38-year-old David Lambert has been in Hangzhou for half a year. Over the past six months, he has taken about 5,000 photos of Hangzhou, a city of natural beauty with the West Lake surrounded by mountains on three sides in the center of the city. This explains why the city’s scenic highlights are among the 5,000 photos. In the eye of the Belgian, Hangzhou is a city of tranquility and peace, especially hospitable to people who want to enjoy life quietly. Now he is a teacher of an international school for children of the city’s international community.

He took to photography in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province in China’s southwest, in 2007, two years after he came to China. He left Belgium in order to see the world. He taught in a school in Chengdu and wanted to make a year book for the class he was teaching. He picked up a camera and began to learn everything about photography. And he fell in love with the art of keeping the past and the present in photographic memory.

“Chengdu is a typical Chinese city. I took to streets and photographed local residents I saw, for example, a poker player or a person cooking by the street,” says the photographer.

That’s how David Lambert became a street photographer in China. As soon as he settled down in Hangzhou, he began roaming the city and taking photos. He photographs people and objects which he calls “little beauties” such as a tree, a person, a bridge. In his first summer in Hangzhou, which was in 2019, he often got up at four in the morning to photograph the sunrise at the Fuxing Bridge, the fourth bridge that crosses the Qiantang River.

Lambert believes a street photo becomes vivid if there are people in it. To photograph the right people at the right time, he often needs to wait for a special moment. His patience has paid off. And he has taken many very good photos with people in it.

He has a camera with him wherever he goes in order not to miss anything interesting. On China’s National Day in 2019, he took his family to visit the Thunder Peak Pagoda, a stories scenic sight on the West Lake in Hangzhou. There were too many tourists waiting to get into the scenic venue. So he changed his mind. They went to visit the Jingci Temple across the street. It was in the compound of the Buddhist temple that he looked at the pagoda and found an extremely fascinating viewpoint to photograph the pagoda. He clicked and took many photos. 

A very dramatic series of photos David Lambert took in Hangzhou was created with the assistance of a clown of the Cirque Du Soleil, one of the most famous circuses in the world. The Canadian entertainment company presents regular shows in Hangzhou, one of the four cities across the world where the circus stages resident shows. Photos in this series were taken at a residential community at the foot of Phoenix Hill, which housed the Forbidden City of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). Many of the lanes and houses there remain untouched by modernization. A clown in the European style looked out of place in the community and gave rise to many hilarious interactive moments.

Caroline, David Lambert’s 10-year-old daughter, has picked up her father’s hobby. She now uses the camera her father used a few years back. David Lambert hopes she will enjoy the fun of taking photos and finding beautiful moments in everyday life.

“I will keep photographing Hangzhou and capturing more beautiful moments of the city,” says David Lambert.

        对于比利时人大卫来说，发现身边的“小美好”比什么都开心，比如一棵树，一个人，一座桥……夏天的时候，他经常凌晨4点多起来，去钱塘江边拍四桥的日出。

        大卫·兰伯特，38岁的比利时人，来杭州生活已有半年。半年时间里，他给杭州拍了5000多张照片。雷峰塔、集贤亭、梵天寺、虎玉路、云栖竹径……还有不少杭州人的市井生活，都留在了大卫的相册里。

        在大卫眼里，杭州是个宁静的宜居城市。早起出去遛个弯，拍个照，再给老婆孩子带个早餐回来，对他来说，是件特别幸福的事情。

发现身边的小美好

        “我离开比利时，就是为了看看欧洲以外的世界。”结果，2005年，大卫来到中国后，就爱上了这个国度，从此在中国工作、生活，“我在中国的这些年，基本上每两年才回一次比利时，也就是在假期的时候，回去看看自己的家人。”去年，他定居杭州，目前是杭州某外籍人员子女学校的一名老师。

        2007年前后，因为要给所在的班级制作年鉴，大卫开始学着拍照片。谁知，拿起相机的他一发不可收拾，越拍越多，从此走上了摄影之路。

        大卫第一个任教的学校在成都。“成都是个中国味很浓的城市，我当时就经常跑到小街小巷里去拍当地人，比如打牌的人，在街边烧饭的人，等等。”到了杭州之后，他也一直在拍身边的事物，“因为我觉得身边就有很多美好的东西可以拍，也许就在你家门口。”

        对于大卫来说，发现身边的“小美好”比什么都开心，比如一棵树，一个人，一座桥……夏天的时候，他经常凌晨4点多起来，去钱塘江边拍四桥的日出，“日出前和日落后这两个时间段的色彩是非常好看的。”

        大卫觉得照片里面有人，就会更加生动，但是要拍到人，就需要等待，才能抓到最有情节的一瞬间。“比如在日落的时候，有一对情侣在江边接吻，他们旁边还有人牵着手走路，但是他们不会按照你的节奏来，你需要耐心等待那一刻的发生。我想拍到人们自然的一面，让他们为画面加分。”

        大卫基本上每天都带着相机，“万一身边发生什么有趣的事情，我就可以马上拍下来。”有一年中国国庆节，他带着家人去雷峰塔，结果排队的人太多，所以后来改去了对面的净慈寺，“从净慈寺里的角度看雷峰塔真的是太奇妙了，就像有一个浑然天成的画框一样！”当然，大卫用相机记录了那个画面。

有意思的小丑创意照

        有一阵，太阳马戏团的小丑来杭州表演，大卫拉着小丑在大资福庙前和凤凰山脚路那一带跟那边的居民拍了很多有意思的照片，“比如街上骑三轮车的师傅，还跟一个睡着的大爷照了一张。”

        这是大卫自己的创意。在他看来，凤凰山脚路一带有很多老房子，一个欧美元素色彩浓重的小丑进入到那么传统的中国老城区，本身就是一种视觉冲突。大卫让小丑混入人群，去参与居民的活动或者模仿他们的动作，然后拍下戏剧性的一幕。“每一张都能讲一个故事。”大卫至今提起仍津津乐道。

        小丑系列中，有一张照片让大卫颇为得意，那是他在宋城路口那个公交车站拍的。“当时一个老大伯正在车站等车，他时不时会抬头看站牌上的信息。我从取景器里看了一下画面，发现老大伯在站牌的左边，如果小丑在右边做一个镜像的模仿，会很有意思。”于是，他让小丑的扮演者亚当站到站牌的另一边模仿老大伯的动作，就在老大伯第二次抬头看站牌的时候，他赶紧让亚当看站牌，然后马上按下快门，就有了这样一张有意思的照片。

        大卫10岁的女儿卡罗琳也受爸爸的影响，爱上了拍照片。大卫把他前几年用过的相机送给了女儿，希望她也可以享受摄影的乐趣。

        “我要一直拍下去，去发现更美的杭州。”大卫说。