m97 Gallery is pleased to announce "Disappearing Shanghai," a solo photography exhibition by American photographer and journalist Howard French. The exhibition runs from February 16 to March 21, 2008.

American journalist and photographer Howard French's "Disappearing Shanghai" series is an intimate journey through many of the forgotten lanes or Nong Tangs of Shanghai. Documenting the bustling back alleyways of the now highly-developed metropolis of Shanghai, Howard's black-and-white photographs offer a contemplation and reflection on the fading architecture of the old lanes and the people living in the shadow of Shanghai's modernization. As the Shanghai bureau chief for the New York Times, Howard has managed to capture intimate scenes of normal people and their lives in the old lanes of Shanghai, whose days are clearly numbered. As quoted in the New York Times, Howard says "Over and over again, I have been asked by the people of these neighborhoods what is my purpose in taking pictures of these lives? Am I trying to show a bad side of China? To make fun of poor people? I have no trouble answering, and my reply is effective more often than not because it is sincere. 'I take pictures in your neighborhood because there is something very beautiful about the lifestyle you have,' I say. 'Things may not be perfect, but there is a very special kind of community you have, and soon places like this will all be gone.'"

Howard W. French is a senior journalist for the New York Times and has been Shanghai Bureau Chief for the Times since 2003. He has won "the Publisher's Award" seven times and currently lives in Shanghai where he is also at work on his first novel. "Disappearing Shanghai" has been exhibited in Europe and North America and will be show in China for the first time.