When I first moved to Singapore in 2001, the city seemed to resemble a lot of what 21st century Asia is all about. Asia is a continent that looks to the future, the eyes fixed on everything new, pushing the wheels of development, growth, and modernity further and further.
Singapore is no exception. With its brand new skyscrapers build on claimed land and expanding the skyline into what once used to be the ocean, with its growing population and a constant influx of people, making it the second densely populated city in the world. There is little space for anything old. The remains of the past are either torn down to make space for something new, bigger, and more modern; or it is polished and becomes part of the nations heritage. Often these heritage places are so ‘over’ – renovated that they have lost most of its former charm. In modern Singapore there seems to be very little time and space for the past. Unless the past becomes part of the modern image of Singapore, or part of the cultural folklore, there is very little attention towards it. Therefore I started looking around for places and spaces that are not yet touched by modernity. Places that would show obvious signs of decay and desertedness, resembling times that are already gone but still visible in small corners of everyday life. In a city that tries to utilize every square inch of space for the demands of an ever-growing population and economy, this was not easy. However, during my years in Singapore I discovered more and more corners, buildings, places that not only showed the wear of time, but also gave me a feeling of history, of a past that is still connected to the present. These places might be hidden behind a fence, in the middle of a traffic island, inside a military zone, in a not-so-desirable neighbourhood, or in areas that are already part of the new city blue print. But they are still there waiting to be explored.


The historical “Capitol Theatre” inside Capitol Building along North Bridge Road has been closed for many years. Despite the government’s investments in arts and culture during recent years, the building is going to be transformed into another Hotel + Shopping Mall.


I always knew that along Lornie Road there were a few old Chinese grave sides. I used to see them sitting in the bus on the way to work. Nowadays everyone in Singapore gets cremated so I knew they were old. But when I came to the site and fought my way through the trees and bushes along the busy road, I discovered a full scale large Chinese cemetery with graves that were sometimes more than a hundred years old. Some were still being taken care of, some were completely overgrown by the jungle.


The Malaysian railway is one the last real remaining things from the time before Singaporean independence in 1965. The train station in Tanjong Pagar and the linking railtracks crossing to Malaysia are actually owned by the Malaysian government. Sadly, due to the ongoing rivalry between these two sister nations, not much has been done in order to improve the railway link between the two countries and all the great opportunities to build a more ecological and highly efficient high speed link beteween Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand have been wasted so far.
Along Bukit Timah Road there is a small path going up a slope, leading to the Bukit Timah railway station. I must have passed by a million times without knowing until the day I saw a small signboard leading up the trail. I do not think that any trains are still stopping here. However, the building is still manned with one or two people and there is a proper plattform, even though it looks a bit overgrown.

These are just a few examples of a growing collection. By the time this project will be finished, some will be gone, some places will be transformed into something new, and some will still be the same, withstanding the pressure of modernisation.

This year Nick Brandt published another book about Africa. The theme is pretty much the same as in his former book. But this time the format of the edition is larger, and I think they even went a step further in their choice of paper and print quality.
The result is another beautiful edition with breathtaking images. You open the book and every image lets you drop your jaws, literally! I am usually not very much into Nature Photography and would always prefer portraits of people over landscapes and especially pet photography. But these images show so much character and beauty that I didn’t hesitate a second before I purchased this book.

Surprisingly the volume is not even that expensive and can easily be purchased here. I strongly recommend this to everyone who appreciated good craft and the beauty of imaging!

Also, check out Nick Brandt’s website for examples of his images. I cannot show them here due to copyright reasons.

I am surprised that it was possible to take images with my Hasselblad and a Fuji Provia400x slide film. Fortunately, neon light is a superb source of lighting for photography!

Here are the images:

This was actually supposed to become a book…

In January 2009 I started a new project that with the (draft) name “Singapore Ink”. The background was a friendship with an old dive buddy of my wife’s who is running a tattoo shop in Singapore’s “Far East Plaza Shopping Mall”. ‘Jaws’, as he is known, is one of the most original and nicest people I know in Singapore. At times he looks a bit like a character from a Hong Kong gangster movie. He is tattooed all over his body and with his long hair and kinky beard he definitely stands out in a place like Singapore. Moreover, apart from having been a professional diver, fish farm owner etc., he is an excellent tattoo artist with a special reputation in town. This is what I wanted to portrait in my project.

Well, the book never materialized. But I managed to produce a number of images that I am quite happy with. And despite the fact that it not (yet) going to be published on paper, at least I can show parts of it online and I hope some people will appreciate it.

Even though the project was about Jaws the artist, the series of pictures was neither supposed to be about tattoos nor about Jaws as a person. What I wanted to portrait was the workshop and the process involved when creating tattoos. Tattoo shops have a special atmosphere. People walk inside with a certain attitude that makes them different from retailers that sell fashion, or for example hair dressers. Tattoos are something permanent and you put a lost of trust in the person who is going to work on your skin and change it forever. So who are these people and what makes us feel comfortable in their place?
The series starts with a number of images that show the daily routine in the shop. These black and white pictures are more like an introduction and were shot on 35mm film.

After the introduction, i.e text plus black and white images for illustration purposes, the ‘book’ starts with the main series of color ‘plates’. These were taken on 120 film with a Hasselblad 500CM and a Pentax 67 camera. The tattoo room was very small which made taking pictures everything but easy. For many angles I could not use my tripod since I was climbing onto chairs, crawling on the floor, or squeezing behind tattoo equipment. The lighting also brought a number of challenges. I used ASA 400 slide film which made it possible to shoot without tripod, but also lead to a green cast due to the existing working lights. I learned to appreciate the mood and atmosphere that came with it, though!

It’ s been a while since I recommended a book. It’s a shame because I had made this a monthly habit and I was always proud of the quality of the books I had in my blog. However, I have become more and more bored with what’s in the market. Actually it might even be a certain frustration with photography in general. For me photography means images of people. I like to look at landscapes and architecture, too, but for my own work I am mostly focused on portraits. This is what I am most fascinated in: human characters, behavior, emotions etc. Once I read something like: “A good portrait is when you manage to get someone interested in the image of a person he/she does not know”. So that’s what I am after: real people, real characters, real emotions, real life!

Frustratingly (for me): Nowadays most photography is not about real people anymore but about certain prototypes, stereotypes, ideals of beauty, whatever. Sometimes I have the impression that fashion photography has taken over and it’s all about creating artificial arrangements, and the people photographed play a certain role, something which has very little or nothing to do what they really are. I am looking at hundreds of images every week. When you do this you start seeing patterns, trends, styles that start repeating themselves. So, after the 1000th half (or completely) naked girl standing at a window with a melancholic look on her face (or alternatively lying on a bed), you start getting really really bored! The same applies to certain photo shop techniques, over-saturation/desaturation, high contrast, whatever. In our world of fashion, advertising, and model culture, straight forward portrait photography that tries to actually ‘portrait’ the subject, showing the inner self, literally seems to be “out of fashion”.

So today when I was walking into my favorite photo art bookshop in Singapore, I was positively surprised to see a new edition of Inge Morath’s work, in color.

For people who don’t know: Inge Morath was one of the first members of MAGNUM photo agency and is mostly famous for her black and white portraits of actors and other celebrities in the 1950s and 1960s. She belongs to that ‘leica generation’ of photo journalists who shaped our view of that era. The fact that she was married to Arthur Miller makes her even more interesting. So while I used to know her mainly for her b/w portrait work, this volume is actually a collection of color photographs she took during travels to Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and America. The images are mostly documentary and show people in their daily life, on the street, during festivals etc.

What attracted me to this book was

1. The colors. This book is A DREAM IN KODACHROME! Beautiful colors in the subtle tones that made this film so popular and typical for the 1950s – 1970s.

2. There s nothing pretentious about these images. They show real people in their real life. It’s like a window into an era that we only know in black and white and from old Hollywood movies.

I was amazed about the quality of the photographs, their sharpness and truthfulness of the colors. MAGNUM obviously did a good job in storing the negatives. There is no yellow or red touch to the pictures. They look as if they were taken yesterday which makes the experience even more fascinating and a joy to look at. And there is nothing “old” about the imaging, even though they are +50 years old. I am also not saying that back then was the “real” photography and today everything is fake. But apart from mainly Eastern European (especially Russian) photographers I find much of the new digital stuff very pretentious, commercial, more like action art than photography, and too much fashion orientated. Many portraits show stereotypes but not real characters I can identify myself with. Translating this into movies, I am afraid I am not the “Avatar” type but rather into character drama. Maybe I am getting older, too

As so many books I have recommended, this is on sales and be purchased here! The volume is beautifully published by MAGNUMSteidl and printed on paper that does the images the justice they deserve.

This is an image I took in January during my son’s birthday party. I was walking around with my Mamiya C330 looking for motives, mainly portraits. Then the baby feet caught my attention, especially in comparison to the mother’s. Baby feet have this chubbiness about them which actually make them great for art. No wonder baroque artist loved to sculpture, draw, and paint naked babies. With all the skin folds and round shapes they have a 3-dimensional quality that make them quite delicate.

Ha ha, I sound like a foot fetishist! Actually, when I posted this image on flickR yesterday, I was looking for the right categories. So I checked on “feet” in general. Wow, there are a lot of feet on flickR, and definately a lot of foot fetishists…

Anyway, feet as a motive for classic black & white photography is nothing new and it was interesting to have a start. Let’s see if there will be more opportunities.

As usual, this review is not going to be too technical. I am really most concerned with how a camera handles and how the images look that I produce. If there is a “fault” in the lens quality or whatever, I might even embrace it as something which makes the camera stand out. So I mainly focus on that. A more technical review can be found here!

As mentioned, the Mamiya C330 is a fully mechanical (you need an external light meter!) Twin Lens Reflex Medium Format camera (6×6). That means you focus through one lens while the shutter mechanism is in a second lens below. Thus, even though it is a “through the lens” operating system, you still have no moving mirror, hence no vibration and the camera is super silent.
The C330 is from the 1970s when this kind of system (with Rolleiflex leading the way since the pre war era) was still in use among professionals. What makes the C330 and her little sister C220 to stand apart from the rest are the option of exchangable lenses which is really unique for a twin reflex, and the possibility to get as close as 1-2cm to the object which gives it almost macro qualities (and that on 6×6!).

I am only using a 80mm lens. I never felt the need for a wider lens (I do that with my Hasselblad) and longer focal lengths than the “normal” range are not really my piece of cake either. So 80mm works just fine for me. However, the changing lens mechanism is very different from a SLR camera. The whole front needs to be unlocked by a switch of a wheel on the side. Then the lenses can be removed and exchanged for another focal length.

In earlier reviews I have stated that the brightness of the viewfinder is one of the most important things for me. With a dim and blurry viewfinder, composing and focusing becomes a nightmare. That’s why I love the Hasselblad V system.
The Mamiya viewfinder is not as bright, but considering the (low) price and especially compared to Yashikas, (old) Rolleiflexes, or even new Bronikas, the C330 is still acceptable. The slightly dim (especially in the corners) waist level viewfinder slows you down, though. So this is not a fast camera.

Saying that:
From the ergonomic point of view, the C330 is excellent. With a broad neck strap, the camera feels solid, calm and stable. The shutter speed and aperture are a little bit difficult to adjust but once they are set, you should just forget about them. After all, this is a camera for studio or still portrait, not for action.
The focusing wheel can be locked, just as the exposure button. This prevents you from accidentally pressing it. Actually there are two exposure buttons. One is at the same spot as you would guess for a TLR, on the right side just underneath the lens. The other one is on the right side, slightly higher and is to be pressed vertically down. This means it is exactly where the right thumb is placed and makes it possible to gently press it down with even less vibration. I love that button!

But now to the most important thing: The images!
The Mamiya lenses used on the C330 are not the same league as a Hasselblad or a leica 35mm lens. They are not as sharp, especially in the corners. Actually they soften everything up which makes them not very good for architecture or landscape. But, for Portrait, or even still life, I think they are absolutely marvelous:


These two images where both taken in natural light from the side through windows. The softening of the contrasts and a bokeh soft like butter really contributes to the atmosphere. With my Hasselblad the images would be much more contrasty and sharp which in this case I did not want.

The option of extending the lens horizontally makes it also possible to get really really close, without the need for a macro lens. This doesn’t make it a macro camera but gives the photographer a lot more options in terms of composition and themes.

This is an image from the staircase of our house in Shanghai where we used to live between 2005 and 2007. Again, the soft light and bokeh produced by the Mamiya lens really contributes to the overall atmosphere of the image!

Overall, the Mamiya is a camera that is not a cheap alternative to more expensive options. It is a system on its own with its special character. I think it’s a fantastic portrait and still life camera that can be used indoors on a tripod, but also outside around the neck. It’s easy to use, very solid and reliable, and with its optics it gives you the chance to produce beautiful soft bokeh images. And it’s an absolute bargain!