This is a bit of an oddity. I would go so far as to call it an accidental music video. Last September I ended up on The Bund at dawn in Shanghai. This should happen at least once in your lifetime. Ostensibly I was there to photograph a performance by the talented and capable Olek, whose crocheted work I first encountered in New York City this past summer. After she failed to initiate a crocheting enterprise, thanks to the Shanghai Public Security Bureau, I stuck around and watched the sun rise in all its glory over the imposing Pudong skyline. Slowly but surely the entire city awoke around me. My favorite part are the old guys walking backwards for exercise. I find their physicality a strangely fitting metaphor for the urban development occurring around them. It was a beautiful sight. I mashed up the video from that morning with a live performance of White+ recorded at the now defunct D-22. Check out the results below.

One of my photographs from the amazingly ridiculous Kangbashi district in Ordos was featured in Conde Nast Traveler this past month. The building shown is the Ordos Museum designed by MAD architects, one of the preeminent Chinese architecture firms founded by Ma Yansong who previously toiled as a project designer for Zaha Hadid Architects. The building itself remains a wonder to behold as its irregular shape clashes with the geometrical grid that binds the rest of the newfangled district. Whether or not it will see any use is the real question now that it finally opened. The municipal government can barely get people to stay put in the Kangbashi residential developments, let alone consistently fill up over 40,000 square meters of exhibition space. The flagship cultural center of Ordos will probably accumulate more sand from the Gobi desert than actual visitors. Anyway, I will be featuring more photographs of MAD buildings in the near future thanks to my first assignment with The New York Times Magazine. In the meantime, you can check out some extra photographs I took of the unfinished interior.

As many of you may know, I am a huge fan of the CCTV Tower in Beijing’s Central Business District. In my excitement that they finally turned on the lights in the soaring loop of a skyscraper, I scouted out locations and posted shots of it igniting the skyline. A few months later, as fortune would have it, I received an assignment to photograph Ole Scheeren, the former parter of Rem Koolhaas at OMA and mastermind behind the design and construction of the CCTV Tower. Basically I got to sneak around the new offices of Ole Scheeren in Jianwai Soho and then pose him in front of his awesome edifice. In the end, I used the same locations from the night shoot to photograph Ole Scheeren with the CCTV Tower. Unfortunately I was not allowed to photograph any models of his upcoming projects which were amazing. Ole himself was very affable during the shoot and is no stranger to the camera thanks to his high-profile, paparazzi-trailed relationship with actress Maggie Cheung. A looker and dresser, Ole made sure he was properly attired for the occasion and rocked a formidable Blue Steel. The clippings are from the article in the newly minted Port Magazine out of London.

My trip to Indonesia in February was not all hardcore concerts and overnight buses. I was fortunate enough to take a day or two off from touring to check out some of the country’s cultural splendor. For years I wanted to visit the 9th-century Buddhist monument, Borobudur. Over the past decade I have been able to photograph most of the great Buddhist archeological sites in China, Mongolia, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Burma, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. Borobudur surely ranks as one of the most celebrated and lived up to many of my expectations, even if it did not quite match the scale of Angkor Wat or Bagan. Still, the massive pile easily exhibits some of the greatest relief sculpture in Southeast Asia. The 2,672 panels that wind their way to the top stupa intricately depict mythological stories as well as scenes from daily life. It is not often you get the chance to peer back one thousand years into the milieu of an ancient civilization. Check out some of the pictures below to see the depth and detail of their work. They were truly exquisite.

This is just a small note to all the CCTV Headquarters enthusiasts out there. The night time is now the right time to check out the stunning building. After sitting in the dark for the past few years, the authorities that be finally turned the lights on the CCTV Headquarters. Its smaller sister, the Television Cultural Center which was supposed to house the Beijing Mandarin Oriental Hotel, still sits in ignoble darkness as repairs begin after the devastating fire that gutted the building last year. For now I must only enjoy half the CCTV complex lighting up the Beijing skyline.

The Shanghai World Financial Center (SWFC) is a marvel to behold. Rising above the equally impressive Jin Mao Tower, its graceful arches reach 101 stories, the second-tallest building in the world. The SWFC also ranks as number one for the highest occupied floor in the world, beating out the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and sports the world’s tallest observation deck. The Observatory Bridge runs along the top of the trapezoidal opening near the apex of the SWFC and offers generous views of Shanghai on all sides. During my trip earlier this month, I picked a particularly clear day to visit. The light hitting the Pudong side was the best and offered uninhibited views of the vast urban sprawl that now characterizes the edges of Shanghai.

After visiting the 2010 Shanghai World Expo last week, I decided that the night time is definitely the right time to visit. During the day the crowds were overbearing and most of the pavilions less than enchanting. However, when the sun goes down, the expo turns into a festival of lights. Some of the clear architectural winners in my book were the Spanish, Korean, Nepalese and Danish with the UK Pavilion taking the gold. Designed by Thomas Heatherwick, the six-story structure is stuck like a pincushion with 60,000 willowy rods that glow and quaver in the breeze. The rods extend from the interior where at the root of each a plant seed is seamlessly inserted. The UK Pavilion is supposed to reflect the British love for gardens and emphasize the need for green space in cities. You can read more about the concept on the UK Pavilion homepage.

First of all, congratulations to South Africa for hosting such an amazing World Cup. I think they did an exemplary job in the face of many obstacles and managed to pull off one of the most successful World Cups of all time. One of the host nation’s greatest assets was definitely the stadiums. The exterior of Soccer City in Johannesburg and Green Point Stadium in Cape Town were incredible, but the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban with it’s giant arch extending over the field proved to be the clear winner. Attached are a few of my favorite architectural shots from World Cup 2010 in South Africa.

This past week I finally got to visit the developmental monstrosity that is Dubai. Nothing can really describe the audaciousness and scope of the luxury metropolis they hope to raise from the sands of the surrounding desert. Ranging from the largest mall in the world to the tallest building in the world, Dubai is building a new Babel that is already on the verge of going completely bust. For the foreseeable future however, despite the world economic downtown, the cranes are still moving as one of the largest construction sites in the world continues to lurch forward.

The #5 subway line was all the rage when it first opened earlier this month. Locals lined up for blocks to catch an inaugural ride on the latest edition to Beijing’s underground. Although initial excitement soon subsided, people’s expectations for more and better transit options reached new heights. The slick #5 subway cars sported flat screen monitors displaying local news, spotless interiors, and exacting temperature control. The antiquated #1 and #2 subway lines still run on time, but now stand out as the ugly stepsisters of Beijing’s expanding public transportation system.

The opening of the #5 subway line also reshuffled Beijing’s suburban housing market – everyone wants to live next to a subway line these days. Traffic congestion is without a doubt the largest drawback stemming from recent surges in urban wealth and population density. Beijing’s newfound love affair with the car might come to a grisly end if traffic levels continue to rise at the current pace. Nobody can escape the mind bogglingly clogged expressways after 5PM. I would rather shoot myself in the foot than face such a cataclysm on a daily basis. The northern terminus of the #5 subway line thus stands to become the newest haven for low-income workers looking to escape increasing housing prices in the city center while maintaining a relatively short commute.

Picking an appropriately dreary afternoon, I headed out to investigate the new residential developments at the end of the #5 subway line. The area in question encompassed the last three subway stops and bore the unsettlingly kitschy name Pathway to Heaven Gardens (天通苑). If your idea of paradise includes high-rise concrete housing blocks arranged like a precarious domino set, look no further. These hulking domiciles symbolize the pinnacle of China’s insipid community planning; even the grassy fields surrounding the development appeared devoid of life. Only the occasional movement of tenants scurrying in and out of the complex lent a breath of vitality to the concrete jungle.

The only redeeming value of the area was the people living there. I stuck out like a sore thumb and soon struck up a number of conversations with inquisitive locals. My favorite included a gang of young security officers from Hebei Province skirting their duties and hanging out underneath the end of the of #5 subway line. They were happy to have jobs in Beijing but found the community lacking the warmth of their hometowns. It’s not hard to imagine such difficulties would occur within the migratory population, but their living environment did nothing to establish new bonds between the residents. I plan to revisit this area throughout the year so expect more reports concerning the Pathway to Heaven Gardens.