SHANGHAI MISSES
SHANGHAI, CHINA 1981
Image Number 249
In 1981 many of the houses in Shanghai were in hutongs - narrow streets or alleys comprising traditional courtyard houses. The houses presented flat facades to the street but all major rooms opened off airy internal courtyards. Most hutongs have now been demolished to make way for multi-storey housing. Atticus Webb visited a diplomatic colleague in China in 1981 early in China’s opening to the West and photographed the hutongs. Despite over thirty years which have elapsed, this image is included in the collection because it is one of Atticus Webb’s finest photographs. Note the juxtaposition of the legs of the girl on the left with the right elbow of the girl on the right at the daring edge of the frame. Note also the different planes presented by the doorways, roadway and façade... and finally the expressions on the Shanghai Misses themselves – knowing beyond their years.
TECHNICAL NOTES
Captured by Atticus Webb on a wet morning on a Hasselblad 500 cm medium format camera with Zeiss 80mm lens at F16 and recorded on Kodak Colour Negative 100 ASA film. The image was scanned in high resolution by Bond Imaging in 2012. The image has been cropped top and bottom from the original 6cmx6cm square format. It has been sharpened and the saturation has been intensified to compensate for the age of the negative.