Nostalgia in the City: Snapshots of Shanghai in the Booming ’90s

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Shanghai in the 1990s is the subject of much nostalgic yearning. A new photography exhibition transports viewers back to this most consequential period of the city’s — and country’s — history. In 1990, when Dutch photographer Robert van der Hilst was dispatched to Shanghai for the first time by Vogue magazine, he was surprised by the city’s relaxed and unique charm: people in pajamas chatted on the sidewalk with a cup of morning tea; the sick and elderly congregated in parks for their daily dose of sunshine and fresh air, IV drips in tow; young, cosmopolitan urbanites flocked to disco dancehalls. Over 30 years later, the now 84-year-old van der Hilst is showcasing the photographs he took during seven visits to the city in the early 1990s. The resulting exhibition, “Shanghai: Time & Timeless 1990–1993,” runs until Nov. 3 at Fotografiska Shanghai. “(Vogue) [gave] me carte blanche, which means, ‘You go to the city of Shanghai, you do your photography, and that’s al ………………………………