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

Hong Kong Spring

Thousands of Hong Kong residents were demonstrating in Central Hong Kong yesterday for universal suffrage and disgusted with the scandals engulfing the sitting Chief Executive Donald Tsang and his potential successors Henry Tang and Leung Chun-ying. Read all about it in the Asia Sentinel.
Some demonstrators were waving former Hong Kong colonial flags. I tried to catch those with my iPhone with not much success. John Meldrum who was standing behind me had more success. John is club secretary of the Cathay Camera Club, also former chairman and very active in the amateur photography world in Hong Kong.

Photos John Meldrum and Kees Metselaar 2012