By invitation of the local government of Shanghai I was just invited to contribute to the book and exhibition project: Shanghai in the Eyes of World Photographers.

To complete the magnificent seven, there were also Claudio Bonoldi from Milan,  Feco Imperio Hamburger from Sao Paulo,  Elisabeth Montagnier from Marseille, Janolof Fritze  from Gothenburg, Michael Rauner from San Francisco, and Nii Takao from Nagasaki – all sister cities of Shanghai.

Our Chinese hosts provided each of us with a guide (a local photographer from the Shanghai Photographers Association) and a translator, to tackle the ambitious schedule that was layed out by the organizers.
Not only did we extensively criss cross the huge metropolis of Shanghai, but we also found out why it is probably going to be the next New York, why big tables should be round and that you can eat almost everything without any serious side effects.

Because of our glorious efforts it was of course inevitable, that the Chinese media tracked us down eventually with around 30 photographers and a couple of film teams.
A true “red carpet moment”. We made big news!

I especially thank my translator Zhuang Yadong (Mike), who not only switched between Shanghainese, Mandarin, German and English, to bridge the occaisonal linguistic and cultural difference, but was also patient enough to find me cool new suede shoes. Big thanks also to the organizers Chen Qiwei, Sun Weimin, Pengfei Li, Stephanie Tang, Lesley, Jiayi Zhu and my guide Hao Xiaohu.