Art Drop #5: Seeking 'Good Fortune' in Chinatown
The debut novel by C.K. Chau brings us to Chinatown, NYC for Art Drop #5.
It started with a book. As someone who has read (and reread) all of Jane Austen’s works, I (Diana) was immediately drawn to Good Fortune by C.K. Chau, who cleverly reimagined Pride & Prejudice in post-9/11 New York City, Chinatown to be precise. In Chau’s narrative, witty and observant Elizabeth Bennet, now Elizabeth Chen, is a photographer. Naturally I enjoyed putting myself in her shoes as the pages flicked by.
Like Chau’s Elizabeth, I too lived and worked and played in New York City in those days… I remember those late night hangouts with friends and the creative awakening I experienced after my day job, turning my camera on the faces I knew and the sights I witnessed, challenging myself to see things differently through my photography. Before I even finished the book, I felt compelled to visit Chinatown as soon as possible, to steep in the book’s setting and observe the neighborhood and community I had been reading about.
CHINATOWN BY DAY
With the construction of our home and studio up in the Berkshires slightly delayed we find ourselves still here in New Jersey, so getting to Chinatown is as easy as packing the camera bag, hopping on a bus and taking the subway.
Surfacing in Chinatown I made my way past street vendors selling Asian pears, longans, jujubes, and pomelos as I walked and looked for pictures. Along East Broadway, under the Manhattan Bridge, back on Division St., up Bowery, along Bayard, around Mott to Pell Street and curving along Doyers Street, I weaved my way past my own memories of dim sum brunches, a wrap party for a film I worked on, errands I ran for the costume department, eating pan-fried dumplings splattered with red chili sauce with Tom on his first visit to the United States. The parks were lively, the shops were busy, the neighborhood robust, there was much to see, but try as I did, the photographs I made didn’t feel right for the art drop. Aside from a container of warm soft tofu with ginger syrup, I returned home empty handed.
I wasn’t finished with Chinatown however and told Tom I needed to go back – but at night and ideally after it had rained. I needed to see how the night and wet streets transformed the neighborhood. Perhaps seeing it in different conditions would spark creativity and allow me to produce something unexpected and unique.
THE SAME AGAIN, BY NIGHT
Days and days of rain ensued, and assuming the rain and traffic were done for the evening, we took the chance and drove into the city. Many shops were now closed, with their metal shutters erasing any evidence of the daytime bustle. A slower rhythm to these streets emerged at night.
The rain-slicked streets were cinematic with colorful lanterns zigzagging overhead as we wandered around the neighborhood. A lucky cat sculpture waved through the tea house window, obscured by condensation. A night market offered up mangosteens, guavas from Taiwan, Thai bananas and rambutans. A man sat in his car eating a container of noodles perched against the steering wheel. Another man with obvious wealth sat in the back of a fancy car peering out of a slightly opened window. He looked familiar, because I instantly recognized him from the pages of the book I just read.
The weather had a role to play, starting with mist, then drizzle, before it moved on to actual rain. In vain I attempted to keep the lens free of water droplets and after a certain point, I decided to shoot through them and see what they would yield. If you’ve ever tried to avoid getting soaked by rain and then just decided to give up and get drenched, you will understand the freedom this brings. This openness to accident and experimentation is the real takeaway from this month’s art drop and a lesson to me to embrace the unexpected.
Our offering this month features two photographs that bookended our shoot – the first utilizes experimentation with a controlled, intentional dragged shutter and the second gives way to experimentation through a total lack of control of the conditions, essentially giving in to whatever magical alchemy could be achieved between the camera, the light, the weather and my curiosity working together.
Wonton Garden
Chinatown, NYC, USA
by Diana Pappas
The lanterns hanging above the streets in Chinatown bring character and atmosphere to the neighborhood at any time of day – but I could never simply photograph them as they are. I decided to experiment and see what the light would do if I slowed my shutter down and panned side to side. The lanterns and lights became beads on a necklace and stitches in embroidery.
Pegasus on Pell Street
Chinatown, NYC, USA
by Diana Pappas
The desire to experiment with the camera was there already, but my hand was forced to yield to the elements and shoot this scene through a lens covered in rain droplets. The result? A photograph unlike any I’ve taken before. Pegasus takes flight over Pell Street and the scene is charged with energy. It’s magical, gritty and ethereal all at once.
ART DROP #5
Prints are only available of Wonton Garden & Pegasus on Pell Street until October 7, 2023, with no further production of this work for at least a year after the close.
Thanks to C.K. Chau for inspiring this outing and the resulting art drop with her book, Good Fortune.
“There was the Bowery glistening after a rainstorm at night, blurry reflections of neon in the puddles; produce vendors on Canal hawking their wares; on old man captured spitting into the street – all clustered among the candid moments of their lives.”
- Excerpt from Good Fortune by C.K. Chau
Thank you for coming to Chinatown with us for this month’s art drop. Help that Pegasus fly on to other inboxes by pressing the share button below. Each month we challenge ourselves to create some artwork that is unusual and interesting to us, and we hope it resonated with you as well.
Bye for now,
Two intriguing, magical images and from difficult circumstances from the sound of it. Congratulations Diana.