LOUIS ABELMAN

Right now I am traveling in China. There is nothing happening in Beijing that you have not read about in the past six-month explosion of attention paid to the city. Yes, it’s changing at a furious pace. The built environment is futuristic. There are many amazing shopping centers! Traditional architecture is beautiful while the new projects are daring! Will traditional spaces be swept away in the rush to modernize? All around the martial authority of the state is an unseen but potent force! There are websites I can’t access here! All poverty and vice has been shipped out of the city and dissent is invisible!

I have not been able to penetrate this superficial level of common knowledge; I suspect really knowing China is a challenge for a lifetime. I will def. let you know if I achieve that in the next week or so.

[An album of all my photos from this trip]

Faces make a strong impression but in memory fade the fastest. A few portraits from Kabul:

Opium addicts, Kabul

Grandson and grandfather, near the yellow mosque

A boy tending a birdseed stand, near yellow mosque

I’m in Beijing at a Starbucks; it’s a bit of a change of pace. I’m missing Kabul and wondering if I was ever really there.

Here’s some photos from the trip.

Beijing 2008