The Thrill is Gone: Street Photography at Chinese New Year
For the past few years I’ve been shooting at the Chinese New Year festival in Manchester. It’s a welcome break from everyday street photography and there’s usually no shortage of colour — especially red and yellow, one of my favourite combinations.
Good Times in Chinatown
It was actually the first festival I ever photographed in my early days as a street shooter, and the day I ended up meeting some of my closest friends in Manchester for the first time. So it holds a special place in my heart.
I always recommend events like this to novice street photographers. The atmosphere is great, people are generally happy to be photographed (candid or otherwise), and there’s an endless stream of moments unfolding across the two days.
What Went Wrong?
Unfortunately, this year I just wasn’t quite feeling it.
For a start, I completely forgot it was this weekend. A welcome surprise, yes — but it meant I didn’t get into town until about midday. In previous years some of my favourite images have come from arriving early, watching Chinatown slowly come to life as market traders set up and costumed performers prepare for the day ahead. The light is often beautiful at that time too, which I very much cursed myself for missing.
It did hang around for a while though, so I didn’t entirely miss the crisp winter sun that Manchester occasionally blesses us with.
You’d think, after missing Saturday morning, I’d be up at the crack of dawn on Sunday.
Nope.
I stayed up watching films until 2am the night before. My mind was saying, “Let’s shoot,” and my body was firmly replying, “Let’s not and say we did…”
The weather gods seemed to punish my laziness with bitter cold and relentless rain. I lasted a couple of hours before retreating home to thaw out. I probably only took ten photos.
People taking shelter from the rain
Taking a Slight Detour
I did bump into some friends and ended up having coffee with them, which meant photography was placed firmly on the back burner for an hour while I enjoyed the warm sanctuary of a coffee shop. No regrets there.
Perhaps it’s a symptom of shooting this festival year after year, but I’m starting to feel a little bored of it. The format is fairly entrenched now — the same stalls, the same layouts, many of the same visual beats I’ve already photographed before.
I did come away with a few decent shots. Compared to last year, though, they’re nowhere near as strong. That’s just the way it goes sometimes — especially if one chooses to lie in bed half the morning and miss prime opportunities for those mythical “Instagram bangers.”
It’s Not You It’s Me
If I’m honest, I think my Chinese New Year malaise is part of a broader fatigue with street photography at the moment.
There’s a certain homogenisation to the streets I shoot in — and perhaps to the festival too. So many city centres in this country feel like Groundhog Day: Starbucks, Primark, Costa, Boots… rinse and repeat. Even the fashion feels increasingly uniform, with people taking cues from TikTok trends and the dependable Manchester winter palette of dark coats. It robs the streets of colour and character.
Putting the Streets on Pause
Right now, street photography has taken a bit of a back seat for me.
I’m really enjoying some of my other creative pursuits: playing guitar again in a serious way, writing this blog, learning Spanish, and (finally) planning to build my own app — long overdue given I’m a software developer by trade. I’ve even been dabbling in videography.
For the moment, that feels right. I suspect I’ll fall back in love with street when the weather warms up. There aren’t many better hobbies than being out in the sun with a camera and a fresh SD card ready to be filled.
I hope everyone else enjoyed Chinese New Year. We’re incredibly lucky to have this festival in Manchester, and I don’t want this to sound like I’m throwing shade — far from it. It just wasn’t my year this time.
Roll on the next one.
