Photo © Patrice Delmotte | All Rights Reserved
I recently received an unexpected and generous gift from Patrice Delmotte - a friend and a fine art photographer based in Taipei - of a photo book titled Lady Chi featuring Jan Farn Chi, an artist and model also based in Taipei.
There's a back story to this gift.
In late 2019, we started to plan a joint project with the concept of having a model in a Chinese Opera costume and headgear posing for us in a studio and in a well-known public historical park in Taipei. It was as a consequence of my just completed the voluminous photo book Chinese Opera of the Diaspora.
Patrice arranged all the details with Jan Farn, hired a specialized make up artist with experience in Chinese Opera and readied his studio for mid March 2020 sessions. Meanwhile, I arranged for my flights and hotel stays in Taipei and primed my cameras for this exciting opportunity.
However due to the emergence of Covid 19, all these plans and arrangements from my side had to be cancelled as I didn't relish risking infections and potential difficulty in returning home.
Patrice completed the project with Jan Farn...produced many photos and the results are stunning. Realizing my disappointment at having missed it, Patrice sent me one of his two photo books from the sessions...which served to soothe the let down and as a predictor that I shall join him in 2022 for another opportunity.
His superb Lady Chi photo books can be found here (Opus I) and here (Opus II). The links also provide previews to these two books.
