[Leica] China 1976

[philippe.amard at sfr.fr (philippe.amard)]

Fantastic stuff in there Howard - in spite of their technical flaws  
against today's standards, these are marvellous documents with an  
atmosphere that few Westerners ever felt or were able to convey; your  
series does this, and does it extremely well - I love them.

Amiti?s
Philippe

Le 25 mars 11 ? 08:43, H&ECummer a ?crit :

>
> Hi Luggers,
> I was a trade officer with the Canadian Embassy in Beijing in the  
> mid 1970's.
> My slides from that time have been in storage in Canada for the last  
> 17 years and over the summer I scanned some of them.
>
> Here are 8 pictures showing a visit to Harbin and the Taching oil  
> fields in February 1976. The film stock is Extachrome, ISO 160 (I  
> think) and the camera is a Pentax K2 with a 85mm F2.0 lens and a  
> wider lens, now forgotten, perhaps a 35 F2.0. The set is long gone -  
> given away to a photo student.
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/China70s/_HeavyIndustw.jpg.html
>
> http://tinyurl.com/4o7o4m7
>
> The Harbin generator factory. I made a report on the visit with as  
> much info as possible and described the building as "industrial  
> gothic"
> About 6 months later a report from the CIA crossed my desk, (we  
> shared industrial info in those days) describing the factory's  
> capabilities and describing it as "industrial gothic".
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/China70s/DecapodPanoW.jpg.html
>
> http://tinyurl.com/4os9hkm
>
> In those days steam engines were the main work horses on the  
> railways. The decapod is from an American design from the Baldwin  
> locomotive works first sold to Russian and then passed to the  
> Chinese in the 1920's. When I took this picture China was still  
> producing decapods to the old "Russian" design (Ye designation).
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/China70s/FixingLtBulbsW.jpg.html
>
> http://tinyurl.com/4egt3n3
>
> Self sufficiency was the word in China in 1976 - here a worker is  
> refitting fresh filaments into a burned out bulb. We were amazed to  
> see this being done, and the Chinese were equally amazed that as an  
> advanced country we didn't recycle our bulbs. I doubt very much of  
> China still does this.
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/China70s/FixingLtBulbs2W.jpg.html
>
> http://tinyurl.com/4vr9gne
>
> Here is another view of the bulb repair assembly line.
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/China70s/LeatherCutw.jpg.html
>
> http://tinyurl.com/4lcxe63
>
> Trying to be self sufficient in all things they also made leather  
> goods - shoes and bags and belts.
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/China70s/NoodleMakerW.jpg.html
>
> http://tinyurl.com/4kmks9l
>
> And noodles from scratch.
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/China70s/Sewingw.jpg.html
>
> http://tinyurl.com/4tl5lrh
>
> And clothes for everyone - all in Mao blue
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/China70s/WingMakerW.jpg.html
>
> http://tinyurl.com/4zbcdmc
>
> And handicrafts to sell. Here the girls are making wings to add to  
> pictures of cranes made out of cork.
>
> I haven't been back to Harbin and Taching since then but I would bet  
> big money that none of this piece work is being done now.
> Everyone is making export goods for Walmart.
>
> C& C always welcome
>
> Your old comrade Howard.
>
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