Fortunate & Blessed: Dawn Tang by John Mar Photo

'I'm so glad the Lunar New Year idea was brought up and I am loving the theme and the result as well!'

Dawn Tang

When it comes to holidays on FH, I'm always thinking ahead.  It takes awhile to find just the right images, and some planning if a photographer is shooting original imagery.   When I featured the work of photographer John Mar this past Christmas, (HERE:) I immediately starting thinking of  Lunar New Year. 

John's images of model Dawn Tang, especially in the second part of the shoot were so colorful and celebratory with Dawn decorated in  fashion and flowers, headpieces and jewels.  I knew the images would be perfect for January 22nd, and asked John if he had more from the series I might use for Lunar New Year. 

John indeed had other shots of Dawn from the shoot, but went even a step further.  He had recently completed a shoot with Tyler, a model and acrobat. John felt the images they captured, (which you can check on the NEXT PAGE HERE:) would fit in perfectly with the theme.  He also suggested a new shoot with Dawn to shoot specifically for the theme and the year of the rabbit.  Given the weather in California lately, it was a challenge scheduling, but John and Dawn were able to get together last weekend for the shoot.

'It was a rainy week and the storm hit CA really hard over the past few weeks and the fact that we were still able to make the shoot happen with floods and landslides, sink holes around. I felt fortunate and blessed. ' 有福有福'

Dawn

Dawn shares that for this shoot, there was a lot of collaboration with set up and ideas.  Given Dawn's Chinese himself, they incorporated the use of Chinese Characters in one of the themes, using body paint as calligraphy, painting on the characters for 2023.   Dawn loved the results, and enjoyed teaching John how to write each of the characters.  Beyond just the shoot, Dawn loved that the theme was also helping to spread his culture to those around him, as well viewers of FH. Speaking of sharing, I also asked Dawn about his own celebrations and family traditions. 

'As for our tradition in celebrating LNY as a Chinese family, we always have to have everybody sitting around the table, getting even extended family members together. We play mahjong, eat a lot of snacks with shell (i.e. shells left symbolizes you have leftovers, more than enough for the year), sweets, candies, and we also eat big meals with bones like fish and chicken, similar token as the shelled snacks so we have leftovers for the coming year. Leaving the leftovers until the next day indicate that we will be wealthy and have money left, more than enough for the next year.' 

 'We also give out red envelopes🧧with money inside to your younger ones and who those aren't married yet. It's seen as a gesture of blessing from those who are elder and married. Glutinous rice dumplings (i.e Tang Yuan) are something we eat after our main meal as desserts, they come in different fillings (i.e. black sesame, peanuts, red bean...) The round shape of it symbolized reunion and togetherness. We also have to clean and sweep the house a few nights before to welcome the New Year.'

Dawn Tang

John Mar on Instagram

John Mar on ModelMayhem