My Work | Inspiration From Old Photographs

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved

I've immersed myself in the ethos of 1930s Shanghai for a few years now,both from visual and historical viewpoints. In the 1930s, Shanghai was a thriving commercial center, but was also known for every kind of vice. Its golden years ended in 1937, when Japan invaded.

Shanghai entered its most prosperous era at the start of the thirties, with a population of about 3 million, it ranked fifth among the world’s great cities in population. As it grew in wealth and sophistication, it became known as the “Paris of the Orient,” a mecca for the rich and famous of the time.

The pursuit of pleasure was second only to the pursuit of wealth. Both foreigners and Chinese patronized nightclubs, movie theaters, and dance halls. Opium was readily available, and thousands of prostitutes worked in an environment that included brothels, gambling, and drugs. Shanghai between the wars became a home to those with nowhere else to go, such as "White" Russians fleeing Soviet control, Jews escaping persecution, criminals on the run from justice, or just those with few prospects elsewhere.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved

With that interesting history in mind, I produced a number of 'photo-films' which involved Chinese models living in Shanghai who helped me tell stories of betrayal, legends and famous silent movie actresses which can be viewed on my Vimeo channel.

These photo-films used regular color or monochrome photographs, however I decided to age-process some photographs using a special "sauce" (as some photographers like to say) using a combination of filters in the Nik Collection; namely the Analog Efex Pro and the Color Efex Pro suite of tools. 

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved