Polar Vortex Entering HK Island

Polar Vortex entering Hong Kong island this morning..

© Kees Metselaar 2014

Fresh Mandela Street Art Spuistraat Amsterdam

© Kees Metselaar 10 December 2013

Lamma Fun Day

Last Saturday, great weather, light and music on the Lamma Fun Day.

© Kees Metselaar 23 November 2013

Sinterklaas in the Moluccas

Arrival of Sinterklaas early December 1996 in Tobelo on the Moluccan island of Halmahera.
Here he is accompanied by different coloured assisting "Petes", including one who is painted
black. The yearly feast must have been introduced here during the Dutch colonial days.  In the
Netherlands "Pete" is always black and the celebration has often been criticized as being racist.

© Kees Metselaar 1996

Falung Gong Still Marching in Hong Kong

Anti-Communist Party Falung Gong marching on National Day in Hong Kong.

© Kees Metselaar 1st October 2013

Dutch Sky 2

Contrail madness above Amsterdam.

© Kees Metselaar 2013

Mick Deane Killed in Cairo

Sky cameraman Mick Deane was killed in Cairo this morning. He was 61.
He was a collegue and friend, here 20 years ago in Hong Kong.

© Kees Metselaar 1993

Bye Bye Yellow Duck

Last view of the Yellow Duck, conceived by the Dutch artist Florentijn
Hofman,  in Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong.
Next stop for the Duck is Pittsburgh in the US.

© Kees Metselaar 2013

Internet on Steroïds

Our internet speed went through the roof since our old building in Sheung Wan in Hong Kong is connected with a fiber optic cable.
And this is on an iPhone through wifi..

© Kees Metselaar 2013

Hong Kong Heritage

Slowly but steadily more old buildings from Hong Kong's colonial past are being preserved and renovated. This Lui Seng Chun building in Mong Kok, built in the classic Tong Lau style, is now home to the Hong Kong Baptist University School of Chinese Medicine Tong Lau building in Mong Kok.
More Hong Kong heritage here.

© Kees Metselaar 2012

Morning Snow in Amsterdam

Early morning snow at the Bloemgracht, a cozy canal in the Jordaan neighbourhood of Amsterdam last Tuesday.

© Kees Metselaar 2013

Bondi Icebergs Winter Swimming Club

Also called the Bondi Baths. Open all during the winter and dramatically located next to the famous Bondi Beach. Even if you do not want to swim a good place to sip a coffee and look at the waves slammin into the pool.
More pictures in this gallery on my website.

© Kees Metselaar 2011

Colonial Flag Hotly Discussed in HK

The former Colonial Flag of Hong Kong seems to pop up more
and more during anti-government demonstrations. Nobody seemed
to bother much in the beginning but it is clear now that Beijing is
not pleased.
Lu Ping, former director of the State Council's HK and Macau Affairs
Office said in a letter to the SCMP last month that advocates for HK
independence were "sheer morons".
More pictures of the former flag in this gallery on my website.

© Kees Metselaar 2012

Plastic Ocean

1979

2008























Just been reading Captain Charles Moore's Plastic Ocean, the book in which he describes his "discovery" of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This huge, mostly plastic garbage gyre circles around in the Pacific Ocean and gets constantly fed by immense amounts of plastic garbage from the rivers and coastal waters around the Pacific.
The first picture of plastic bottles on a beach I made in 1979 in North Tunesia. At that time it was still kind of exotic to find bottles from other countries. Now you find plastic garbage on every beach in Asia like on this second picture from Bali.

© Kees Metselaar 1979 and 2008

More Scottish Sky

More fluffy Scottish clouds on the island of Mull.

© Kees Metselaar 2012

Scottish Sky

Wild sunny sky on the island of Mull in Scotland last June.
More Scottish Skies on my website here.

© Kees Metselaar 2012

Bangkok Off Centre

Visit to Baan Sinlapin on the west side of Bangkok in the Khlong Bang Luang artist village. Bangkok life is more quiet and traditional there that in the busy financial and shopping areas.
The waterways and transport on the water still play an important role in the daily rhythm of life.
Look out for this chubby guy.

© Kees Metselaar 2011

Istanbul Morning After

Empty Efes beer bottles at the waterfront in Usküdar.

© Kees Metselaar 2012

Relaxed In Istanbul

Along Kennedy Avenue next to the old city wall and Topkapi Palace. Facing the Sea of Marmara.

© Kees Metselaar 2012

Bosphorus Bridge

 Just before sunrise from Sirkeci close to the Galata bridge.

 © Kees  Metselaar  2012

Back to Istanbul

Tomorrow back to Istanbul. Above,  the Istanbul waterfront from Sirkeci, next to the Galata Bridge, in 1978 and 2010. Still very recognizable. From this location nothing much seems to have changed. I promise an updated version of the same photograph soon.


© Kees Metselaar 1978 and 2010

Huge Anti Government Demo in Hong Kong

A massive 1st of July Protest demonstration is still under way in
Hong Kong.

15 years after the Handover to China this is one of the biggest
demonstrations in many years; possibly 500.000 people.
Fuelled by frustrations about the non-elected leadership and the
growing gap between rich and poor.
Many young demonstrators were waving the former Hong Kong
colonial flag and even Maggie Thatcher came back in the picture.
This time as the Brit who betrayed Hong Kong to China.

© Kees Metselaar 1/7/2012

Goodbye Amsterdam

Our last morning in the Jordaan neighbourhood in Amsterdam. A bit of sun over the typical Dutch red-tiled roofs. We will be back.

© Kees Metselaar 2012

Nilsson et Chiglien in Hong Kong

For weeks the newly decorated gallery on Hollywood Road was empty. One night a man was standing there.It looked a bit odd. For a moment I thought He was the exhibition. Then the ceramic globular shapes from artist Steen Ipsen arrived and the gallery was finally in use. On their website Ipsen explains his art as follows:

“...... The works are constructed according to certain rules, either methodical or chaotic,simple or complex. The shape is as important as the decorative element and the two fuse to become one.
The shapes are often extreme and outrageous, repetitive and accumulated. I'm looking to develop an abundance of sensuality  and find a formal vocabulary that is rooted in modernism."

They reminded me of the DNA models we used during biochemistry lessons.


© Kees Metselaar 2012

Rainbow Over Hong Kong

A real rainbow over central Hong Kong last weekend.Pretty impressive and indeed photographed with my iPhone. © Kees Metselaar 2012

Hong Kong in NYT

Today in the New York Times a travel story on Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai with the Hong Kong pictures made by me. More in this slideshow. © Kees Metselaar 2011

Man through Penang Wall

The old colonial buildings and Chinese shophouses in George Town on the Malaysian island of Penang are often mouldy and softly rotting away. Great abstract images are materialising. This wall looks like somebody walked straight through it. More in this gallery.

© Kees Metselaar 2010

Li & Fung buys into Saville Row

William K. Fung, Group managing Director of Li & Fung Limited. He and his brother Victor Fung control the company and got in the news this week for buying the Royal Saville Row based tailor Gieves & Hawkes in London. Or as the Independent calls it:
"Gieves & Hawkes bows to Chinese buyer". More William Fung and other HK business people here.

© Kees Metselaar 2011

Spy Poeteray

One of the hottest stories in the Netherlands is about the spy Raymond Poeteray. He was arrested on 24th of March on suspicion of spying for Russia. He was apparently part of a spying ring of an Austrian couple who were arrested last year. Poeteray is also suspected of money laundering, taking bribes and possession of illegal weapons.

He was vice-consul of the Netherlands in Hong Kong until 2008. This photo was taken in 2007 during the so called Holland Village Fair in Central Hong Kong. On the left of Poeteray the Consul Jan Revis and on the right the HK Secretary for Home Affairs Tsang Tak Sing. The Poeterays left the territory under a cloud after they returned their eight year old adopted daughter from Korea in the care of Hong Kong's Social Welfare Department claiming they could no longer care for her because of the girl's emotional remoteness.

© Kees Metselaar 2007

Anti CY Leung Demo

Yesterday's pro-democracy demonstration of thousands against the March 25 election of Leung Chun-ying, 57 by a 1,200-strong pro-Beijing election committee as the new Hong Kong Chief Executive. Some were dressed up in little red riding hoods as innocent victims as CY's nickname is the Wolf. Others dressed up as a mainland Chinese tanks in a reference to his reported commentts advocating a crackdown on Tiananmen pro-democracy supporters. More on my website here.

Kennedy Town Praya

Kennedy Town is the up and coming district on Western Hong Kong Island. In a few years new Metro (MTR) stations will open which will make this traditional Chinese neighbourhood much more accessible from other parts of Hong Kong. From the Praya or Harbour road you have grand views of Hong Kong Harbour al the way to the Airport Bridge and the container harbour. For a sequence of images from that location see this gallery on my website.

© Kees Metselaar

Royal Bangkok

All over Bangkok you can find images of the King and Queen of Thailand. They mostly look quite young and energetic and King Bhumibol is often sporting a camera.
According to the police Thai authorities have blocked thousands of web pages deemed insulting to the monarchy in the past three months. Under Thailand’s strict lese majeste rules, insulting the monarchy can result in prison terms of up to 15 years.

© Kees Metselaar 2009

Demjanjuk Dead

John Demjanjuk died in Germany yesterday. He was convicted as Nazi death camp guard last May but always maintained that he had been mistaken for somebody else.
25 years ago I photographed him during his trial in Israel. He was convicted there too and even sentenced to death. This verdict was later overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court on the grounds of a mistaken identity. For more images from the period of the First Intifada in Israel and the occupied territories see here.

© Kees Metselaar

Farewell to Edo

Farewell to Edo.
Before the end of Edo de Waart's final season with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the conductor steps up for one last hurrah with 11 famous artists through the month of April 2012.
More pictures of his poster in Hong Kong here.

© Kees Metselaar 2012

Burma Internet

From the stats I learn that people look at my blog from Burma/Myanmar. That never happened since I started in 2005. Was blocked by the government. Good to see that change is indeed in the (internet) air. The image is from 1995 when Aung San Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest for the first time and Apple Mac advertisements were popping up in the streets. Change also seemed in the air then but it proved false alarm.

© Kees Metselaar 1995