I liked the idea of a stripped down, fit guy wearing little more than a gas mask and while the message was in regards to environmental issues, it later served another purpose as well. The idea for this came from my first few months living in Beijing, which at the time was suffering from crippling, choking air pollution - thick enough to cut on most days. This shoot was the first time I incorporated gas masks, as part of my so-called 'Underworld' series. For this second shoot we did a variety of looks, but the overall theme, let's be honest - came down to underwear and the temperatures were comfortable for it. Spring had arrived since my last visit, when Ray would take his shirt and jacket off for the shots and then cover back up to keep warm. There was a lot of yelling on their part and on our part just nerves, confusion and a need to get out of there. The gist was they were 'security' who lived there and we were trespassing and they weren't happy, clearly. As it turned out, these women weren't speaking Mandarin (there are hundreds of languages in China), so our group could only pick up some of what they were saying. My friend and I were the two laowai (foreigners) in the group, so we let the native speakers sort it out. With no other way to go, we cautiously made our way back down and were immediately confronted by a group of very angry women. We caught up with the other 3 on the second floor, when we heard voices downstairs.
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Behind the cheap medieval facade, the building was just a shell - a bare and empty, unfinished metal structure. I really liked the facade of the building that the entry way opened up to, so Ray and I hung back to get some shots there while the others went on ahead. Once on the other side we all got our cameras ready and set out to explore. The main entrance was boarded up with plywood, but not completely secured, so with some determination we were able to pry a piece back and squeeze through one by one. When we pulled in to the large, empty parking lot we piled out of the car and scoped out the front of the place. Sure enough, as the excitement grew, we spotted it and made a hasty exit.
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We didn't have much information to go on, but we knew it's general location and that we would be able see it from the freeway. Even though it was only 20 miles or so from Beijing, it seemed to take forever to get there - mostly because of traffic, but also the anticipation of finding the place. There were 5 of us - my American friend and his Chinese girlfriend (who had a car, lucky for us), Ray, my model for the day and then also the guy I was dating at the time. By late March, the snow and cold had mostly subsided, so one weekend a group of us ventured out in search of an unfinished amusement park we'd researched online, named Wonderland.