Hong Kong

Kowloon, May 2009:

This is a tribute to Hong Kong.
I have been to almost every Asian capital, including Singapore, Beijing, Bangkok, Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, Phnom Penh, Manila, Kuala Lumpur. I have also travelled cities like Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dalian and many others. The only place I have never been to is South Asia, i.e. India.
For me, Hong Kong is the most beautiful metropolis in Asia and always worth a visit!

Hong Kong has almost everything of everything. In many aspects, it’s more (traditional) Chinese than most places in China, but also has a large Asian International community which makes it very cosmopolitan and sophisticated. Hong Kong also has a unique style of architecture, basically a cluster of super modern skyscrapers, run down high rise flats, street markets, shopping malls, huge advertising spaces, and most of all people, people people…!
Set into mountains over the sea, Hong Kong also has the perfect combination of “shanshui” (mountains & water) which is essential for the harmony of the Chinese “fengshui” (wind & water). Watching the skyline beneath the hills and across Hong Kong Bay from Kowloon, it’s an amazing sight!

Hong Kong offers plenty of photographic opportunities. The density of buildings and the sheer number of people is challenging, though. The above shot was taken with a HOLGA toy camera, using Kodak Portra 400VC film.

Saigon

In July I went to Vietnam for two days. Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) was till pretty much what I remembered from 2004 when my wife and I spend our honeymoon there. It’s a beautiful city, small compared to some other Asian metropolis but still the most vibrant place in Vietnam.
The city is dominated by the Saigon River and the old architecture which is a mix of French colonial building, Art Deko, and of course the concrete of the sixties and the seventies. The people still seem to be stuck between modernity and tradition which might have to do with the fact that many farmers come into town every day to sell their crop on the street. This is why amongst all the modern cars, scooters and smart dressed people you still see a lot of the traditional cone hats which are so typical for Vietnam.
The architecture and the people are wht give Saigon its uniqueness and special flair. The downtown are is not that big so it makes sense just to walk around and let the impressions sink in. The way will take you along the central squares, the war museum (lots of nasty American weapons displayed), parks, French villas, hotels with big names, all in an atmosphere that makes you feel like being in another era.

For the photographer Saigon is heaven since the (friendly) people and the historical backdrop make it easy to find what you are looking for. It’s hard to escape the stereotype but who cares…

All images were taken with a Leica M6 on Kodak BW400CN film.

speechless

Taipei, June 2009:

Sometimes we go to a place and it leaves absolutely no impression. This is what happened to me when I went to Taipei/Taiwan in May and in June 2009. On each trip I spent a few days in Taiwan’s capital. Everytime I brought my Leica in order to catch some of the things that would catch my imagination.

It just did not happen. My hotel was in a suburb of Taipei. There wasn’t anything that seemed to be particularly typical Taiwanese. Not even typical Chinese to my eyes. Taipei seemed to be a accumulation of characterless buildings and streets. Nothing that caught my eye, nothing that I found at least a little inspiring. To me Taipei looked like a mixture of Tokyo, Seoul, and Kuala Lumpur, neither here nor there. After two fruitless trips I just took a picture of my taxi driver. That’s it!

I am sure this is not fair and I welcome every Taiwanese to tell me where the interesting spots are, with character and atmosphere, typical Taiwanese. I am sure they are there, I just couldn’t find them… ;-o

Tokyo: order vs. chaos?

Downtown Tokyo: April 2009

In April 2009 I visited Tokyo for the first time in my life. I had never been to Japan and I was really looking forward to it.
I think most people who visit Japan for the first time are probably a bit disappointed at first glance. Tokyo has very little of the traditional Japan. Having been to most Asian capitals like Beijing, Seoul, Taipei, Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Saigon, and other major Asian cities, to me this seemed to be the prototype of all Asian city planners. It’s the cleanest city I’ve ever seen (even beating Singapore or Zurich!), and so orderly and organized, it’s almost scary. Unlike my Chinese experience, everyone is polite, leaves you space to breathe, and neither steps onto your feet nor bumps into you without apologizing. How nice!
Whatever there must have been of traditional buildings, must have been whipped out either by American fire bombs during WWII, or by Japanese bulldozers afterwards. Tokyo seems to be the most modern looking city I’ve ever seen.

However, said that, on second glance there is this element of chaos which seems to be lurking beneath all the orderliness, tidiness and cleanliness. The Japanese seem to have found a way to quietly protest against this boredom of order by adding little, almost invisible details of rebellion.

I found these in details on the street like this arrangement of tree/sign/bike along the most busy and expensive shopping street of Tokyo.

Another way of resisting the overwhelming pressure to conform with the mainstream is the fashion. Young people in Tokyo love to add details to their appearance which first surprise and irritate you, before you start to appreciate and admire their style which defies all standards of fashion and sets something typical Japanese.

The individualism of Japanese youth and their way of dressing is so profoundly Japanese and Asian that they were able to set their own fashion standards, different from the American/European fashion mainstream. Not surprising for a country that has a long history of design and aesthetics in everyday life. For me, the Japanese have a sense for shapes and composition that is not even matched by the Germans or Italians. No wonder they are also great in photography!
Walking around taking images in central Tokyo was great fun and I hope I will have the chance to go back next year. My HOLGA camera was the perfect tool to express what I saw and felt in Tokyo: the constant struggle between perfect order and anarchy!

bali beach encounter

Bali, April 2009

This image was taken during a week’s holiday in Bali in April 2009. The guy was one of our scuba-diving guides. Everyone was very cheerful and friendly. Bali is a wonderful place with friendly people and it is very easy to photograph.
The photograph was taken with a hasselblad 500cm and a 60mm wide angle lens on TMX400 film. I like the light you get at a beach. The sun is very bright but the indirect light is filtered by palm trees. The fact that the sand in Bali is (volcanic) black and therefor doesn’t reflect as much as white sand also contributes to the lighting conditions.

The overexposed sky first seemed to be a problem. Viewing the end result i find that it actually provides a nice white backdrop for the portrait.

the boxer

Two weeks ago I was in Bangkok again. There was some free time so I decided to go to the area where I had stayed as a backpacker, back in 1992 (Yes, I am that old!). Strolling through the small alleys behind Kao San Road, I discovered a kickboxing hall where a foreigner was practicing with his Thai sparring partner. Lighting conditions were far from ideal and I only had my Leica with a 50mm lens. Not quite the stuff to take images of fast moving fighters.
However, a few shots came out quite nicely and reflect the dim and steamy atmosphere of the place quite well. Bangkok’s back alleys are fascinating, full of life and character.

Most of these shots I am converting into black & white. However, this one is doing great in color, too!

Morning S(e)oul

In Early December 2008 I spent a few days in Seoul. I left the hotel in the early morning taking images of Seoul when the streets are still empty people going to work. I love the light at dawn: Shadows are long and the contrasts are not yet as hard as in the midday light.

While I was standing in the street waiting for someone to walk by and complete the composition, an old man stepped out of an office building and offered me a cup of coffee. These are the things that make your image about a country and its people. Thank you, Korea!

going to work

Seoul, November 2008. Early in the morning I walked around the area of my hotel. It was cold but the atmosphere and the light were just beautiful.

The Maid

This is our maid Puji, together with our daughter Maya. Maids also run under “Nanny”, “Ama”, “housekeeper”, “domestic help” and other terms to describe what they are or what they do. Sometimes they work during the day, for a few hours or full time.

In rich Asian or Middle East countries (Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong etc.) they usually come from the poor neighboring countries like The Philippines, Indonesia, or Sri Lanka/India. They stay with you and are more or less part of the family, taking care of household and children.

Most of these women come from poor backgrounds and work abroad to support their families at home. That means they leave parents, husbands, children behind and stay with someone else’s family for two or more years. Most of the time they don’t see their relatives for a very long time and work on standby between 72 and 90 hours a week (6am to 8pm, six to seven days a week). The conditions they live in mostly depend on the legal protection in their host country and on the treatment they get from their employers.
As one might guess, in some places neither is very good. In the Middle east you often hear awful stories about abuse. Maids have to perform dangerous duties, are sometimes beaten and do not get the appropriate private space. In congested places like Hong Kong it is very common for maids to sleep on the kitchen floor, and even in our pampered Singapore maids regularly have to sleep in the children’s’ room, or in windowless storage rooms or bomb shelters inside their employers apartments. The pay is far below every local standard, regular fixed working hours don’t really exist or there is no control mechanism.
In today’s conditions, the local economies have more or less adapted to the availability of this kind of foreign labor. This means the cost of living is so high that most middle class families depend on a second income which means they need domestic helpers. Thus, the system feeds itself: Cheap foreign helpers create higher (double) family incomes which then lets prices soar. In the end you depend on the maid while there is no market for locals to work part time as cleaners, baby seats etc. Our family is no exception.

To be frank: I welcome the opportunity for foreign people to work in countries where they can make much more money than in their home countries. This means they can support their children, send them to better schools and improve their life. What I don’t like about it is the insufficient legal protection, the lack of regular working hours, and the poor pay compared to local standards. I think “equal pay for equal work” is something that should be achieved everywhere. In my opinion, the current system creates not only a master-servant mentality; it also leads to abuse and a chauvinistic view upon poorer countries and people. Not very healthy for a nation!

So, please, fellow Singaporeans, start to show a little bit more dignity and humanity and make rules that not only protect the maids from abuse but also create a legal environment without too many grey areas. Make it compulsory to provide every maid with a decent room and recreational time! Pay them a fair salary and treat them like employees, not like servants or temporary slaves! Teach your children that every human being has to be treated with respect and dignity and show them that their parents can cook and clean as well, in order to bring up children who will not depend on servants to tie their shoe laces for the rest of their lives!