Framing the soul of a city

Shanghai is known around the world for its incredible architecture, Muhs says. "However, our journey through the city, seeing the people behind the buildings and the things that often get overlooked, was just incredible for us. We wanted to capture that life, the true beauty of Shanghai," Muhs adds.

"These are pictures that touch your heart, pictures that make you smile, pictures that capture something unique about Shanghai. We want them to be unfiltered, authentic and not in any way enhanced."

Speaking of the things he loved about Shanghai, Muhs, who is a classical jazz enthusiast, says of the city's reputation as the "Asian hub of toe-tappin 'finger-snappin' jazz".

"You could walk down the street in Shanghai and it could be 1938 or 2008; you can see and hear an entire new generation swinging to the classics of an era in the heyday of jazz that is still very much alive," Muhs says.

"With the difficulty of COVID-19 right now, we are still seeing communities pull together and look after one another," Muhs says, adding that there has been an incredible response from media overseas, and on social media, and everyone is asking how the people of Shanghai are doing.

"We were rated five stars by Readers' Favorite, all celebrating the unity they were seeing," he adds. "And a little video we put together reminding everyone how great Shanghai is was picked up by The New York Times."