Framing the soul of a city

In the past 20 years, they have been collecting photographs of people from all over the world. In 2015, when their business was acquired by a larger company, they decided to put together a collection of photographs that "represented our journey of 13 years in a city we love so much".

Faces We Love－Shanghai consists of works from seven photographers, all of whom are foreign expats or tourists in the city, although some local Chinese professionals were involved in the preparation of photo shoots as well as the selection of photos.

Through the lenses of these photographers, viewers will see local people going about their daily routines, including parents who take care of their children while running a small eatery, elderly men having a doze on the street-corner, and the traveling kitchen knife sharpener, who carries all his equipment, singing his signature hawking song, through the city's neighborhoods.

Tarin, from Spain, who is one of the photographers and curators of the collection, made friends with one particular knife sharpener.

"Communicating only with smiles, nods and broken Mandarin turned into a 10-year friendship," Muhs says of Tarin's interactions with the tradesman.

"That neighborly sense of community is very special and we hope we captured it in this book," he says.