A heavily stylized paean to undoctored images, the movie never quite clicks as a succession of moving ones. Intermittently beautiful but frustratingly leaden, “Shutterbug” labors ineffectually to promote authenticity over artifice. The only suspense lies in wondering which one will beat him up first. Lured by flickering sightings of a lovely young woman, Alex searches for his muse in the vicinity of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway while the film coughs up a succession of “After Hours”-beholden characters to fill his reality-starved lens: a chatty rat catcher, a wheezing psychic, a creepy pimp peddling under-age treats. Inspired by Dante’s “Inferno” and Greek mythology (the writer and director, Minos Papas, was raised in Cyprus), “Shutterbug” invites us on a listless, photographic odyssey through a nighttime Manhattan populated by the usual human detritus. Such is the case with Alex Santiago (Nando Del Castillo, strongly recalling a young Peter Gallagher in looks if not acting skills), the dissatisfied fashion photographer at the heart of “Shutterbug.” Alex is the kind of narcissist who halts in the middle of a lovers’ tiff to take candid shots of his sputtering girlfriend were I her, he wouldn’t require the sun to make him see spots. "I will continue to capture their beauty as long as I am able to hold a camera and keep a vigilant eye on them," Yang said, adding that he will make it his life's mission to document this remarkable creature.They say you should never look directly into the sun unless you’re the star of a teeny-tiny indie and need an excuse to squint and experience visions. Today, pods of these captivating creatures can once again be observed leaping above the water's surface, allowing enthusiastic shutterbugs and local residents to marvel at their beauty. "This is a distinctive sight in the Yichang region and serves as evidence of the improved ecological environment in the Yangtze River basin," Yang said. By 2019, he was able to snap even more photos, including images of the porpoises skillfully catching fish near the riverbank. In 2017, Yang was fortunate enough to spot a finless porpoise after a long gap and capture a photo of it. However, significant measures have been implemented to reverse the fate of this species. Over the past few decades, there has been a substantial decrease in the finless porpoise population, primarily caused by overfishing and excessive human activity. I would frequently observe them trailing boats as they made their way down the river," Yang said, adding that as human activity increased, finless porpoises became rare along the Yichang section of the river. "I first encountered a finless porpoise as a teenager when there were far fewer boats on the Yangtze River. Over the last five years alone, the population of Yangtze finless porpoises has increased to 1,249, marking a rise of 23.4 percent.Ī long-time resident of Yichang, Yang has observed and captured the changes with his camera. In 2006, surveys began to collect vital data on this endangered species. The Yangtze finless porpoise is under top-level national protection in the country. The Yangtze finless porpoise, the namesake of China's longest river, is so connected to the Yangtze River that any change in the health of its environment can support or threaten its survival. As soon as one of them emerges from the water, I can tell which family it belongs to," Yang said. "I know this group of finless porpoises very well. Upon arrival, he patiently waits there for a pod of finless porpoises to emerge from the glistening water, hoping to capture their beauty through his lens.Īs a devoted admirer of the finless porpoise, this shutterbug has taken over 100,000 vivid photos of the endangered species in the past six years. Every day, Yang He, a 64-year-old photographer, wakes up in the wee hours and drives to the bank of the Yangtze River in the central Chinese city of Yichang.
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