Sunday afternoon Photo

Photographer’s Note

While I stayed in Chengdu in Sichuan province in 1986 I spent most of a Sunday strolling aimlessly through the city. The atmosphere was very different from the other days, people enjoying their day off from work, relaxing for hours in tea-houses, reading newspapers on park benches, playing cards or other games like these elderly gentlemen.
The weather was very dull and hazy, rain hanging in the air all day.
I have scanned this picture from a Kodachrome slide.

mikolaj_kawa, tomescuc, saxo042 has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

mikolaj_kawa (31161) 2008-05-26 1:22

Hello Gert! Original picture. Nice scene. Very interesting men. Good POV. Nice lightness. Very good shot. Well done!

tomescuc (2837) 2008-05-26 11:47

Great scene. I like the old man looking away from the game activity, wonder where ... The ambiance is superbly caught.
cheers,
Cristian

emka (22285) 2008-05-26 12:41

Hi Gert,
Nice photo, I have seen many such scenes, but they usually played Chinese chess, here it looks like cards. But here they are still dressed in the old way. Chengdu - there are new quakes there. Sad to think about suffering of so many people.
Regards

Malgorzata

SteveH (3995) 2008-05-26 20:45

Hi Gert, Nice shot documenting how China spends it's Sunday. I wonder if the bright area on the right could have been avoided by taking it slightly to the left, although that would have changed the spatial relationship of the men, which works well as it is. Cheers, Steve

Asiulus (1066) 2008-05-27 1:22

Hej Gert
I like such scenes from the real life. Exposition must have been tricky, because the men were in the shadow and the buildings behind were in the full light. But it's the men that are the most important here, so no harm done, even with the buildings overexposed. Good that you captured the face of the man on the right from the front.
Best regards
Joanna

testmaniac (12262) 2008-05-27 3:49

Hello Gert, nice old "Daily Life" photo with interesting atmosphere.

TFS and regards,
Philip

saxo042 (16250) 2008-05-27 7:18

Hej Gert,
Interesting to see these men wearing typical Mao clothes. You never see anything like this on TV from modern China. Fine picture. What´s the game?
Hälsningar
Gunnar

aadilj (17950) 2008-05-28 0:51

That seems so lazy and so laid back...so much that eve I want to join them. An extremely well composed shot of everyday life from a country we dont get to see much from.

sacavem (8519) 2008-05-29 7:23

Olá Gert,

A very Portuguese scene.the scene is superb in which the interest and the passion of the play appear perfectly. It is the leisure of people very sympathetic and simple after their long life of labour. Good realization.

Greetings,
Filipe

orion912 (178) 2009-02-23 5:30

Hello Gert!
Your picture is stunning! I like the focus on the people. We can almost play cards with them. The quality is also pretty good even though it has been scanned.

Your shots from the 1980' teach us much about what is China, even today. I've been to Chengdu last year, and they still play those weird cards, but not wearing those outfits nor sitting on trunks.

Thanks for sharing,
Christiane

Waylim (11153) 2009-05-07 23:48

Hello Gert,
this image kind of remind me of my father playing card or chess, or some music instrument with his friend. He is about this age. Unfortunately, it can be hard for him to get around to his friends, people live a bit far apart here. and public transportation is not as good as in European countries. Nice daily life image. Thanks, I like it.
Way