Passing Dynasty II: Head On

Second and last frame of the series, walking straight at the lens. No glasses, nothing on my face but the freckles and four days of Beijing, the peonies nodding overhead with every step. The instruction was to look imperial. What the camera got is a tired researcher carrying a dynasty on her head with the expression of a woman who has carried heavier things.

I like this frame because it refuses to act. The costume performs, the street performs its blur, and the face just walks, keeping its own counsel, which is the only historically accurate part of the whole production: most people inside grand eras were exactly this unimpressed, being mainly busy.

Series over, silk returned, deposit recovered. In a few days I leave the capital. The hairpins left dents I wore for a day like a souvenir.