A Thinking Street Photography Site
There’s so much to see.
And street photography forces one to stop and be grateful.
We’re often framed by things we buy and sell.
There’s a tale of capitalism waiting to be told.
We give in to what we want.
Our appetites.
There’re always boxes to open.
Things to sell.
People to talk to.
There’s money to be made.
Conversations to have.
And there’s the wait.
Wholesome food.
Fabric of a city.
Camera: Leica M6
Lens: Voigtlander Nokton Classic 35mm 1.4 SC
Film: Kodak BW400CN
This is Ladies’ Market at Mongkok.
It’s a short stretch of market stalls popular with tourists and locals alike.
We were a bit early so we got to see the stalls being set up.
This is the ubiquitous red/white/blue canvas.
The material has been used to make awnings, bags, covers, etc.
It was a hot day.
The goods were arriving.
People were doing all these calculations.
Hong Kong, of course, is defined by numbers.
I was using my Olympus XA2.
The 35mm lens was great for tight situations.
I was worried about the shutter speed in the shade and hence was using the Fuji Superia 800 film.
The film has a “powdery” painterly effect sometimes.
Wonderful colours.
Seasoned tourist.
I like the (faux?) leather notebooks.
Hong Kong’s street markets are literally full of colours.
A bit of heartfelt advertising.
I especially like the above image because the slight blur as a result of the camera shake adds to the sense of urgency in the way we look.
A bit of effort.
For collectors: open-edition prints are available at my Saatchi Art page.
Again we choose.
We decide.
We look.
Hmm…
That one! Yes!
This is the season.
We’re in season.
We stop to think.
And buy wisely.
All images are taken with my stealthy Contax TVS II with Ferrania Solaris 400 film.
For collectors: some images here are available as open edition affordable prints at my Saatchi Art page.
Thanks for reading!
So many to choose from!
We follow our appetites.
We make the effort.
We are exasperated.
We lose ourselves.
Oh yes! A real decision!
We have the luxury of time.
We calculate.
We choose again.
All images here are from my trusty Minolta AF-C, loaded with Kodak Professional BW400CN film.
Some images from this post are available as affordable open edition prints at my Saatchi Art page for collectors.
Do drop by to have a look.
Though all the images here are created with film cameras, they are of course scanned from negatives and ultimately, on display here are digitised images on a computer monitor.
I’ve been experimenting with colours lately, having bought a dedicated pigment ink photo printer and various Ilford and Harman papers.
It really does make a difference whether the image is printed on glossy or on matte, etc. And of course, I am going to frame them up, now that I’ve finally gotten my hands on photo-safe tape.
Images like the one below work on both matte and gloss. On matte, there is a gritty look which fits in with the grungy seat-of-the-pants attitude of street photography.
A colleague who used to paint commented that the matte print looks more like a painting than a photograph. He said there’s a Caravaggio framed-by-darkness quality to it.
On the other hand, the glossy print has what I think of as a “Nirvana in Carnegie Hall” effect… a refined “fine art” treatment to street photography.
I suppose glossy is good for portraying drama in ordinary scenes.
And now that I’ve got all of these, I’m now thinking of what I should do next. Where is this taking me?
Direction 1: Teaching and Research
A fascination with photography (and film cameras, I must admit) is now changing the way I work. I find myself making connections between photography and creative writing, between the history of art and literary history. Is there a homology between creative writers and photographers?
What would a university course on the connections between photography and literature look like?
I am now thinking of creating a course that is practice-based, one that encourages students to go out and explore HK culture using literary and non-literary writing and photography, and getting them to think about what constitutes valuable cultural knowledge.
I’ll probably throw social media (such as a WordPress blog like this) into the mix, getting them to think about the use of social media for sharing one’s work. And what is meant by “sharing”? What, really, is being shared? And what is “work”?
Direction 2:
This has all to do with the situation of one’s work, I suppose. Digital images live in one’s hard disks or are displayed on sites like this. Now that I have the physical prints on hand, perhaps the next step is to work towards a gallery exhibition.
It’s a kind of curating, I suppose, setting up one’s work for viewing …
What kind of logistics and various other considerations would this involve? There’s a learning curve ahead of me …
What is becoming clear to me now though, is that this blog is like a thinking-in-progress technology, a depository of raw ideas… much like a building under construction …
Thanks for reading.
Night photography poses a challenge for any photographer.
Even with a digital camera, you’ll need a wide aperture, longer exposures, perhaps a tripod, or image stabilization if you’re doing it handheld, and you’ll need to have a high ISO setting.
Auto-focus might be a problem if it gets too dark, as a digital camera may not be able to find a focal point quickly enough.
So if you’re a street photographer with a film rangefinder loaded with Ilford XP2 at ISO 400, the odds are somewhat stacked against you at night. This is one of those times when you wish you’d caved in and bought that Fuji X100s.
A street market at night, as it happens, is one of those wonderful scenarios where everything comes together.
As the light bulbs are bright, you’ll have natural vignetting. The goods might have been arranged to form a perfect frame within a frame.
The stall hawkers, even when they spot you, would be too preoccupied with selling their wares to their customers, while the customers’ attention would be on those wares.
This person did spot me…
Oh well … and to challenge myself, this:
Thanks for reading.
Hong Kong Lucida 