Totems series by French photographer Alain Delorme shows us how Chinese people transport unbelievable piles of items on their bicycles.
The artist broke the rules of documentary genre by enhancing images in Photoshop to present us with colorful portraits of workers in Shanghai.
For more inspiration, check out: Cool Photos of Levitating Girl
Ninja Egg :D
Wow. ^_^
Aug 14th, 2011
Darrell
Are these photoshopped? If not, can they actually ride around with that stuff back there??! Crazy! :O
Aug 14th, 2011
Paul Manic
they’re photoshopped like the text says.
but they’re not only photoshopped, they are bad photoshopped; sorry… just look at the shadows and the lightning of the objects.
Aug 14th, 2011
Larna
Simply fantastic….like a fairy tale!
Aug 14th, 2011
bert
@paul
I love the concept. But yes, these images are just way too artificial.
Aug 14th, 2011
allgewalt
it’s ture in China…Most of them are scavengers. They can earn 1 Us cent by picking up a plastic bottle or aluminium can
Aug 15th, 2011
Karen
these are real pictures, but they’ve been manipulated to enhance certain qualities of the pictures
Aug 15th, 2011
Phil
@Karen,
Qualities such as Quantity….
Aug 15th, 2011
Benjamin Christine
great pictures
Aug 15th, 2011
Art Rock
Not photoshopped (except for b&w rendition), my own shot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/artrock2006/3525694002/
Aug 15th, 2011
Visolela
Unfortunately while it may be the case for the above pictures – I don’t think there was as much exaggeration as we would like to believe. There are lots of pictures on the net (real pictures taken by tourists or regular joes) of bicycle / tricycle loads around the world – many from China: http://bit.ly/nCEKmg (part of a larger flikr group dedicated to the subject)
Aug 15th, 2011
Mac
They are photoshopped, but only in colour and brightness. Many documentaries show people making a living like this in parts of China – and other countries – but they are usually in places suffering extreme poverty, which simply wouldn’t be as clean as these images. Besides, if you were to return to the original source, you could read an explanation of the series, including the editing process.
Besides that, I think they’re brilliant. I love the colour, and it always fascinates me to see how different people, and indeed differnt cultures, do things.
Aug 15th, 2011
nidia
wow… how do they set all of the stuff that high?
Aug 15th, 2011
Windy
@Paul & @ Bert I think the photoshop work might have been purposeful. The colors & lighting, in my opinion, amplify the playful exaggeration of the piece.
Aug 16th, 2011
Dominic
These are probably Real…
Aug 16th, 2011
Josh
Absolutely NOT real….ever lift one of those water jugs? They’re like sixty pounds apiece. No way they would be on a wooden cart like that.
Aug 17th, 2011
Steve
It sounds like they made the photos colorful, thus ruining the mood these delivery guys were actually in. But I believe the quantity is not fake
Aug 17th, 2011
Celia
@Josh – I’m pretty sure those water jugs are empty. They return them for refunds. And to everyone else, the only thing they photoshopped was the colour, brightness e.t.c. NOT the quantity.
Aug 17th, 2011
Conan Wu
these pictures really make it clear to the living status of Chinese people..
Aug 19th, 2011
Frederick
@Josh – seriously man? Have you really never emptied the water jug before? There’s no way anyone can non-chalantly carry 4 of those water jugs.
Aug 20th, 2011
dwain
these are tricycles, not bicycles. stop calling them bicycles.
Aug 24th, 2011
Daniel
@Josh:
you’re a crank. Aside from the obvious fact they are empty …
bottle capacity == 3 gallons
Weight of water == 6 pounds/gal
——————————
weight / bottle == 18 pounds
Aug 24th, 2011
Jef
Or you could buy a truck
Sep 5th, 2011
James
@paul
They might be done intentially so.. don’t you think??
Aug 9th, 2012