Phantom Shanghai: Greg Girard

I had the chance today to see the Phantom Shanghai show at the Monte Clark Gallery, by Canadian photographer, Greg Girard. The project, which started in 1998, deals with Shanghai's seemingly unstoppable urban-redevelopment, in China's attempt to stay with it's rapidly growing economy. It is the lower classes that suffer from this immense transformation, as their homes are being torn down and replaced with sky scrapers.

The show consists of large scale prints ranging from about a meter across to several meters. They are rich with emotion that makes you feel for Shanghai's poorer residents. The unnatural color palate due to the mixed light sources, and the subtle motion blur from the long exposures (all the images were shot at night) give the images an eerie "phantom"-like feeling that jumps out of the prints.

Although today was the last day to see part one of the show, the second rotation of images will begin Thursday, October 18th and will run until November 11th.

You can also check out the book, that is published by the Magenta Foundation (who are awesome by the way).