During a trip to London, an idea emerged during a meeting with Marco Cappati of Fowa: to develop a series of DZO lenses (based on the Arles T1.4 VV/FF lenses) in collaboration with Collettivo Chiaroscuro. This led to an invitation to China for the Collettivo and a sponsored trip by Godox for a delegation of five members, all part of the board: Timoty Aliprandi, Alessandro Chiodo, Luca Ciuti, Stefano Paradiso, and Sara Purgatorio. The lens development project came to fruition as part of a broader exchange with the companies Dzofilm, Godox, SmallRig and Vaxis. Beyond the technical and professional enrichment, the experience proved to be an important human journey. We are publishing the reflections on this trip from each of the five CCS “envoys”.
Read also:
Timoty Aliprandi CCS, Small, Valuable Lessons
Luca Ciuti CCS, Breaking Down Prejudices
Stefano Paradiso, Dzofilm, Godox, SmallRig e Vaxis
Sara Purgatorio CCS, A Country That Listens
China reached out to us, welcomed us, invited us to see its reality, its truth with our own eyes. Was it marketing? Most likely, it was the desire to show the world that they know how to do things – and how to do them well. I joined blindly, at the very last minute, like jumping on a plane without knowing where it would take you. I hadn’t read the programme, I hadn’t even tried to form an idea. I liked the idea of being a blank sheet of paper, free of expectations, and letting the course of events draw the picture.
A professional trip? More like a journey of discovery into a new world. “We’re going to visit factories” – that was the premise. Lenses, lights, accessories. Often, when travelling for leisure, we only see the façades, never the productive heart of a place. We all carry this image of the Chinese as tireless, industrious people building an empire. And in a way, that’s exactly what we saw.
The first stop, after 14 hours of flight, was Chengdu (the city of pandas), visited during a layover while we waited for our final flight at 6 a.m. We had around six hours to kill. Faced with the choice of seeing pandas in the rain or enjoying a proper breakfast in a traditional neighbourhood, we didn’t hesitate – being food lovers, we chose the latter. In our highly efficient way, we flagged down three taxis: a wife, her husband… and Nosferatu. Yes, their friend, whose fingernails were so long they could strike fear into anyone.
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Chengdu 2025. Photo Stefano Paradiso
Travelling as a group of 11 is never easy, but before we knew it, we were in the city centre just as it was beginning to wake up. More than curiosity, it was hunger that guided us – drawn by a cloud of steam rising from a roadside stall, buzzing with people stopping by. We invited our new taxi family to join us for breakfast – they had pretty much adopted us by then – and happily took on the role of impromptu guides.
And there we were, sheltered from the rain, perched on rickety stools, stuffing ourselves with the local breakfast. The names were impossible to grasp: soft white buns, tea-soaked brown eggs, puffed-up fried bread, and many other unpronounceable but delicious treats. In general, everything was savoury or just mildly sweet – but never sugary.
Our first encounter with China was through food, and in truth, food remained the thread running through the entire trip. Business, as they say, is done around the table – and it was no different here. I’ve lingered on these details because, right from the start, I felt a sense of welcome, of a China that had changed. A China that eats at every hour of the day and night – a sign of a place teeming with life.
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Chengdu 2025. Photo Stefano Paradiso
“Silent” metropolises – no combustion engines, no printed newspapers, no cash. A city from the near future. Everything runs through your phone, via a single app: taxis, maps, payments, contacts. Even those asking for spare change do so with a QR code. We had finally arrived in Shenzhen.
My old memory of China – the dirty, noisy, chaotic Beijing of 15 years ago – was replaced by what felt like a Chinese New York: blue skies, clean air, spotless streets, and thousands of people zipping through the districts on electric bikes, between parks, vast green spaces, and concrete structures that seem to rise overnight.
A constantly monitored city, where from the moment you enter, your face is scanned and you become a number. It’s said that thanks to the system of hundreds of thousands of surveillance cameras, it takes no more than 15 minutes to identify and locate anyone if needed. Slightly unsettling.
The city’s layout is not “Roman” – not circular – but more like a basket of eggs spread along the coast, where 25 million people move at high speed. An electric taxi ride from one end of the city to the other takes about 40 to 50 minutes and costs 25 renminbi (around 3 euros).
Each district has its own strengths and characteristics. There’s an area entirely dedicated to technology, where you can walk for over half an hour surrounded by multi-storey malls and shops offering tech of every kind – from the most basic to the cutting-edge. I had never seen such a quantity of products in one place.
In the end, we had to buy an extra suitcase just to bring home a few Chinese souvenirs.
The schedule was packed. Up early and straight into the headquarters of a lens manufacturer. I won’t go through every supplier we met — for brevity’s sake — but I do want to dwell on one in particular that stood out: DZO. Among all, they distinguished themselves for their warmth, humility, and professionalism. A cultural exchange that, although brief, was dense and enriching.
The factory, with a slightly worn exterior, is located in an industrial zone of the city — a five-storey building of at least 2,000 square metres. Inside: a wealth of technology, meticulous attention to detail, obsessive quality control, and countless small extractor booths regulating entry into “sterile” rooms we couldn’t always access for fear of dust contamination.
Roughly 70% (if not more) of the workforce were women. When I asked why, I was told — whether seriously or half-joking — that the “gentler sex” is more precise, and perhaps more patient. I didn’t probe further.
Once the standard tour was over, it was already lunchtime — a ritual that repeated daily with each supplier. We’d be welcomed with a smile by courteous hostesses, while a few robots zipped down corridors, slipping in and out of private dining rooms with — naturally — round tables. It felt almost like being in a hotel.
On entering, we were greeted in a sort of reception area — the restaurant’s calling card, so to speak — filled with aquariums teeming with fish and shellfish on full display. Yes, seafood mustn’t have been out of the water for more than 8 hours. It must be extremely fresh.
The round table could seat around 20 people. A central rotating disc would slowly fill with dish after dish: meat, fish, vegetables — a real feast. One dish stood out: the “swim bladder” — apparently the little balloon that allows certain fish to control buoyancy is considered a delicacy. The sweet-crusted duck (a bit like our porchetta) was another highlight. Meals lasted at least two hours.
But beyond the culinary spectacle, it was a true roundtable: a moment of exchange and connection, where we introduced ourselves and the Collettivo, followed by cultural conversation, mutual questions, and genuine interest.
The afternoon was back at the company: often a formal presentation of their product line, and a brief history of the brand. Finally, a hands-on session, where they paid great attention to our feedback — actively sought out, welcomed, and genuinely appreciated.
At DZO, we had the privilege of collaborating on the creation of a new lens series. More than the lens itself, our input was about shaping a unique “character” — a European touch in the coating, blending two spirits: warmth and coolness, technology and culture. The result? A beautiful skin tone.
Shenzhen 2025. Photo Stefano Paradiso
Overall, it was a truly unexpected tour. The only outing we had was to a neighbourhood rebuilt in traditional style – a tourist attraction where you could dress up and have your makeup done in period costume, then wander around taking selfies, a bit like being handed a gladiator costume and sword at the Colosseum. During those two hours of sightseeing, it honestly felt like we were the tourist attraction – people stopped us, asked for selfies with us, the only bearded Westerners in sight.
“So, what’s the plan tonight? Shall we go eat Chinese?” The group was a riot. We met so many professionals with different backgrounds and stories, all captivated – each in their own way – by a world that turned out to be much closer than we’d imagined.
It was a collective journey in every sense of the word. A moment that truly brought association members closer to distributors and suppliers – like climbing back up the slippery slope of a relationship that often feels too distant.
I thank Chiaroscuro for this opportunity, and Marco Cappati for embodying the spirit of the Collettivo. And thanks to Stefano Paradiso, who lent me one of the six Leicas he had painstakingly brought with him – I felt like a cinematographer again!
China is close. China is ahead. That’s what I said when I got back home.
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Shenzhen 2025. Black-and-white photos by Alessandro Chiodo, colour photos by Stefano Paradiso
