Ship Shape.

So I'm six subjects down the line so far and have 3 lined up this weekend so should have 10 by November. I'm so pleased with what an eclectic group of people I've put together.

So this is James Cen Bonsor, who I shot today, he is 29 and so far the oldest of all my subjects. James is half-Chinese on his mother's side and his father is British. He has quite an interesting view on being half-Chinese and I don't think he feels that it singles him out that much, despite the fact that he lives and works in China - luckily for me his family live in Portsmouth which is why he was able to stop by.

I think he likes being a point of interest or mystery, he even thinks he's more intelligent due to coming from an Oriental background. James brought his girlfriend along to the shoot, she was Chinese and he was speaking fluent Chinese to her, he's probably the most 'Chinese' of my subjects so far. I wish I'd asked him whether he had just always spoken it as he seems to be the only one who does on a regular basis.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

James was the first of my 'strangers', we have no mutual friends, it was a bit awkward, because I'm not sure he knew quite what to expect from me. At least with Jamie and Marcus they knew I was around their age and 'just a photography student'.
I think Gareth, who is coming on Saturday might have a better idea of what I'm about so here's hoping I don't get flustered and forget to ask him questions too. I also have Rishi to shoot before then on Friday, he's half-Chinese, half-Indian, so it will be really interesting to hear what he has to say.

"I just tell people that I'm Chinese..."

"...because it's easier and sometimes they don't believe me anyway."

So these are the photos of Marcus To, that I shot on Friday - he's another one with a crazy backstory in that his Mother is Irish but only recently discovered this after retracing her adopted roots.

Marcus lived in Hong Kong from when he was a-month old until the age of 10, but he doesn't speak any Chinese - much to the disappointment of his Father - because he spent most of his education in HK in an international school.
Like nearly all my other subjects so far, Marcus is proud and happy to be half-Chinese and be 'different', even though he's often getting confused for being Polynesian or Māori (native New-Zealanders) or even part-black. He says he usually just tells people that he's full-Chinese because they won't necessarily know any better and sometimes he thinks it takes too long to explain.
He has lots of piercings and one tattoo, surprisingly he says his dad isn't too bothered by it but was 'just like any other parent' and a bit annoyed when he first saw them.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

I'm finding that although both Marcus and Jamie were complete strangers that it was quite easy to shoot them because we already knew we had one thing in common and with the lack of anything else to talk about would talk about traditions and things that have happened to us because we're part-Chinese. I think when more people get involved, and I know less of the people, that the shared-experience theme will flow even better than it already is.
I'm putting a re-done version of Jamie up here because I only noticed after I'd finished that his shoulder was all faded, so here is is sans faded shoulder.
I've really got to get on top of my dissertation soon, the middle of November (draft-submission time) isn't that far away!