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.

Photographers: Fernando Ocaña Fernández

Today I would like to talk about someone I have found on the popular internet photo platform “flickr”. I always find it amazing what kind of jewels I sometimes find amongst all the thousands of meaningless uploads.
“Byfer” (his “flickr” name) is a Spanish photographer from Madrid who specializes on portraits, mostly in black and white, MF analog, but also digital. He has a sensational feeling for light and expression. From the technical perspective I find everything flawless. I always wonder how people manage to get analog images that clean…the only other photographer I know who’s images are as clean is Michael Doerr (see link!).

I don’t want to talk too much about Fernando’s work because the images should speak for themselves. You can find them here!
For me this is another example how light, composition, and a feeling for the photographed subject can create something magical. Don’t miss it!

going home?

Cologne Cathedral & Train Station, 2008:

This week we will go to Germany and spend the summer holidays with my parents in Cologne/Germany. A lot of people ask me if I am “happy to go home?”.
“HOME”, what is that? I left Cologne about eight years ago. After that I spent two years in Singapore, then five years in Shanghai, and after a job change me and my family settled down in Singapore again in 2008. Even in Germany I have lived in different places, Cologne was just the last one. I go back maybe once or twice a year, usually only for a few days.
People tend to define you by the region/country/city that you come from. In the old days that would have been the place where you were born, where your family and childhood friends live. In Chinese that even translates to “Ancestral District”. But today people are on the move. We change jobs, cities, houses, even friends frequently. Even out parents move, so what remains of our childhood home? Just a fading memory? How shall we define ourselves in these times and how do we define the place that we call home without letting this term becoming an empty phrase for something like “temporary residence”?

As for myself, I have started to make home literarily “where my heart is”. That is my wife and my children. As long as I am together with them, I fell at home, and at peace with myself. Nevertheless I feel that every place on this planet where I have spent some time, where I felt attached, belongs to me and my life. In this respect there are many places that I could call home. Where ever we go, we leave a trace and that’s how it should be!

What to buy in August 2009

Russel Miller: Magnum 50 Years

In my last post I was talking about Eve Arnold being one of the most important members in the history of MAGNUM. I guess this is an opportunity to introduce a book that gives a good overview of the history, background and members of the world’s most famous photo agency.

Russel Miller’s work describes not only the way MAGNUM was founded by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa and George Roger in the 1950s. He also gives very good insight in the psychology and dynamics of the agency by describing the life and the photography of some of it’s most famous members, including Werner Bischof, Eve Arnold, Inge Morath, David Seymour, Josef Koudelka, Philip Jones Griffiths, and others.

Miller not only talks about the grandeur of the agency and all its achievements. He also describes the struggles, arguments, and crises that MAGNUM went through in its 50 years of history, almost almost being at the brink of collapse and bankruptcy. And it describes the way MAGNUM had to adjust to a world in which the still picture seems to have lost it’s position to the moving picture and TV coverage of world events.
MAGNUM stands for honesty and finding the truth in photo journalism. It was always a creation of it’s time, both catching and at the same time struggling with zeitgeist and the conflict between the freedom of art the commercial need of it’s members. A book definitely worth reading.

This edition can be purchased here!

What to buy in July 2009:

“Eve Arnold’s People”

Eve Arnold is one of the classics of MAGNUM – photography. She joined the agency in its first decade in the 1950s and has been one of the members that shaped MAGNUM and symbolized the spirit and the style of probably the most famous photo agency in history.
Eve Arnold has always been famous for her portraiture. Especially her images “on set” of Maryllin Monroe or her China images pop up when we think of her legacy. For me her style very much stands for an approach towards the subject that creates emotional depth by building up a relationship with the photographed person before shooting. especially her images taken on Hollywood film sets demonstrate this. Her intimate portraits of Hollywood actors are exceptional.

This volue is a compilation of Eve Arnold’s portrait photography. I had been looking for something like this for a long time. Most of her original books have not been published for a long time and could only be purchased on the art market for very high prices. This book is a good quality volume for an affordable price, always appreciated!

It can be purchased here!

beach

Singapore East Coast Beach, 2009:

Beach photography didn’t use to be my thing. I guess the reason was that I didn’t really live very close to any and never had the chance to go. I am also a person who was always driven to the mountains. When I was a child, my father took me to the Austrian and Italian Alps where we went mountain hiking. I always loved the breathtaking majestic of the mountains, while the sea seemed to be endlessly flat and boring, without much that could catch my eye or my imagination.

Well I am still not much of a beach fan. Going to the sea mostly means scuba diving which sometimes seems to the like visiting the underwater mountains…
However, since the children love the beach and we live on an island, sometimes there is just no way around it. And when it comes to outdoor people photography, I must admit that there is not much that beats a beach. The light is just amazing, you have a great background with beach, sky, sea, and people are generally in a good mood (especially children). The beach works for color but is also great for black & white. So I always enjoy going there with my family.

The only think that I don’t like is the sand which tries to get into every part of my camera gear…

ROMA

Today is one of these days when I would like to be in Italy… don’t ask me why!

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

What to buy in June 2009

Susan Sontag: On Photography

Two weeks ago I strolled through a local book store and found a discounted edition of Susan Sontag’s “On Photography”. Since this is an absolute classic, I did not hesitate to buy it.
Susan Sontag is one of America’s most acclaimed writers. Through her close association with America’s photographic scene, she not only managed to get a close insight into the work of some very famous artists; in 1973 she also published one of the most famous theoretical works about photography. Though already almost 40 years have gone bye, this little Penguin edition is still a very good way to approach photography from a theoretical point of view. Reading it it becomes very clear that the essence of photography can never be technical. The approach toward the image and the execution of the photographic act contains a sensual as well as a cultural implication.
In her essays Susan Sontag not only describes the development of photography during the last 100 years; she also points out how the perception of images and subjects changed through the ages. “When anything can be photographed and photography has destroyed the boundaries and definitions of art, a viewer can approach a photograph freely with no expectations of discovering what it means.”

This book doesn’t help you making better images. But it will help you understanding the way you behave towards the subject and it places you in a broader cultural and historical context of photography. A book that should not be missed!
Susan Sontag’s “On Photography” can be purchased here!
For Singapore Readers: I purchased the book at Kinokoniya book shop, Ngee An City.