I’m in Busan, South Korea, for a shoot for a couple of days. Can’t share any details about that, but if you’re in the area (I know we have a few readers in South Korea) or need photos from the area, please get in touch by email or my local number: +82 (0)10-6884-1024. I’ll be in Ulsan a bit, and Seoul, though not for long.

Following Matt’s lead, I’ve collected a few of my favorite photos of mine from 2009. It was a relatively good year, with a few assignments, corporate shoots, other gigs, and an award and exhibition or two. Always room for improvement in that respect, and 2010 seems to be off in full swing. The work here is mostly from China, with a little bit from the northwestern United States thrown in. These aren’t necessarily the best photos I took, or representative of everything I photographed, but they’re favorites nonetheless for various reasons.

Four of my images (above) from the series Young and Abandoned, portraits of orphans on the verge of institutionalization in rural Jiangsu Province, China, will be included in an exhibition at Fe艺术iv’Art (Feztiv Art) in Shanghai, China, from January 22-26th, 2010. There is an opening on January 22 at 6:30 pm. I’ll be there.

The festival was created by the Artdidact, the Artistic Commission of the French Junior Chamber International of Shanghai, whose aim is “to take part and contribute to the progress of the global community by giving to the young the opportunity to develop their leadership skills, their social responsibility and the necessary solidarity for taking actions to produce positive changes. Members of the JCI identify and realize projects to serve the positive evolution of their city in all fields: arts, social, economics, cultural, community…”

The subject of the exhibition is “China Youth,” and the pictures will be on display at Art + Shanghai Gallery at Fumin Lu, Lane 22, House 2, (Near Yanan Lu). Phone: +86-21 6248 4388. In the off-chance that someone in Shanghai is reading this, I hope to see you there.

I’ve returned to China after a successful round of editor meetings in New York. In Jiangsu Province, at the moment, but quickly will be en route to Sichuan Province. Facebook remains blocked by the Great Firewall. I can be reached by email: scott.brauer@gmail.com, by skype: m.scott.brauer, or by phone: +86-13770324102 or +1 (917) 512-3473.

Hopefully I return to regular posting here on dvafoto. I’ve got a number of posts planned, from photobombs to cropping as lying to meeting with editors in NYC to photography that’s recently inspired me to some excerpts from my own recent work.

As always, drop a line if you’ve got something interesting to share. Our audience here is growing.

Fader #61 May/June 2009 - from Todo El Mundo fashion feature pp. 96-97

There’s a new tearsheet on my portfolio site, this one from Fader #61 (the whole issue is available as a downloadable pdf, as well). I’m honored to be in the company of the other great photographers involved in the shoot: Gabriele Stabile, Dominic Nahr, G.M.B. Akash, and Christopher Anderson. There’s a short story on the Fader website about how the shoot was put together behind the scenes, as well. The shoot, now a couple months ago, was a blast for my first foray into fashion.

A tiger skeleton stands in a vat of tiger wine at the Siberian Tiger Park in Haerbin, Heilongjiang Province, China. The wine is said to imbue drinkers with various health benefits such as strength and virility. The wine sells for 780 renminbi (about US$110.00) per half kilogram of liquid.

I realized the other day just how long it’s been since I shared some of my own work on dva. I’ve been shooting a lot over the past few months, some on assignment, some on personal projects. Here’s a small piece from the Harbin Siberian Tiger Park in Harbin, Heilongjiang, China. These pictures fit in with my work on China’s deplorable zoos.

Tourists gather around tiger sculptures outside the entrance to the Siberian Tiger Park in Haerbin, Heilongjiang Province, China.

It’s no wonder that Harbin’s Siberian Tiger Park is as well-known as it is. The park houses more than 100 of of the endangered Manchurian Tiger, also known as the Siberian Tiger, in a large grassland enclosure, and, most famously, allows visitors to ride in buses among the tigers and feed live chickens, cows, and other meat to the tigers. The park is partially funded by private donations and may serve a role in the preservation of the species, which numbers at less than 400 animals in the wild. One of the oddest features of the park is the visitors’ center. Shops there sell toys, stuffed animals, hats, and other items made from tiger fur, and various displays provide information about the species’ history. Additionally, one room is dominated by a large aquarium filled with wine and a whole tiger skeleton. The wine sells for 780 renminbi (about US$110.00) per half kilogram of liquid. People who drink the wine believe it is beneficial to one’s health, increasing one’s power, virility, and strength. The wine and other tiger products created from tigers at the park draw much criticism from animal rights activists and conservationists, and with good reason. While the park claims to preserve the species, little is apparently being done to rehabilitate the tigers, ready them for the wild, or, really, do anything other than entertain tourists and provide fodder for traditional Chinese medicine products and souvenir trinkets.

Tigers jump to grab pieces of chicken thrown by a zookeeper during feeding time at the Siberian Tiger Park in Haerbin, Heilongjiang, China.”

A woman burns ceremonial paper to mark the Lantern Festival, the end of the Lunar New Year and Spring Festival holiday, in a souvenir shop at the Siberian Tiger Park in Haerbin, Heilongjiang Province, China.

Large tiger sculptures decorate the entrance to the Siberian Tiger Park in Haerbin, Heilongjiang Province, China.

Stuffed animals and masks made with real tiger fur hang in a display for sale at the Siberian Tiger Park in Haerbin, Heilongjiang Province, China.

Visitors to the Siberian Tiger Park in Haerbin, Heilongjiang, China, ride a tourbus through a tiger enclosure to catch a glimpse of the endangered animal.

Visitors to the Siberian Tiger Park in Haerbin, Heilongjiang, China, ride a tourbus through a tiger enclosure to catch a glimpse of the endangered animal.

Souvenir vendors stand outside a kiosk selling stuffed tigers and other toys at the Siberian Tiger Park in Haerbin, Heilongjiang, China.

Visitors hold small pieces of beef, purchased for about US$1.50, through a protective cage to feed to tigers at the Siberian Tiger Park in Haerbin, Heilongjiang, China.” alt=”Visitors hold small pieces of beef, purchased for about US$1.50, through a protective cage to feed to tigers at the Siberian Tiger Park in Haerbin, Heilongjiang, China.

Tigers run to cages after feeding time at the Siberian Tiger Park in Haerbin, Heilongjiang, China.

A zookeeper plays with a tiger after feeding time at the Siberian Tiger Park in Haerbin, Heilongjiang Province, China.

Photographs of tigers decorate the entrance road to the Siberian Tiger Park in Haerbin, Heilongjiang, China.

A tourist leans past the first fence of a tiger enclosure to get a picture at the Siberian Tiger Park in Haerbin, Heilongjiang, China.

More work from the park available at my Photoshelter archive or through the embedded gallery below:

Harbin Tiger Park – Images by M. Scott Brauer

M. Scott Brauer’s Profile

Matt Lutton’s Profile

If you hadn’t noticed on the sidebar of dvafoto, we’ve added Facebook badges to the site. Say hello.

M. Scott Brauer – Workers break away bricks and concrete to find rebar and other metals for salvage in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.

I posted a bit of new work on my website over the past couple of days. There are essays on Beijing after the Olympics, workers in Nanjing, Tianjin’s rush to rebuild itself as a center of international business, and the mobile demolition economy that’s continuing in spite of a rapidly worsening domestic economy in China. Here are a few of the pictures:

M. Scott Brauer – An ayi, or housekeeper, reflects on her life while looking out a window in the company dormitory where she lives. The dormitory occupies a maze of rooms between the 1st and 2nd floors of a high-rise apartment building.

M. Scott Brauer – People wait on a street corner near the Heavenly Palace in Beijing, China.

M. Scott Brauer – A man dances with fans on a residential street corner in southern Beijing, China.

M. Scott Brauer – Construction workers ride an elevator down from a partially-built high-rise apartment building for a lunch break in Nanjing, China.

M. Scott Brauer – Workers look for salvageable materials in rubble caused by the destruction of hutongs, or traditional Chinese residential alleys, in central Tianjin, China, to make room for modern high-rise building construction.

M. Scott Brauer – Pedestrians walk down a dark street in Tianjin, China.

I’m very pleased to introduce you all to my friend, and source of inspiration, Djordje Jovanovic of Belgrade. I met him and his ‘crew’ in 2007 while studying abroad in the Balkans and from the very first beer we had I knew he was a special one. And not only because we had the very same taste in photographers and ideas on what photography should and can be, but because of his passion and ideas for how to push things forward in the otherwise stifling society of post-conflict, post-communist ex-Yugoslavia. Though he has recently put photography aside (makes me sad.. look at this work!) to pursue innovative and ground-breaking projects with his company XAOC Creative (the Serbian word, in Cyrillic, for Chaos) he still edits, designs and publishes the amazing XAOC Magazine, which has introduced me to countless interesting photographers from around the world. He was even so kind as to feature M. Scott in Issue 3 and Me in Issue 2. If you click on no other links for this post, check out these magazines.

Tell me a little about your city and your country
Belgrade is the capital of a small European country – Serbia. Serbia, in a recent history, was part of a larger country – a communist Yugoslavia. Now the country is in a process of transition and European integration. There are ongoing reforms in almost all state and social sectors . Belgrade is a vibrant city that has a tendency towards a group violence every few months. Interesting and loved city by many westerners and locals… known for cheep drinks, friendly people and beautiful girls ) bla bla
 
What did you go to school for?
I went to a High school for design – graphic design department, and just got my degree in computer arts and design at the academy of arts BK in Belgrade.

How did you decide to pursue this?
I really don’t remember but I guess that I like to draw when I was a kid and being a son of a photographer kind of pushed me into it… and I liked it.
 
What are you doing now?
Now I’m working on a creative and administrative processes in a company called Xaoc Creative that I started a year ago with two friends. Essentially it’s a creative center dealing with all kinds of visual communication. We’re mostly focused on graphic design for web and print, advanced web development and of course image production.

What changed between school, your first jobs as a photographer and where you are now?
A lot! Everything. My first full time job was in Serbian national news agency Tanjug. I was a kid just finished high school that suddenly was attending all the government and parliament sessions and traveling around the country and region with all the heads of state. It had a big impact on my process of thinking. Later on I started to work for Kurir daily newspaper simultaneously while working for Tanjug and studying. That brought even more fun to my life. Kurir is a tabloid, something like The sun in UK, so I was now in a even wider company of people, including entertainment and sport stars, criminals and a lot of very diverse ordinary folks with big problems. It was very interesting period, parliament session in the morning, gypsy settlement in poverty on the afternoon and VIP fashion show/party in the evening… that’s how my days looked like. . Later on I switched to Gazeta news paper and later to Hello! Magazine. During this four year period I was mainly interested in documentary photography. But I realized that photography is not enough for me anymore in terms of expression and impact. So I decided to start a company and put some more media in, some more people and more serious projects.
 
What did you enjoy about working as a photojournalist?
Process of creation was most enjoyable compared to the same process in other media. It was fast, simple and powerful.
Then of course the interaction with people and places that I was able to have working as a photojournalist.
“Photographing because I want to change the world and help people in need” is the line that we can hear from many big names in this business but I think it’s a big lie. I seriously doubt that anyone is photographing with that goal in mind.

Why did you leave photography?
Photography just don’t have big impact on society anymore. At least I think so. I wanted something with much bigger impact and that’s why we’re working with more media now. Also I wanted more control and more freedom and I felt that I could contribute more than I could as a photojournalist.
 

Tell me about Xaoc and your team.
Core team consist of tree man. Marko Kecman (Ed- Another terrific photographer and friend of mine.. check xaocphoto.com), Jovan Damjanovic and myself. We also have two developers, and two men that are dealing with photo production and a lot of contributors.

What kind of work are you doing?
A lot of web and print projects. In image production we are doing everything that a newspaper or a magazine would like us to do in a BtoB model. Fashion editorials, Products, reportages, interviews, campaigns… whatever you can think of… (Ed- Have a look at this project XAOC has done called Victims! of Serbian Politics. It combines nifty design, terrific photography and a social motive in an interesting and engaging way.)

Tell me about Xaoc Magazine. Who do you feature?
Xaoc magazine is a noncommercial free time project that has a potential for growth. We weren’t satisfied with the photo scene in Serbia so we felt the need to do something about it. Web magazine was the easiest way to do it… we’ve done only three issues for now, but had a nice feedback from people all over the world. Selection is based upon the aesthetics that we find interesting and that cant be found in a media scene in Belgrade… not in a mainstream at least. It’s internationally orientated but we always put at least one Serbian photographer in it.

What is the media scene in Serbia?
Rich and expanding. Quality I want comment on.
 
What kind of relationship do you have with the rest of the region (Balkans) and Europe?
Rich and expanding. Yes we do have a big problem here with visas, but we’re managing to overcome it. Other than that it’s fine. Balkans and Europe are rich in war history but I don’t find it to be an issue.
 
What are your goals for Xaoc? For yourself?
To expand our business internationally is the first next step. On a long run we want to contribute to an ongoing evolution for a better society. We’re living in a very interesting time now and not just in a last few decades or centuries but form the beginning of a mankind. We believe that humans are soon to evolve into much more powerful and peaceful beings and with great anticipation are looking into the future.
 
Any predictions for the Serbian, Balkan and worldwide media scenes?
For a serious answer a serious analysis is necessary but I’m not worried. I think that things are going In a positive direction and that we’re going to enjoy much richer and better media in the future.

Any links we need to see?
X Geek – Stuff you don’t know and Serbian photographer in New York Boogie. (ed- he is also the cover story in XAOC Magazine #2)

On a personal note, I cannot wait to be back in Belgrade; Djordje and the other guys from Xaoc know how to have a good time and still get up the next morning and work your butt off. And, I’ve just got to say, that opening picture is simply one of my favorite pictures from anyone anywhere.