I featured Dustin Shum‘s image above months ago on Shoot the blog, after finding a wealth of interesting imagery from the Beijing Fotofest 2006. Dustin followed me to this humble little blog, and sent me an interesting note the other day:

“I can’t make it to Fotofest Houston this year, though I know many ofthe photographers featured in the website made exposures there. Itmaybe due to my lack of liaison with curators and vip in the mainlandChina. You know, we have a popular term called ‘marginalized’ todescribe the current situation of Hong Kong, in the relation tomainland China.

Just want to tell you that the series of photosI’ve shown in the Fotofest Beijing, which is originally called “Itisnae Disney!”, has been published as a monograph called “ThemelessParks”. Please check my website;It’s basically a self-publication, with a slim funding from Hong KongArt Development Council. Mainstream publishing firms here have zerointerest in serious photography monographs”
I love Shum’s It Isnae Disney work, which is about the fervor the country has for Disney parks, and for the many copycats that have followed. In case you’re wondering, “isnae” is Scottish slang for “isn’t”. Read the artist statement here to get the whole story, and read the interview I did with Dustin below to get a few other insights. We did our very best to bridge the language gap, so excuse our stumblings.

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Tell me about your project It Isnae Disney; most of these pictures are very quiet and don’t reflect the mayhem you say the Disney parks invoke. What do these different spaces mean to people?

The mayhem of the Disney parks is a inspiration ofthe project. I tend to study the public parks as it’s interesting tosee municipal governments want to make their public parks looks likeDisney, in a certain way. You may find many visitors roam inside theparks– I hate to say it, but they just look like roaming like ghostsin these space. I figure that what they need is an orderly built space.

Parks are always an ordered environment, and the outside world iscomparatively chaotic, especially with the poor town planning in someof the towns. I believe that there is a place for them in parks, andthere is a place in there for their amusement, for a moment then canfeel at peace, or peaceful. They may not care about what kind ofhardware or settings are offered inside the parks. There are successfultheme parks on the mainland, too. I think they are different fromDisney in that they sell entertainment, but Disney sells “dreams”.

Are these parks in general a place to go to relax?

It’s quite an obvious place to relax for the migrant workers. The parks I shot are mostlysituated in Guangdong province, the province right next toHong Kong. Many factories were set up by Hong Kong entrepreneurs duringthe “open door” policy in the early eighties. Many migrant workers fromother provinces are working there. As they don’t have much money toafford expensive entertainment, they like to spend their spare timegathering with other fellows from the same hometown.

Ilike that so many of these images include quiet scenes with animals…do you think this is specific to the Chinese people, or to allamusement parks?

I think this reflects the rapid pace ofurbanization of those towns I’ve been. They didn’t need any park at allwhile there were still villages. The surrounding wilderness was open for animals and people toroam about. When factories and highways came, public space startedshrinking. Under these circumstances, park construction has come as anatural consequence. In many cases it happened in a period of just adecade or so. I think when they built the parks, they don’t want to losethe connection with the wilderness they once loved.

How long have you been making work– have you lived in Hong Kong your whole life as an artist?

I’ve been making my personal work since my graduation from university (Hong Kong Polytechnics University in 1994) and staged my first solo exhibition in 2003. Yes, I have lived, been educated in Hong Kong my whole life. Many may feel there is little choice of subject matter here, but I love Hong Kong!

Whom do you consider your artistic influences?

I think Martin Parr casts a major influence on my works. Not just because of his visual style, but also his selection of subject matter, consumerism and the culture of leisure. On the other hand I love work by Lars Tunbjörk. He is in the same school as Parr and his themes are more deadpan. I likes his books “Home” and “Office”; he knows how to use his dark humor to represent the dull and boring moments of life. I love to pick topics people used to ignore or think are meaningless. The works of Joel Sternfeld also had a big effect on me, especially the absurd quietness in various sites of tragedy in “On this Site”. I also admire the influences of the photographers of Dusseldorf school, evidenced in the series of photos of the stages within parks.

Lars Tunbjörk, Stockbroker, Tokyo, 1999

How do you make a living as a photographer, do you do commercial work?

Actually I quit my job as a photojournalist for a local english newspaper (I was there for 13+ years!) not long ago. I”ve spent the time on the book “Themeless Parks” and the Pinyao exhibition since then. I’ll look for galleries to represent me, if there are any. I love to accept editorial work, however it’s hard for local publication to accept subtle approaches like my work. The most important thing is that I can finally have more time to pursue my own projects which I can never make it happen if have a full time job.

What was the recent Pingyao festival like, and what work did you show there?

Pingyao is an ancient walled city in Shanxi province. A World Cultural Heritage Site indeed. And they have held this annual International Photography Festivalsince 2001. All the works are exhibited inside various kinds of closedfactories, warehouses or even temples. This is probably the first timethat Hong Kong photographers’ works are being exhibited as a teameffort there.

from Kai Tak: a guidedtour

The work I showed is called “Kai Tak: a guidedtour”, a landscape study of the former airport site, the Kai TakInternational Airport, which is situated in the heart of the city. Thesite still remains deserted, since there as been a long discussion onhow to make use such a large piece of land. It’s very weird to see asmall place in Hong Kong with such a large deserted land for over 10years after the closure of the airport.

from Kai Tak: a guidedtour

Do you have any new projects in the works?

I’mediting the photos I did in Beijing Olympics this summer. I tried tostudy the atmosphere of the city during the game. In my opinion, it’sthe most interesting Olympics ever; to a certain extent the game itselfbecomes a channel of nationalism. And I’m also thinking about a newproject on the supermarkets in southern China. They usually hostvarious kinds of promotional activities in the weekends to boost thesales, mostly performances by “amateur” singers and dancers, or luckydraws….etc. Again, the consumerism is my interest. And redesigning myawfully-made website is my another goal.

See more of Dustin Shum’s work here.