'my first levi's' • qingdao, china

© MARC MONTEBELLO  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

[click on image to enlarge]

Labels: 2010, china, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

in a classic move, this town is busy with the drone of brazers and pipe-fitters manically sorting out last-minute 'central' heat for the masses. one would envisage september to be a more fitting time for this sort of activity, or early october perhaps. then again, that would eliminate the suspense of wondering how many days (weeks?) you'll be freezing before lukewarm water makes its way into your already frigid home. no fun in that i say, no sir..

'brazing allies' • qingdao, china

© MARC MONTEBELLO  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

[click on image to enlarge]

Labels: 2010, china, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

the 'oops page', which was posing as the portfolio link in the header above, has now been replaced with a slideshow teaser up on our root domain. more professional methinks. i hope to eventually showcase an uncluttered display of images there, including some actual commissioned work plus more up-to-date stuff in general. i know, about time. my previous version was somewhat hypoallergenic and dated but it has been a rough (digital) year after all. this latest crisis was a mysterious kink in the code i was tinkering with that was to be this new folio page. it worked for about 5 days before i broke something, apparently. :-( more unfortunately, this new, temporary (possibly permanent) home for upcoming presentations is not accessible in china for the time being. obviously if you're reading this, that's not an issue (this blog's in the same company). and if you are able to peruse the site in the middle-kingdom, i'm hoping you're part of a majority, that is, folks with VPN's. amen, brothers. you can have a lookie HERE though it's rather spartan at the moment. à bientôt les amis!

Labels: 2010, china, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

i think i found someone who loathes winter almost as much as i do..

'monk coat' • qingdao, china

© MARC MONTEBELLO  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

[click on image to enlarge]

Labels: 2010, china, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

max, of BURNS GUITARS fame, after a recent factory inspection.

'tri-max' • jimo, china

© MARC MONTEBELLO  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

[click on image to enlarge]

Labels: 2010, china, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

what it feels like to live in china.. sometimes.
- via THIS GUY.

[not my image]

Labels: 2010, china, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

kickin' it old skool.

'light learners' • qingdao, china

Labels: 2010, china, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

common rose petal up close, real close.

'cutting edge' • qingdao, china

Labels: 2010, china, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

apologies for the lack of updates as i've been busy with more serious matters of late. and on that note..

[not my image]

Labels: 2010, china, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

'wild wood' • qingdao, china

© MARC MONTEBELLO  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

[click on image to enlarge]

Labels: 2010, china, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

"my other bag is a hand-woven hemp sac.."

'minority chic' • yuan yang, yunnan

Labels: 2010, china, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

'mom, dad and ottavio' • qingdao, china

© MARC MONTEBELLO  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

[click on image to enlarge]

Labels: 2010, china, editorial, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

still overwhelmed with re-organising a semi-salvaged archive of a couple of years' work here, so in the meantime i'll be mainly posting clicks that are more readily accessible ;-)

'pocket banana' • qingdao, china

Labels: 2010, china, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

'free mama' • qingdao, china

Labels: 2010, china, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

i've had another series of hard drive failures (yes - plural, as in backups of backups) these past few weeks and the outcome has been a tragic loss of innumerable memories and a whole lot of assignments. it seems to be a recurring theme in my life :-(
i've also discovered through this process, besides the fact i'm living in an extremely electro-corrosive environment, that recovery software apps are generally fallacious and over-priced. when they do work it takes days, literally, and there's little to do other than watch your mac's glossy screen in wearisome anticipation. times like these i really, really miss tape and film. in fact i'm seriously considering a move to film as part of a next-generation business plan. chromes and b&w prints are painfully expensive upfront these days but that's pretty much where it ends as a methodology (the clients can take care of reproductions otherwise). and the outcome to me is still much more magical than chimping my nikon's lcd. this digital thing is with us for good but it has become taxing in more ways than i imagined.
anyways, the silver lining, whether dusting off old boxes or spinning glitchy disks, can be a rediscovery of things forgotten. not a highlight by any stretch but in the meantime, here's a jam from a couple of years ago that just popped into the salvage folder. it's a variation of the 'Variation On The Carlos Santana Secret Chord Progression' (f.zappa), featuring a couple of solo extracts from greg and i live at the 'lennon shithole bar' in qingdao. incidentally, 'oye como va' (the secret progression in this example) was in fact composed by tito puente who made a splash of his own with its catchy cha-cha before carlos exposed it to the pepsi generation.
note: i'll be uploading more billKillers videos HERE as they resurface..

Labels: 2010, qingdao, videos

apologies for the digital noise on this one.. point (and shoot) taken.* snazzy jackets there, dudes :-) * from the archives, see THiS POST.

'rebels on a pause' • hainan dao, china

Labels: 2010, china, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

'reserved seating' • qingdao, china

Labels: 2010, china, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

'stone cutter' • near jian shui, yunnan

Labels: 2010, china, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

the red shirts have made a resurgence these past few days, ergo the reach into the archive bag for an appropriate image. this one's from a somewhat less stressful time in a royal thai army dude's career.. not that you can tell from his glare.

'make my day' • bangkok, thailand

Labels: 2010, china, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

Labels: 2010, china, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao