136http://vigore-mag.com/

Elite Avarice editorial published in Vigore! Magazine March 2013Model: Jewel PiPhotography assistant: Ashton BoniHair, Makeup and styling by Marie Fuenteshead dress by Straight-Laced boutiquepgs 126-136http://vigore-mag.com/

Elite Avarice editorial published in Vigore! Magazine March 2013Model: Jewel PiPhotography assistant: Ashton BoniHair, Makeup and styling by Marie Fuenteshead dress by Straight-Laced boutiquepgs 126-136http://vigore-mag.com/

Elite Avarice editorial published in Vigore! Magazine March 2013Model: Jewel PiPhotography assistant: Ashton BoniHair, Makeup and styling by Marie Fuenteshead dress by Straight-Laced boutiquepgs 126-136http://vigore-mag.com/

This homeless man was sleeping in his hammock which he strung up just outside the fence of the Intramuros Golf Course. It's interesting how such stark poverty can coexist next to flamboyant luxury.

NOTE: Please leave comments/critiques, especially if you favorite the photo.

I use this site not only to showcase my work but also to learn from it through interaction with YOU, the public and especially other photographers.

Thank you

Elite Avarice editorial published in Vigore! Magazine March 2013Model: Jewel PiPhotography assistant: Ashton BoniHair, Makeup and styling by Marie Fuenteshead dress by Straight-Laced boutiquepgs 126-136http://vigore-mag.com/

Today's Metro frontpage headline...

"Sometimes, the injustice of this world just sticks in your throat"...

Recently I've been doing a lot of questioning (about life, direction - the big stuff ;)... and as a result, some things have not been sitting well with me lately. Today's Metro newspaper headline just about summed it all up for me. Now that's newsworthy... So often we deal with news that just concerns us and don't look at the bigger picture i.e. relating it to the world's problems. In the bigger picture, our problems and issues are dwarfed by the challenges that many others face.

Muhammed (saw) said that the Ummah (the believers) were like "one body; when any limb of it aches, the whole body aches…”

It makes one wonder... if mankind is one, then if one part of that body aches, why does the rest of that whole body not rush to it's relief?

Sigh.

This view from the fading Guryeong Village slum/shantytown looks north towards the Gangnam area's pricey Gaepo-dong area. The village is slated for demolition to make way for rental apartments reportedly aimed at young couples and seniors. A handful of residents remain in the village. Seen in November 2025.

Looks better on a black background and larger size (consider clicking on the slideshow or magnifying glass icons)

This view from one of the "Cheonho" back-alleys just south of Cheongyangyi Plaza features one of the high rises that took the place of the former red light district. The gentrified area features sculpture parks and garden parks. Seen in 2024.

Yokohama, Japan

Looks better on a black background and larger size (consider clicking on the slideshow or magnifying glass icons)

We are on our way to Charles Bridge and my husband told me to take this picture as it shows strong message. The inequality of the rich and the poor doesn't attract hence the title.

The two don't necessarily go "hand-in-hand"...