Upper West Side, Manhattan / If you could go to anywhere in the world and spend a month, where would it be?

I was sitting on a bench, waiting for a friend to take a walk an autumn walk through Central Park, when my next interviewee came up to ask if I could take a photo of her with her camera. She had just moved to New York last week. Another things that I love about New York, but also scares me about New York is that no matter how new you think you are to the city, there are many more people even newer...

© Jasmin Chang 2011

Question: If you could go to anywhere in the world and spend a month, where would it be?

Answer: Up next for me is Costa Rica, for the nature, the parks and the natural beauty.

Question: What will you be doing for the new year?

Chelsea, Manhattan / What event has most influenced you in choosing the career you have now?

Another favorite thing about this city...dogs are everywhere! And I LOVE dogs! I struck up a conversation with my next interviewee over her very sweet papillon, Tufani.  

© Jasmin Chang 2011

Question: What event has most influenced you in choosing the career you have now?

Answer: I'm a lawyer now. When I was little, I wanted to be an artist. My parents wanted me to get a profession. Parents  hammer into you that you need a practical career. So, my artistic career got swapped for a legal career, which I've been doing for 28 years. Intellectual property law is very tedious, but it's a way to get into the more creative. 

Question: If you could go anywhere in the world and spend a month, where would it be?

Manhattan, NYC (Chelsea) / Which mangoes are the best?

Another favorite thing of living in New York is being able to see a TON of photography, to hear lots of artists talk about their own work. It almost feels like I'm back in college, but I get to pick the lectures and events I want to go to and they are all exactly what I find interesting. It was on the way to PDN Photoplus, that I met my next interviewee. On the three long empty blocks between getting off the subway and getting to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, we started chatting because we were obviously headed toward the same event.

© Jasmin Chang 2011

Question: Which mangoes are the best?

Answer: Julie mangoes. Regular mangoes are very stringy and I don't really like that texture. Julie mangoes are my favorite. There are lots of different types of mangoes, especially in Jamaica, but my favorite is definitely a Julie mango.

Question: What event has most influenced you in choosing the career you have now?

Park Slope, Brooklyn / Where in the world would you like to go to visit? Where are you curious about?

It's the LA freeway driving talking in me, but I've been continually amazed at how walkable New York City is. If it takes the same amount of time to walk somewhere versus take public transportation, I'll always walk. I walked so much the first few weeks here that three pairs of shoes, on three simultaneous days, completely self-destructed and broke as I was walking home. So, my friend Julia suggested I buy a pair of white hi top Converse, my first pair ever! A few days later, as I was walking around in Park Slope, I stopped at a stoop sale, and my next interviewee called out that I had the cleanest Converse that he's ever seen, that he used to wear converse in the 80s and his were always tie-dyed and completely marked up with Sharpie.

**
© Jasmin Chang 2011

Answer: What an easy question! I would want to go to Machu Picchu in Peru. I would want to go to Sydney, Australia. I would want to go to Egypt to see the pyramids. Those things are on my bucket list. I've already been to the Northern Lights, Glacier National Park and seen pyramids in Mexico (which I really liked, but I want to see the ones in Egypt). I've been to Río Camuy Cave Park in Puerto Rico. They are the darkest, deepest underground caves. There are 20 mile deep caves, 40 mile deep caves and even 100 mile deep caves with stalactites and stalagmites. I've gotten to travel to all these places just by saving from one year to the next and when I have enough, I take a trip

Question: Which mangoes are the best? 

**The story about why these photos look like this...in April of last year, my friend and forever creative collaborator, Kaitlyn, visited me in L and she had two rolls of Kodachrome left. She gave me one roll, she took one roll and we went on a photo adventure. But, I didn't finish the roll till this fall, far after Dwayne's in Kansas (the world's last Kodachrome processing facility) stopped processing the film. Still eager to see what was on the roll, I took it to Print Space, who said they could experimentally process it as black & white film....and voila!


Here are a few more from that roll of film:

My friend, Kaitlyn!

Ravinia, IL / What are the most important things in life?

I visited Chicago at the end of the summer and went to the Ravinia Festival for the first time. I saw Yo Yo Ma who performed so incredibly amazingly. Chicago is an awesome city because it doesn't make me feel like I have to do a million things at once and I had the best Chicago day. I got a chocolate croissant and a cup of coffee (which they were giving out for free!) at Alliance Bakery and sat down to do some work. Then, I had a walk through the epic buildings of downtown Chicago (I really think Chicago has the most beautiful skyline in America) to the Metra station. On the train up to Ravinia, I met my walking talk interviewee who was on her way to the festival as well...


© Jasmin Chang 2011

Answer: Freedom is the most important. Freedom to see your friends. Freedom to think what you like. You don't have to live a cookie cutter life. You have freedom to live where you want, read what you want, love what you want, to think what you want, to have your own opinion. Basically, no limitations. You're going to have limitations with age, but I'd like to avoid it if I can afford it.

Question: Where in the world would you like to go to visit? Where are you curious about?

Stay tuned and get excited...the next Walking Talk moves to New York City!

Venice, CA / Do you like to sing?

I spent this past fourth of July hanging out around Venice Beach. Fourth of July two years ago marks pretty much the very beginning of this project which began on a post college roadtrip from Chicago to Jacksonville with my then roommate, Taylor. We spent the fourth of July at her family's beach house, where they've hosted an giant fourth of July party every year for the past few decades. It was epic and so delicious!

 

© Jasmin Chang 2011

 Answer: Actually, I would say I don't like to sing, but I like to talk. I like to speak. I just like listening to music. You know, music soothes the heart and soul. 

What's your favorite song right now?

I think something by Yanni. "Love is All." Yanni. Y-A-N-N-I. He's a good American singer and the song is "Love is All."

Question: What are the most important things in life?
 

Oceano, CA // What is your favorite aroma or smell?

Our road trip continued down the coast. We hiked in Big Sur and picnicked overlooking the ocean and then took a giant detour to our next stop, Pismo Beach. Apparently, there was a mudslide on PCH but despite there being signs for the past 100 miles telling us we would have to take a detour, there was never a sign saying...detour here! The road literally just ended with one roadblock sign in the middle of nowhere. So, we had to take a 3 hour loop all the way back up north through Monterey and then all the way back down, finally making it to Pismo Beach at 2 am, for a lovely dinner of Jack in the Box. So, a wise word of caution to future road trippers... the ocean can be beautiful and mesmerizing, but make sure you take the signs seriously!


© Jasmin Chang 2011



Answer: Lavender. The smell of lavender. It's relaxing and soothing. I plan on planting lavender when I rearrange my yard, so I can dry it and put it in little baggies. When you walk into Bed Bath and Beyond, it's the first thing you smell. At the farmer's market here, it's the first thing you smell. It draws you in because it's just so calming and soothing. My favorite smell used to be vanilla, but lavender has overruled it now. laughs


Question: Do you like to sing?

Napa, CA/What's the first thing you do in the morning when you open your eyes?

I went on a roadtrip down the California coast with a few of my best friends. Day one of our trip began at a winery in Napa and a picnic with wine, lots of cheeses and chocolate chili fudge. It was awesome because I've wanted to visit Napa ever since sixth grade when The Parent Trap, probably one of my favorite movies of all time, came out!


© Jasmin Chang 2011

Answer: The first thing I think of is, "I want to close my eyes and I don't want to wake up. I want to go back to sleep." Laughs. Every day I think that.

Question: What is your favorite aroma or smell?

I ask that because I was in Taipei just about two weeks ago. I grew up in Sydney, Australia and just for a minute, at sunset in Taipei, it smelled like a humid day in Sydney.

Venice, CA / Are you happy? If yes, why? If no, why?

I often go to the Bank of America in Venice for work and every time I go, I always look forward to seeing Magdiel, the attendant in their parking lot, who greets me with a big smile and an enthusiastic, "Hello Jasmin!" I've been hoping to interview him for The Walking Talk for some time now, and this just seemed like the perfect question for him.


© Jasmin Chang 2011

Answer: Of course, I am happy! I am happy to breath fresh air. I'm happy just to be alive.

There was a singer who sings this song... Celia Cruz. She sings, "Life is a carnival. It doesn't matter if you don't have any food, doesn't matter if you don't have any belongings, just be happy. Try to be happy. To be happy, you don't need many things. To be happy, you just need yourself. If you are not rich, if you are poor, enjoy the life cause it's a carnival."

It's the only time we have to celebrate, when we are alive.

Question: What's the first thing you do in the morning when you open your eyes?

Los Angeles, CA (Koreatown)/Would you marry someone of another race?

This is a very exciting post for me, because it has been a mighty long gap in the walking talk and I can't wait to get started again. Thanks to everyone who asked me what was going on with it, if I was still working on it, when they would see a new interview etc. Your encouragement seriously means a ton to me!

Last weekend, I visited photographer Noe Montes in his studio, met his adorable kids and talked some ideas.


© Jasmin Chang 2011

Answer: I have...yes. So the answer is yes and I hope everybody does, actually, so eventually there won't be any separation, but yes, absolutely, it's not an issue at all.

How did you meet your wife?

We met in Mesa, at a community college, in a photography class.

What ethnicity is she?

She's American. She's from the Hudson Bay so she's very white, very American. She's from New Jersey and her family's been there for a long time.

What European country is she originally from?

Actually, I think she's Polish originally, but like I said, they've been here for a long time. Her father actually followed up on a family tree a little bit, so they found out they were related to Henry Hudson, or one of those guys, one of those explorers, but very, very far back and before that her mom's family was from the Netherlands, but like I said, they've been American for generations so they're more American than anything.

Question: Are you happy? If yes, why? If no, why?