‘bangbangmen’ literally means ‘sticks’ in mandarin (from the bamboo pole used to carry loads), and the word has come to refer to the army of porters roaming chinese cities, now as before. most of these bangbangmen are migrant workers who left the countryside in the hope of making a decent living in the new metropolises.
having done an earlier project involving the kind and self-effacing mr zhang, in may 2010 i asked him if i could shadow 24 hours of his life.
‘either side of a wave‘ is an attempt to portray the forgotten side of surfing. riding a wave, which normally attracts all the attention, represents but a tiny fraction of the actual experience. the rest is mundane, forgettable – film crews pack up. yet it is no less enjoyable : it is an integral part of the act, leading up to it, resulting from it.
surfing was never just a matter of take-offs and aerials and barrels. the anticipation, the checking of a swell, the studying of a spot, the wait, the first feel of water, duckdiving, but also the agony of flat days, the watching and resting, the dozing off and return to dry land – the unpretentious and unsexy, without which surfing would be but a dream.
‘i’ll spot you‘ is the result of serendipity. in five years of bouldering at the mile end climbing centre there was a power failure once, and i brought along my camera once. both on the same day.
for a few hours, familiar faces and routes underwent constant and dramatic changes as bodies moved about in the harsh glare of contradicting spotlights. the entire ambiance and feel of the session became moody and edgy, yet intimate and inspired.
bouldering and faulty fuses? i rest my case.