Introduction:
Chinatown continues to be an epicenter for a variety of Asian and American cultural aspects. Much of the neighborhood’s physical changes undergone over the past decade reflect how the community has been able to accommodate new business and development while still retaining its historical heritage.
These photographs were taken close to Chinatown’s main street of Canal, which is always bustling with cars, people, noise and seafood. Vendors are most prominent in these areas as there is always a high volume of people, particularly tourists, on the streets.
I decided to document Chinatown because I felt that, in the process of exploring the mainstreet area, I would find emerging cultural patterns from the people and the neighborhood . Chinatown’s success seems to result from being able to preserve its cultural traditions and diversity over the past 100 years with moderate change, which contrasts greatly to Little Italy’s slow but continuous recession into the nearby Asian neighborhood.
Field Notes:
Photo One: I picked this man randomly out of the hundreds if not thousands of other vendors attmepting to make a living by canal street. I was intriqued more with the wandering expression in his face than what he was actually selling.
Photo Two: The colors and loudness of this building seemed to frame the Starbucks on its street level. There was a simultaneous co-existence of traditional and contemporary voices when I looked at it.
Photo Three: The color contrast of the Apple billboard to the rustic building is almost comical given the sheer size of the advertisement.
Photo Four: Walking by this Chase bank, I observed how both languages were very similar in proportion but differed greatly by the structure of their vocabulary.
Photo Five: The streets at this intersection were quite narrow when I took this picture. I also don’t think there there were any traffic lights. I thought that this sign post reflected an intriguing confluence of language and physical symmetry when I passed by.
Photo Six: I was done taking pictures for the day and was looking to grab a bit to eat when I noticed this food vendor. In addition to seeing the usual suspects on his ad hoc menu, I noticed he was also selling fried chicken gizzards on a charming wooden stick.
I love the cultural crossing picture. As said in class I think it is very symbolic in how the sign says “One way” while crossing another “One way” sign when your whole project is about the integration of two cultures.
I absolutely love the image of Starbucks. To me it is the most expressive of your topic. Starbucks is defenitely a symbol of the modern western world, it is associated both with artists of the village and the businessmen of midtown. Both of those groups play major roles in the development and progress. To see this symbol placed inside such a traditional architecture is a perfect evidence of the merging of traditional culture and western progress.
I really like your idea and the way you implemented it.