Pianoman, Shanghai, China

"When I first spied this scene, I was sick as a dog and the hotel was

on fire!!!

Fever and 'bowel problems' from forgetting that 'thou shalt not use

spigot water to brush thy teeth" the first night there had me running

to the bathrooms every few minutes a week later, which is when I'd run

across this scene. It was only my second adventure on my world wide

travels (Argentina recently was trip #62) and I had a lot to learn-

and not only that, I was now lost in China trying to hook up with my

'tour group'.

I'd spent one week up in Ningbo, a small village of a million people,

with Kay Fang, a friend/collector that owned a health food restaurant

in Encinitas (before health food restaurants were much heard of). She

had offered me a chance to go to China but the only problem was was

that it would cost over a thousand dollars, about a thousand more than

I had. Ningbo was north of Shanghai- six hours by slow boat (the way I

got there) or two hours by hydroplane, the way I got back. Her

godfather live there, and we visited for a week.

On my return, I was to meet up with my tour group, but I had a few

hours to kill before I had to go to the airport to find them. I hung

at the hotel I believed I was going to stay at and met a nice

gentleman that spoke English down in the lobby. I got his name and

contact number explaining I might return someday with a group of

photographers and I would need an interpreter/guide for that trip.

I then went to the airport but was dismayed to find out they never

showed up!!! NOW WHAT TO DO?

I'd pre-paid for the three week tour and had very little spending

money (maybe $50). I started to call the hotels in the phone book from

the airport, to see if I was listed, but in 1987 the phone system was

pretty new and there was basically no pay phones anywhere on the

streets, and the one I found played havoc on my ears. First, no one

spoke English when they answered the phones, and I could barely hear

them when they did speak. But the worst part was while waiting on

hold (I think I was on hold, sometimes they may have hung up, I

couldn't tell) while they went to find someone that did speak English,

a loud clacking would occur like someone smacking two pieces of wood

together, deafening in it's loudness. It was some sort of torture I'd

figured!!!

I could see the phone system would not work in this manner, and as

much as I hated to, I hired a taxi to drive me to the various 'tourist

hotels; to see if my name was on the registry; the group was leaving

the next day for Hangzhou and I HAD to be with them. After I basically

hit all the hotels, six or seven, I stopped at one last one before

heading back to the one I'd thought was mine. I saw a man playing a

piano and thought, combined with the interesting background that

re-iterated the piano and his clothing, would make a splendid image. I

set up, took my light meter reading to set my exposure and took the

shot (1 minute at f/32). I told him during the long exposure, "this

will be music to my eyes". One of the few that spoke English, he

smiled and kept playing.

The rest is history; I found my group due to answered prayer the next

morning (the one guy I'd met in the whole city ended up being my

actual guide- what a 'God-incident') and made a tremendously nice set

of images.

This image was the last of the 25 chosen by 25 sponsors. Tom

Spinelli, the sponsor, said when he picked it from the 10 choices

left, "I can't believe nobody picked it". Well, there are so many

good ones, all of them actually, as far as I'm concerned, that they

ALL can't get picked. Funny thing is, it outsold all the others except

one, which equaled it so far, The Three Graces ". MS