WSJ Outtakes – Philip Johnson’s Dumbarton Oaks Pavilion
April 17th, 2011A couple additional shots that didn’t run from the WSJ piece on Philip Johnson’s Dumbarton Oaks Pavilion in Washington DC.
Wall Street Journal Hong Kong Concierge
February 28th, 2011Take a look at an Insider’s Guide to Hong Kong from our good friends at the Wall Street Journal. You can link to the site itself: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703555804576102223598816108.html
The insider guide asks four connected and knowledgeable Hong Kong Cognoscenti to give readers the lowdown on their personal Zeitgeist. In this instance you get to experience Hong Kong through the eyes of Alain Ducasse, Alan Lo, Carol Lim, and Daniel Libeskind.
If you haven’t yet been to Hong Kong you need to go – there are direct flights from most major cities in the world and both the food and the frenetic pace are amazing. You can go from having the best dim sum of your life to water skiing around one of the many islands – all before night falls.
Go visit now!
You can also check the PDF out here: Wall Street Journal Hong Kong Concierge – Andrew Rowat
WSJ Magazine – Benesse Art Site, Japan
December 23rd, 2010In the Fall this year I had the opportunity to travel to Japan’s Seto Inland Sea to photograph a series of amazing museums and art installations that are part of the ‘Benesse Art Site’. Darryl Wee (the writer of the piece) describes it as follows:
“The Benesse Art Site, an archipelago of art-sprinkled Japanese islands, is billionaire businessman Soichiro Fukutake’s realized vision of an ecologically enlightened “slow life.” The head of an educational publishing company, Benesse Corporation, Fukutake started this remote haven for contemplating art framed by nature some 20 years ago. Accessible only by ferry, after a three-hour bullet-train ride from Tokyo, the cluster of islands just off the coast of Okayama is located far enough from the hyperactive density of Japanese cities to tune out the urban hum, allowing visitors to truly transport themselves as they walk, muse and view the growing collection of contemporary art and installations on a wide-open-spaces scale.”
You can check out the slideshow of images here:
http://magazine.wsj.com/places-things/the-fine-art-of-escape/tab/slideshow/
For me the highlight were all of the Tadao Ando-designed museums, including the Chichu Art Museum (地中美術館), which unfortunately I was not permitted to photograph. Next time!
One of his museums is the Benesse House Museum, here housing a work by Bruce Nauman: “100 Live and Die”.
Bruce Nauman's work, "100 Live and Die"
Ning Li – CEO & Founder of Made.com for Time Magazine
December 1st, 2010For the last three and a half months I was trapped in Asia. Well, trapped isn’t entirely accurate – the phone wouldn’t stop ringing so I kept changing my plane ticket back to New York.
One of the last shoots that I participated in when I was in Asia was a portrait of Made.com’s CEO Ning Li for Time magazine when Ning was in Shanghai. And that portrait hit stands last week (Nov 29 International Edition for those of you dashing out the door right now).
So I just wanted to share this portrait with you (and link to the full pdf here: Made.com CEO Ning Li)
Made.com uses crowdsourcing to design its furniture – soliciting designs from professional designers and then letting users vote for the best designs. Of those best designs a handful are then put into production. But I digress. I will let you read the article.
Ning Li, CEO of Made.com at his Shanghai offices on Tuesday Nov 09, 2010. Photographed for Time magazine by Andrew Rowat.
Bloomberg BusinessWeek – Robin Li Baidu CEO Profile
November 16th, 2010Out on newsstands this week you can check out this profile piece on Robin Li, the billionaire CEO of Baidu. Baidu is the reigning king of search in China and my images accompany Brad Stone & Bruce Einhorn’s story here:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_47/b4204060242597.htm
You can also download the PDF of the whole story here: Robin Li – Baidu – PDF
Baidu CEO Robin Li photographed by Andrew Rowat at Baidu World in Beijing, China.
Wall Street Journal Travel – Shanghai Insider
November 16th, 2010The Oct 23/24 2010 edition of the Wall Street Journal features some of my Shanghai images in the ‘Insider’s Guide’ written by friend and talented writer Andrew Yang. You can check it outline here: http://on.wsj.com/byL41d or see the full print layout as a PDF here: Wall Street Journal – Shanghai Insider PDF
Shanghai's Bund waterfront photographed by Andrew Rowat
Central Studios Shanghai – Your One-Stop Shop
November 15th, 2010While on the theme of service, I wanted to let folks know about Central Studios (http://www.centralstudios.cn/) in Shanghai.
Opened in the last year by Rodney Evans, a very talented photographer in his own right (and a friend to boot), the studios are located just blocks from Xintiandi in the heart of Shanghai. Whether you need equipment rental, studio space, or production help, Rodney and his team will sort you out.
Central Studios recently kitted me out for a video shoot and made sure that I had all the equipment that I would expect to get in NYC.
Next time you have a shoot in Shanghai give them a shout.
Service Service Service v2 – Four Seasons Thailand
November 15th, 2010I was recently at the sublime Four Seasons Tented resort in Northern Thailand and it reminded me of the first time I had ventured there for work a few years ago (this most recent time I was there off the clock).
http://andrewrowat.com/design/design02-2.html#1953,39
At the time the resort had just opened and I was shooting for Travel + Leisure’s hotel issue. In fact one of the images ended up being used as the cover.
If you have ever stayed at a Four Seasons you know that in response to any request they will always say “Certainly.”
“I would like a unicorn to deliver my low-fat extra-hot latte with the morning paper. And if you could arrange for a full moon that would be terrific.”
“Certainly.”
So on this particular shoot one of my light meters (I always carry two – redundancy!) decided that it was no longer interested in performing its core function. So I had a very dead light meter on my hands.
I popped the light meter open (this one had already gone for a swim in Australia once upon a time and been revived with a de-ionized water bath at a marine research station on Heron Island) to see if I could see anything that was obviously broken.
And lo and behold it looked like some solder points had cracked. Given that we weren’t exactly in downtown New York (the tented resort is located in the Golden Triangle on the border of Burma and Laos near Chiang Rai) I wrote it off for the rest of the shoot.
Four Seasons engineering staff weren’t having any of it. They absconded with my light meter and I went back to shooting. But not for long.
Soon enough my light meter returned, working perfectly fine, with all the contact points flawlessly re-soldered. Amazing.
“Can I have my light meter fixed and re-soldered along with that latte?”
“Certainly.”
Travel + Leisure Cover - Four Seasons Tented Resort Golden Triangle - Photographed by Andrew Rowat
Service Service Service – Think Tank Photo Will Keep Getting My Business
November 15th, 2010I use my gear in a fairly abusive manner. Whether it is shooting in -50C in Mongolia while riding reindeer, or hauling bags through blistering heat and desert dust I need to know that my equipment won’t fail.
Invariably however, after repeated beatings things do start to wear down, fall apart, or develop their own special quirks.
I have travelled all over the world with my Think Tank Airport Security v 2.0 (http://www.thinktankphoto.com/products/airport-security-v2-roller-camera-bag.aspx) and the wheels finally decided that they had had enough with the relationship. Rolling the bag had become decidedly less smooth, even when I wasn’t piloting it over rocks and cobblestone streets.
So what to do? I was on the road in China and though the bag was still serviceable it was definitely a pain.
One email. That’s all it took.
That one email led to a new set of wheels being shipped to China for me to replace in the field.
Cost to me? Zero.
Result? A very happy customer who will continue to buy their products because of the service.
In spite of my earlier statement about needing to know that my equipment won’t fail I know that equipment does fail. And when it does you want a company that stands behind their work and will sort you out.
Service. Service. Service.
Think Tank Photo Airport Security v2.0 Rolling Bag
Parli Italiano? Case de Abitare shoot in Singapore
October 1st, 2010In August I had the good fortune of trundling off to Singapore to shoot for one of Italy’s premier design magazines – Case De Abitare. Every so often they run a feature entitled ‘Grand Tour’ where they tackle a city from a travel & design point of view. So armed with a shoot list, camera, and contacts I set off to capture my interpretation of the city.
The issue hit stands today (Oct 1), but you can take a peek here with the PDF: Case de Abitare Singapore Grand Tour