Sheraz Aziz Baloch began experimenting with photography at the age of 14 in his hometown of Karachi, Pakistan. A move to Nanjing in 2009 and, later, Shanghai, where he currently resides, only amplified his passion for the art – something the young Pakistani (who holds a degree in aeronautical engineering) hopes to make into his full-time career one day.
Girl walking by a pile of trash in Xujiahui. Top: Silhouette of a man cycling in Jing'an.
An old lady at the Muslim Market.
Inspired by photography heavyweights such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Raghu Rai, Josef Koudelka and Martin Parr, Baloch takes the tired tradition of street photography and revitalizes it with shots of urban lives and people treading the same ground day in, day out – so much so that he can hardly be considered a street photographer at all. He is a fleeting portraitist, capturing the transmuted beauty that attends old age, as well as honest, ordinary glances of Shanghai.
An old man smoking in Jing'an Park.
A beggar at the Muslim market on Changde Lu.
“I’m mostly drawn to humans and their relation to their surroundings,” Baloch says. “The daily recounts of people living in urban jungles, their stories and expressions, are what fascinates me. China is a great place for that – it has some of the most photogenic cities I have ever seen, and people don’t really mind getting photographed. As for the elderly people in my photos, well, I find them incredibly friendly. They love interacting with you, and most of them have great tales to share. From a technical perspective, the features on their faces are fantastic: more prominent than young people, more defined.”
A worker on a construction site in Xujiahui.
A woman peeking out of her house by Shanghai Railway Station.
Baloch often interacts with his subjects, trying to find perfectly candid Baloch often interacts with his subjects, trying to find perfectly candid moments – what Cartier-Bresson termed ‘The Decisive Moment’ – to snap them with his camera, a Nikon J1 with a 35mm lens or, sometimes, his Samsung S5 phone. “Most times I just shoot on P mode with shutter speed on manual settings,” he says. “My main focus is to capture those magic instants – they can be very powerful but once they are gone you might never have them again.”
Cyclists on an empty road in Jing'an.
A kid stares at mannequins by the Jade Buddha Temple.
Last year, Baloch’s work was recognized in an amateur photography competition for the charity event Shanghai Souls, where his picture ‘Lady in the Alleyway’ was awarded the first prize. The promising artist is only looking ahead now. “Photography helps me connect with people,” he says. “It is almost therapeutic.”
A guard in Pudong.
The images he shared for this photo essay are just some samples of his work – glimpses of strangers that are palpably familiar, forthright nods to moments of China life that usually pass us by in our haste.
Check out more of Baloch’s work on Instagram, @shzblch.
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