Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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  • Some skiers are challenged by the slopes of the Yin Qi Xing Indoor Skiing Site. A young boy has wet trousers from all of his falls in the snow.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176383-2.jpg
  • Some skiers are challenged by the flat but snowy slopes of the Yin Qi Xing Indoor Skiing Site.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176383.jpg
  • Some skiers are challenged by the slopes of the Yin Qi Xing Indoor Skiing Site while others take photos with a camera while standing on the snow.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176383-1.jpg
  • Dancing and singing followed a totem raising ceremony. Tlinglet leaders dressed in colorful traditional clothing for a historic totem raising where seven totem poles were   placed in a Native Alaskan park in Klawock. Many of the 1000 Native Alaskans moved indoors to a gymnasium where festivities continued throughout the day.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075036.jpg
  • A Rapa Nui man with his Belgian girlfriend live in a one-room house that has electricity but no indoor plumbing. The ocean is close by and Polynesians had a knack for colonizing even the most inhospitable oceanic rock.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477350.JPG
  • At the A Fun Ti Carnival Restaurant, ethnic dancers, wait staff, performers are all from Xinjiang Province in North West China.
    MM7493_20070427_26797.tif
  • Bread and other baked goods at the Findlay Public Market.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MT6872_1908619.jpg
  • A steel worker at the Wuhan Iron and Steel plant
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176523-8.jpg
  • Elysee, owner and designer of Zemo Elysee fashion shop with models.<br />
he number of women entrepreneurs in China is growing. About three in ten businesses in China are women owned and, according to the All-China Women’s Federation, women account for one-quarter of total China-based entrepreneurs.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176593.jpg
  • Employees arrange dresses inside a fashion designer's workshop.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176587.JPG
  • A child plays the piano while a woman instructs in the living room of an apartment.<br />
<br />
From Leslie Chang’s story that accompanied these photographs in National Geographic Magazine:<br />
<br />
By the time she was ten, Bella lived a life that was rich with possibility and as regimented as a drill sergeant’s. After school she did homework unsupervised until her parents got home. Then came dinner, bath, piano practice. Sometimes she was permitted television, but only the news. On Saturdays she took a private essay class followed by Math Olympics, and on Sundays a prep class for the middle-school entrance exam and piano lessons. The best moment of the week was Friday afternoon, when school let out early. Bella might take a deep breath and look around, like a man who discovers a glimpse of blue sky from the confines of the prison yard.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176575.JPG
  • A portrait of a young Chinese woman eating with chopsticks.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176565.JPG
  • A rear view mirror reflects a model looking through a car window at an automobile exhibition. The 3rd China International Automobile Exhibition attracts young men to see the cars and a model that is reflected in a mirror.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176562.jpg
  • A pet lover with her dog holds out a treat while a dog with big ears peers out from a television screen.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176553.jpg
  • A woman points while young people enjoy drinks and conversation in a crowded bar.<br />
Flashing neon strobe lights electrify night spot that attracts young people in Shanghai.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176546.jpg
  • A man awkwardly leans into his date at a popular, packed bar.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176545-1.jpg
  • A young woman sucks on a straw at a Starbucks cafe.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176535.JPG
  • A dancer in green sparkles and fringe performs with a live snake at the Fun Ti Carnival Restaurant in Beijing. <br />
<br />
The dancers, wait staff, and performers are all migrant workers from Xinjiang Province in Northwest China. Migrant workers in China are mostly from impoverished regions who go to more urban and prosperous coastal regions in search of work. <br />
<br />
China has been experiencing the largest mass migration in history and people have left the countryside for the cities-perhaps 400 million people by 2025. Many are farmers and farm workers made obsolete by modern farming practices and factory workers who have been laid off from inefficient state-run factories.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176492-1.jpg
  • A models in an apricot-colored designer dress is backstage at a fashion show. Beijing has become a modern day fashion capital of the country.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176480-7.jpg
  • A waitress stands at the door during a fashion show.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176479.jpg
  • Young workers at a rising web company sponsoring the Olympic Games collect tchotchke or trinkets to decorate their computer screens, desks and cubicles.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176446.jpg
  • A bride checks out a dining room for her reception while a server looks back at the open door.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176438.jpg
  • A bride checks her earring in a mirror while she prepares for her wedding.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176434.JPG
  • From comfortable plush seats, young people watch the entertainment of a stage show including singing and dancing at the Shanghai Orient Rome Holiday Hotel.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176399-4.jpg
  • A woman in a green gown sits in an darkene, empty corridoriIn an over-the-top, exotic spa, massage parlor, and hotel in the Suzhou Creek area of Shanghai. On another floor, men walk from the locker room through an aquarium tunnel filled with sharks and other endangered species. <br />
From there they can play ping pong or watch a movie with their family in their bathrobes or meet their mistresses in a discreet room.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176399-3.jpg
  • Men watch dancers at a bar at a club in Shanghai that has a reputation for entertainment by Chinese mistresses.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176393-1.jpg
  • With food ready on the table, a woman sweeps the floor cleaning an apartment before dinner while her husband watches their young child.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176311.jpg
  • Fresh food items like crocodile and other meat are displayed on ice at the butchery department of Sam's Club.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176310.jpg
  • Men smoke and sip drinks at a flamboyant bar in south China that attracts new wealth. In the Baby Face Club in Guangzhou, the bartender sets up a stack of glasses, then pours a flaming liquid over the top to make one of the most popular drinks-a Flaming Lamborghini. <br />
<br />
China’s economic engine will change the world. The “Little Capitalist” class or ”Comfort Class” embraces Deng Xiaoping’s revolutionary proclamation, “To get rich is glorious.” <br />
<br />
After 50 years of pent up frustration and stoically weathering the worst social experiment in history—Mao’s Cultural Revolution—this class is ready to lead the charge for the most voracious consumption on the planet.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1143437-2.jpg
  • A  couple stand at a flamboyant bar in south China that attracts new wealth. In the Baby Face Club in Guangzhou, the bartender sets up a stack of glasses, then pours a flaming liquid over the top to make one of the most popular drinks-a Flaming Lamborghini. <br />
<br />
China’s economic engine will change the world. The “Little Capitalist” class or ”Comfort Class” embraces Deng Xiaoping’s revolutionary proclamation, “To get rich is glorious.” <br />
<br />
After 50 years of pent up frustration and stoically weathering the worst social experiment in history—Mao’s Cultural Revolution—this class is ready to lead the charge for the most voracious consumption on the planet.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1143437-1.jpg
  • A young girl is reflected in windows of the lobby of a modern apartment building.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176472.jpg
  • A dancer in green sparkles and fringe performs with a live snake at the Fun Ti Carnival Restaurant in Beijing. <br />
<br />
The dancers, wait staff, and performers are all migrant workers from Xinjiang Province in Northwest China. Migrant workers in China are mostly from impoverished regions who go to more urban and prosperous coastal regions in search of work. <br />
<br />
China has been experiencing the largest mass migration in history and people have left the countryside for the cities-perhaps 400 million people by 2025. Many are farmers and farm workers made obsolete by modern farming practices and factory workers who have been laid off from inefficient state-run factories.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176492.jpg
  • Passengers gaze out the windows of a bus in Shanghai. <br />
<br />
This easy migration of people from city to city is still hard for me to get used to. Seventeen years ago when I was traveling between Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, they all had a ring of policemen around them checking identity papers. I was in China trying to get through those rings of security during the Tiananmen Square uprising. I remember traveling with wire service photographers and driving through those checkpoints at 90 mph and seeing the policeman jump up and down on the dais—literally hopping mad—but there was nothing they could do because they did not have guns or radios. After being absent 17 years, I made (technically) five trips to China in about a one-year period. The growth is so fast paced I could feel the energy and the stress on the street. It makes you realize that our empire is over, but you can’t really understand that without being there. Even though the NYT has multiple stories, every day, on the growth and complexity of the Chinese economy, the average American has little idea what this means other than a fear that increased Chinese fuel consumption will somehow affect what they put in the tank of their SUV. Robert Frank photographed twentieth-century America, recording our coming of age—the baby boom, the start of television, car culture, modular housing, and relative wealth distributed throughout the middle class. His photographs are of progress, technology, plenty, but also the weary faces of waitresses and elevator operators who were desperately trying to join the economic party. Those 1950s faces remind me of a line in Leslie Chang’s story about modern China: “What looks like freedom just feels like pressure.”
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176403.jpg
  • Rachel shops for a new dress to go on an upcoming date. The fashion store called Thre3 is run by her friend on the Bund in Shanghai. Her dressing room opens into a stylish shop and the pod doors take two assistants to close. The green frock has a $2,200 price tag.<br />
<br />
The number of women entrepreneurs in China is growing. About three in ten businesses in China are women owned and, according to the All-China Women’s Federation, women account for one-quarter of total China-based entrepreneurs.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1143439.jpg
  • A fish tank separates patrons from the kitchen at a restaurant on East Nanjing Road, a busy shopping area in Shanghai.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176425.jpg
  • Models in designer clothing line up backstage at a fashion show. Beijing has become a modern day fashion capital of the country.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176480-6.jpg
  • Nubian king's tomb from the 25th dynasty. El-Kurru was one of the royal cemeteries used by the Nubian royal family. Egyptian empire began to decay in 1000BC and in 660BC Kingdom of Kush ruled an empire stretching from central Sudan to the borders of Palestine.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6998_745538.jpg
  • A Rapa Nui impresario takes a break at home with his family while waiting for tourists to arrive at his restaurant.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477019.JPG
  • Workers at the Senevisa shrimp processing factory wear uniforms and hairnets.<br />
<br />
The plant in Dakar processes 4.5 tons of shrimp a day brought in from artisanal fishermen. The local market consumes only three percent of the production of this plant.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7393_1057920.JPG
  • A worker in a hairnet and protective jacket is reflected in a Senevisa shrimp processing factory.<br />
<br />
The plant in Dakar processes 4.5 tons of shrimp a day brought in from artisanal fishermen. The local market consumes only three percent of the production of this plant.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7393_1057919.JPG
  • A  young boy poses beside a pallet of sharks in Vigo which has the largest biomass fish shipping port in the world.<br />
<br />
Sharks are down to 10% of historical populations and a large reason for that is an appetite for shark fin soup in China and other parts of Asia.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7393_1057882-1.JPG
  • The kitchen of a seafood restaurant in Hong Kong.<br />
<br />
According to WWF figures, Hong Kong has the second-highest per-capita seafood consumption in Asia, and is the world’s eighth-largest seafood consumer.<br />
<br />
Damaged by decades of human activity, Hong Kong’s rich marine ecosystem requires concerted conservation effort.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7393_1057975.JPG
  • A restaurant owner ties a bib on a customer before he enjoy his meal of lobster in Spain where fish is a large part of their diet.<br />
<br />
Olga has the best seafood restaurant in Galicia, Spain.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7393_1057952.JPG
  • Shark fins are sorted at a marine products export company.<br />
<br />
According to WWF figures, Hong Kong has the second-highest per-capita seafood consumption in Asia, and is the world’s eighth-largest seafood consumer.<br />
<br />
Damaged by decades of human activity, Hong Kong’s rich marine ecosystem requires concerted conservation effort to recover and flourish.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7393_1057841.JPG
  • Live reef fish in a tank at a Chinese seafood restaurant. Indonesian reefs are dynamited and cyanide is used to kill entire reefs of fish so a Chinese customer can point to a fish in an aquarium and say “I’d like that one for dinner.” <br />
<br />
Although believed to be the freshest available, fish are transported on a long journey in antibiotic soup to reach the restaurant. Black tip grouper, not threatened, swim in tanks in a Guangzhou restaurant near waiters and diners.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7393_1055383.JPG
  • A plastic company that makes household items with older injection molding equipment.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8515_2702709.jpg
  • After the church wedding, the bride and groom are escorted through the streets of town following musicians. They collected family members who carried food to the street blocked off for the party. <br />
Mexico's narrowest point is the Isthmus of Tehuantepec--flat, country where the Zapotec culture is still strong.  Women take leading role in business and government.  The Isthmus never became part of the Aztec Empire and resistance to the Spanish was strong in the mid-1500s.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187034-1.JPG
  • Lord of Sipan, important Moche burial site in Peru. The site was being looted but it was stopped and some tombs are restored with replicas to show what the graves looked like 1500 years ago. The treasure trove discovered included gold, silver, copper and semi-precious stones as well as hundreds of ceramic pots which contained food and drink for journey in the after life..  The Mochica leader was buried in all of this finery along with a warrior guard buried alive (with his feet cut off), three women, two assistants and a servant.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187667-1.JPG
  • Lord of Sipan, important Moche burial site in Peru. The site was being looted but it was stopped and some tombs are restored with replicas to show what the graves looked like 1500 years ago. The treasure trove discovered included gold, silver, copper and semi-precious stones as well as hundreds of ceramic pots which contained food and drink for journey in the after life..  The Mochica leader was buried in all of this finery along with a warrior guard buried alive (with his feet cut off), three women, two assistants and a servant.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187667.jpg
  • A Kwegu woman holds a baboon as a fertility custom.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7661_1306605_12.TIF
  • Shops have not opened yet in the early morning before mass-market jewelry artisanal factories. People start their day in the area where goldsmith's workshops are located in Kolkata.
    MM7339_20080515_03471.tif
  • Mass-market gold jewelry takes shape at a goldsmith's workshop in Kolkata.
    MM7339_20080515_03454.tif
  • Young girls in their finest dresses dance as the wedding party in the Khailino town hall that celebrated the first event in several years.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260983-6.TIF
  • Federal Immigration Service conducts a raid at a construction site.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7890_1386423.TIF
  • A robotic leg with electrodes monitors changes in muscle activity.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7890_1386431.TIF
  • Opera lessons at a nursing home.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7890_1386362.TIF
  • Elderly La Scala musicians in a nursing home.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7890_1386354-2.TIF
  • Elderly La Scala musicians in a nursing home.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7890_1386354.TIF
  • Mother with baby born at the Moscow Planning Center and Maternity Home.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7890_1386409.TIF
  • Maternity ward at Mulago Hospital in Kampala.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7890_1386319.TIF
  • The assistant post mistress at a post office.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114736.jpg
  • Bottles of maple syrup.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114734.jpg
  • Students making costumes for a party.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114535.jpg
  • Students dye their hair for a party.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114533.jpg
  • Music practice in the Ladino community of La Valle.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114524.jpg
  • A baker decorates a cookie with icing.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114499.jpg
  • Carnival mask made of wood.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114494.jpg
  • A couple samples pre-Prohibition brand Christian Moerlein beer at a craft brewery.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MT6872_1777186.jpg
  • The bar scene buzzes at Michael Symon's Roast, a James Beard Award-winning restaurant.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MT6613_1457275.jpg
  • The Opera House premiered in 1922, claiming to be the world's fifth largest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MT6613_1457246.jpg
  • The Guardian Building doorman admires the vaulted Art Deco ceiling.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MT6613_1457241.jpg
  • Chalkboard doodles decorate a wall above a woman at Astro Coffee.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MT6613_1457239.jpg
  • Guests at the Mediterranean Bistro, a wine and beer loft.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MT5959_1376350.jpg
  • A sculpture of a wrestler, created for the Los Angeles 1932 Olympics.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MT5959_1312346.jpg
  • Heirloom tomatoes support a blackboard listing the fare of the day.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MT5959_1312322.jpg
  • A man gently holds his great granddaughter in the living room of the Wyoming family ranch.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222896.jpg
  • A horse trainer faces a wild mustang and speaks softly approaching the wary horse.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_2737115.jpg
  • The matriarch of the family that contracts for wild horse round ups makes notes into her computer.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_2737081.jpg
  • Students work on clients hair and makeup to learn skills at Princess de Gales, a beauty school in Quito.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_2512706.jpg
  • A nun makes wafers for communion at Convento de Carmen Alto, a cloistered convent in the Colonial historic district of Quito.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_2512702.jpg
  • Morning prayers in the chapel bring a group of cloistered nuns together at Convento de Carmen Alto in Quito.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_2512696.jpg
  • A worker consoles a crying child at Casa Matilda, a non-profit safe house. The facility exists to help support women and their families in Quito who are in need of place to go if they are abused or threatened.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_2512693.jpg
  • A young boy draws on paper at Casa Matilda, a non-profit safe house. Outside the window of a room filled with stuffed animals, children play on swing sets and recreational equipment.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_2512692.jpg
  • Ecuadorian women weave toquilla straw Panama hats from the plaited leaves of a palm-like plant. The friends work together making hats that exported are exported. Hat-weaving evolved in the early to mid-1600s, became known in the early 1800s and more popular in the mid-19th century when miners of the California Gold Rush traveled to California. ThIs was followed by Theodore Roosevelt who was photographed wearing one in 1906 visiting the Panama Canal.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_2512681.jpg
  • A woman knits a pink bootie for a baby at Casa Matilda, a non-profit safe house. Women seeking refuge are given a place to sleep and eat, medical attention and help to relocate safely with their children.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_2512672.jpg
  • A city bus squeaks to a stop at a park in North Quito and riders crowd in filling empty seats. Talia, carefully coiffed and a fresh coat of lipstick, steadies herself to  ride a bus to Quito's historic district where she will join her friends on streets where transgender prostitutes are allowed to work.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_2512394.jpg
  • Cloistered nuns pray seven times a day and otherwise remain silent.  Contemplation is the most important thing in their lives. Santa Catalina Convent, the Monasterio de Santa Catalina was built in 1580 and enlarged in the 17th century. In the chapel, the 30 cloistered nuns come together who live secluded inside the convent.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187059.jpg
  • Mescal factory workers taking a lunch break.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187051.jpg
  • A military doctor provides medical care to woman in makeshift clinic.<br />
This is the outcome in troubled Chiapas, soldiers clash with local Zapatista rebels demanding more assistance from the federal government.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187036.jpg
  • A young Zapotec woman adorned in a flower wreath sits in the shadows during a wedding celebration in the Chagigo neighborhood of Juchitan. Wedding celebrations happen on weekends in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where traditional culture is strong.  Women take leading roles in business and government in the town with the population of approximately 70,000 people.  The Mexican Isthmus never became part of the Aztec Empire, as resistance to the Spanish was strong in the mid-1500s.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187035.jpg
  • Business men take a smoke and coffee break at an upscale coffee bar. Coffee shops are on every block in downtown Santiago where men catch a cup of coffee and maybe a kiss. Dressed in a short, red dress, the waitress works for substantial tips at Cafe Cousino or Coffee with Legs. She can make $800 a week by flirting, lighting cigarettes and serving coffee.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187026.jpg
  • On her 15th birthday, a Zapotec Indian girl in Juchitán attends communion at the Catholic church before her Quinceañera, which marks her passage from girlhood to womanhood. <br />
Dressed in her finest white dress and holding a bouquet of flowers, she kneels to light a candle.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187019.jpg
  • A driver's eyes are reflected in a rear view mirror.
    RANDY OLSON_RF4319_1155859.JPG
  • A grouping of female mannequins.
    RANDY OLSON_RF4319_1155847.JPG
  • A reef shark in a tank at a seafood restaurant.
    RANDY OLSON_RF4319_1155843.JPG
  • A boy resting in church.
    RANDY OLSON_RF4319_1114440.JPG
  • A boy getting dressed prior to a performance in Branson.
    RANDY OLSON_RF4319_1114309.JPG
  • A bottled water plant in Hollis, Maine, has reduced the plastic in its half-liter bottles by 62 percent since 1994.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8515_2703535.JPG
  • Boeing's plastics facility where ultra lightweight cabin assemblies are manufactured.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8515_2703533.JPG
  • The hull of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, constructed of carbon fiber–reinforced plastic and other composites, before electronics are assembled.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8515_2703530.JPG
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