Venice

Work has been crazy recently so when I was asked to attend a meeting at our HQs near Venice I made an effort to take a few days out to look around and try and capture something a little different from the millions of other photos one may have seen of Venice canals and streets.

This first image captured my attention, first because of the contrast between the elegant old and tacky new. This was my first thought when I saw this scene, but the image is far more than this simple contrast. Despite the strong leading line from the bottom right by way of the stone wall, the eye is also pulled into the frame from the left by the saturated colours on the shutters. The leading lines converge and the eye is pulled forward with the rounded doors down to the sun lit church in the background. The dramatic sky adds to the tension of the slightly unbalanced composition.

This next image gives me a very different feeling. A feeling of the state of mind I was in while I sat in this square watching the world go by. There were so many people walking their dogs. I was watching them closely and taking several photos when suddenly the young girl's dog took chase of the other small dog. Suddenly the scene jumped from total peace to this dynamic scene. I've caught the girl in the centre of the two adults using their mobile phones but intrigued by the sudden commotion. The shadow of the tree helps to frame the action.

The couple sitting down at the door to this magnificent building were very aware of me taking the photo because a was waiting patiently for a pigeon to walk by. I took another photo without the couple once my intrusion urged them to leave, but the perspective of size was then lost along with very obvious line of sight from the bird to the couple then the building.

Unlike the first image, I only wanted to capture the contrast of old and new in this one. I was pleased that the graffiti was only painted on the moveable shutters, and once the gift stand was open the graffiti disappeared. I find sometimes for impact its best simply to place the main object dead centre.

Did I get any photos of gondolas and the grand canal? Yes I did but you've seen them all before

French-Thai Photo Exhibitions

This month Bangkok hosts several photo exhibitions presenting famous French and Thai photographers works. I've visited a few of the exhibitions and made some notes;

Fashion Story - Secrets of French Fashion presents works from some of France's most famous fashion photographers such as Jean Marie Perier, Gerald Uferas and Francoise Huguier. The photographs cover all aspects of the fashion world with some really fine portraits of people like Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior and the now infamous John Galliano. I imagine that if the same exhibition goes to London, Paris or New York the photos of John Galliano may be removed after his recent drunken anti-semitic outburst that ended up with him being arrested and fired from his job as head designer for Christian Dior.

Some of the most interesting photos in the exhibition for me were actually taken by British photographer Derek Hudson. He has captured some of the fascinating back stage drama. He captures the rush and drama involved before all the glamour of the 'cat walk'.

Next on my list was the exhibition titled "Portraits of Asia" by French photographer Eric Lafforgue. More than 50 prints enlarged to approximately 1.5m x 1.0m. I love large size prints as they really add some drama to the image, but only if the quality of the image is high enough to pass the magnified scrutiny. In Lafforgue's case every image passed with flying colours. It was clear to me that his photographs were not simply quick shots of people he happened to come across during his trips through Asia, but carefully posed shots using high end equipment such as his Hasselblad H4D-50 and Leica M6.

This exhibition was outside and in the bright sunlight, but his photos still managed to pop out with all their colour and drama.

The next exhibition I visited was in a small photo gallery called Kathmandu Photo Gallery that I often visit. This exhibition was of the late SH Lim's work. Here is the gallery's description;

"An encounter with S. H. Lim (Vivat Pitayaviriyakul) and his fashion and glamour photography is akin to a trip in a Time Machine. Back to the glory days and uncomplicated appeal of Thai cinema and beauty contests post-1957. His photographic prints have become the memory of that age, appearing as magazine covers, calendars and movie posters; all of them vivacious, beautiful, elegant, cool and dynamically sexy: Thailand’s first Miss Universe, Apasara Hongsakul, stepping out of an aeroplane fresh from her triumph in Miami, an angelic visitation to earthlings; Priya Rungruang, eternal sex siren, in a ‘two-piece’; Apuntree Prayuthsenee, Miss Thailand 1967, in Thai traditional dress. Or bikini-clad free-spirited star Orasa Israngkura na Ayathaya, exuberantly leaping in the air over coconut fronds. These are iconic images, but their photographer remains unknown to most of us.

S. H. Lim, a Thai photographer of Chinese blood, was born in 1930. A self-taught lensman, he took pictures for many well-known Thai publications such as Sakul Thai, Bangkok Weekly, Ploenjit, Or Sor Tor and Seansuk, from 1962 until his retirement after 1987. In 1963 he was awarded the silver and bronze medals by the New York Kodak Expo Photography Contest.

Kathmandu Photo Gallery is proud to present the work of S. H. Lim (Vivat Pityaviriyakul), as the first of our ‘Seeking Forgotten Thai Photographers’ project to highlight master photographers hitherto neglected by official Thai photographic history."

(copied from http://www.kathmandu-bkk.com/exhibition_present01.html )

One of the most interesting photos in this exhibition was of a girl sitting on a beach with her back to the camera. In the foreground is a stick in the sand with the model's bra draped over the stick. This is quite an old photo and for such a conservative country this would have been a very daring photo to make and display in public. It still looks very enticing even today.

Inspiration

Below is a palladium print made from large format film created by Tillman Crane. It was taken at St Columba’s Chapel, Isle of Iona. In the foreground of the frame is an old window ledge with several small stones of different sizes and shapes. In the center background there is the lower part of a window, and old white washed walls on either side.

Crane has captured the mystery of the scene in a simple style. He has made sure the main subjects are correctly exposed and left the window highlighted. There is no need to see what is outside as the story is about the stones and why they are placed on the window sill.

Before reading about the location of the scene, I felt that it was indeed somewhere old and used from the rough stone work and small window frame. The image fills me with sadness for some unknown reason; perhaps because of the feeling of remoteness that I get from the image and the unknown story behind each stone. Were they all placed there by one person or several different people? What were they thinking, feeling when they placed the stones?

I feel drawn to this place to witness this simple but mysterious scene and of course to photograph it in such a way as to capture the same feeling as I get when viewing Crane’s photograph.

Chromasia

While searching the web for some interesting photo blogs a few months back, I came across a site called Chromasia - www.chromasia.com

This site is dedicated to providing tutorials on the finer techniques of Photoshop and covers the following;

Masking

Curves

Luminosity masks

Textures

Portraits

Night Photographs

Black & white

HDR & Lab colour modes

The tutorials are very clearly written and have several short videos to help with understanding the techniques. They are not free of charge but are good quality for money.

I particularly liked the tutorials on luminosity masking, and have produced some really great results from using these techniques. Using the luminosity masks one can quickly select any range of tones within a image and then apply adjustments such as curves or colour only to those selected areas. I only had to follow the in depth instructions once using Photoshop 'Actions' and now I have the selection technique ready at one simple click in 'Actions' palette.

Here's a sample from the tutorial on masking.

chema madoz

I came across the photographer Chema Madoz when looking through the latest entries into 500 Photographers, and was amazed at the astounding imagination that has gone into creating these simple but brilliant images. His images show strength, simplicity and great imagination.

When I first started taking photographs, this was the type of work I wanted so much to do, but I lacked the photography skills at that time. Madoz's work is simply wonderful and I look forward to exploring more of his work.

Last few photos

After seeing an acquaintance's images of the building below, I rushed down to the location for fear some builder would pull it down before I got there. This is the old customs house, built in 1880s, where most goods for Bangkok arrived at the beginning of last century. It's now been taken over by a local fire department and houses the firemen and their families. As you can see from the few images I've posted below, it doesn't look very safe or hospitable.

I may try and arrange to go back and photograph the interior, but will need special permission as all of the rooms inside are lived in. There are reports that the fire brigade have been asked to move out so it can be taken over by a large resort group and converted.

This is the main entrance and where the large fire trucks have to navigate when on call and returning. I was lucky in that it had just rained, making a more interesting road texture.













Looking back at the main entrance













The main building designed by an Italian architect as were many of Bangkok's finest structures in the 18th century.



















A grand stair case at the entrance to the main building. I had to make several exposures and later blend them together. I've also cloned out the door on the left it was just a black mass.













Up close on some of the accommodation.

Book Review

Looking at Photographs by John Szarkowski

This book contains 100 pictures from the Museum of Modern Art, New York that have been chosen and written about by John Szarkowski.

The majority of the photographs are by famous photographers and Szarkowski provides an interesting essay in the form of historical notes about when and where the photograph was taken, some history about the photographer and for some of the photographs he explains why the aesthetics of the photograph work.

As John Szarkowski was one of the most important advocators for promoting photographs as pieces of art and promoting certain photographers to be entered into the cannons of Master Photographers, I was slightly disappointed that he has not provided more of his knowledge about the aesthetics of these photographs; in other words, why he considered a particular photograph to be so successful.

I don’t believe that Szarkowski chose all of the photographs because he thought they were aesthetically successful, but more of a mixture of aesthetics and some simply because they had an interesting history either in the form of when and where or who had taken them.

I do wish one of the few famous photo critics or someone as respected as John Szarkowski would write a book titled “This Photo is Successful Because”.

Sometimes wishes are granted; two months after reading the above book I sent away for Why Photographs Work by George Barr - 52 Great Images: Who Made Them, What Makes Them Special and Why.

This is the book I have wished for so many times. It contains a wide variety of images from famous to not so famous photographers. George Barr provides his thoughts on why each image is special then the photographer who took the image explains what their thoughts were in making the image. A short biography of each photographer is included and some technical information.

I believe this book will soon be added to the usual list of photography course work recommended books. There is nothing else out there that I have seen that will teach one so much, so quickly, so precisely and so interestingly.

Two thumbs up from this photographer!

Assignment 5

For Assignment 5 I have to submit 3 or 4 photos based on the theme 'temples'. I've been working on this one for several months as the opportunity to visit temples in Bangkok often presents its self. In addition to temples I agreed to also submit 3 or 4 photos of a more general theme, but something particular to Bangkok and captured in a way that is not normally seen in your typical web page or book on Thailand. The following images are a taste of what I've been looking at.

Mauy Thai or Thai kick boxing is famous in Thailand and many visitors make it a must to see, but I have rarely seen any really good photos of this sport. I arranged to visit the most famous stadium to photograph some of the fighters. Luckily, my wife's friend is a tour guide and they managed to get me a dressing room pass so I could capture the fighters before and after their bouts.

Not knowing how close I would be to the boxing ring, I went armed with a selection of lenses and ended up changing them frequently in order to capture a variety of images.

In this first image I captured a foreign fighter warming up in the dressing room. Even here the action was fast and the lighting poor so the use of a high ISO was necessary in all shots. Flash lighting is not allowed. I like this capture as it shows the fighter's determination and speed. His left hand and foot are blurred but the rest of his body is in clear focus. It has a good depth to it and the shadows help to outline his mussels.




















In this second image, one of the fighters has been knocked out and the officials are about to put him onto a stretcher. This image captures one of the few moments in the evening when everything slows down and a clear shot can be taken. I've left in the foreground mat in to make it clear where the subject is located.














Another important activity in Bangkok is a visit to one of the many markets. A lot of the markets sell similar products, so I decided to visit the largest flower market. The flower market is not restricted to only flowers. It also sells fresh produce and in this next image I have captured the most important ingredient in Thai food, the chili. Green chilies, yellow chilies and big and small red chilies. I found the arrangement of all these chilies to be interesting and the background gives some clues as to where the photo was taken.














Of course the flower market does also sell flowers, and lots of them. Roses seem to be one of the favourites and this image shows a seller watering the roses in order to keep them fresh before she sells them to a hotel or flower shop. I liked the way the roses had been wrapped in old newspaper as their colour worked well with the overall red or the roses. The eye expands into the photo from the bottom left corner and feels balanced with the seller in the middle of the frame.




















This next image was taken on New Year's Eve and shows a popular activity for people in Bangkok on special occasions. They light a candle inside a paper balloon and wait for the balloon to fill with hot air before it takes to the sky. I made a point in this image to include three people and took it from a low angle to show the inside of the balloon.




















The last image I'm showing here is a typical scene in a Bangkok park during the Loy Kratong festival. The image show a family with their lit kratongs that are made from palm leaves, banana shoots and flowers. Traditionally they will put a few small coins and something personal like a few hairs or nail clippings onto the kratong before sending it out into the water. They make a wish before releasing the kratong. This image was taken early on in the evening. Later on the whole lake will be full of kratongs and people around the edges.

On Photography

I've been catching up on some important, but enjoyable reading over the holidays and so here are a few notes on Susan Sontag's On Photography book.

On Photography by Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag provides several separate essays in her book. Some of the topics discussed overlap and others are quite original in each of the individual essays. The book is easy to read, but does not always flow so smoothly from one topic to the other. It’s the kind of book that can be read several times over and new ideas will pop out from the pages.

I’ve made a few notes from each of the essays of the points that meant the most to me. Mostly I agree with her ideas, but a few I don’t think many active photographers would agree with. Looking through Amazon reviews for this book, one can see there is a division between the readers who generally agree with most of what Sontag presents, and the readers who believe she is being too negative towards photography.

I tend to agree with most of what she presents, and some of it is negative criticism simply because photography can be seen as being a negative activity in some of it’s aspects.

The book first appeared in 1977 and despite the progress in the development of photography nearly all of Sontag’s thoughts are still valid in today’s photography environment.

In Plato’s Cave

Sontag gives an interesting and original view on how photographs have extended into our lives and changed the way we think about news, places, history etc. Sontag believes that photography has become one of the main ways of experiencing things.

America Seen Through Photographs, Darkly

Early photographs were made to be “idealized images”, and even today amateurs strive to photograph something beautiful.

She goes on to say “all photographs accord value to their subjects, but the meaning of value can be changed. This can be demonstrated by taking the value of a photograph by a famous photographer.” This statement is in line with some of the John Berger’s thoughts in his book ‘Ways of Seeing’, and I relate it with some of the information I have been reading about Eugene Atget, where his photographs held little value until the Museum of Modern Art (MMA) and others made Atget famous after his death.

This essay then changes tact and Sontag makes a comparison between an exhibit in 1955 called “Family Man” organized by Edward Steichen. 503 photographs from 68 countries and 273 photographers trying to show all people are one humanity. Then in 1972 the MMA displayed 112 photographs by Diane Arbus that showed the complete opposite. Each one of Arbus’ photographs showed a freak in some sense of the word because they were so different.

Sontag mentions something interesting that Brassai had once said; that he denounced photographers who try to trap their subjects off-guard in the erroneous belief that something special will be revealed about them. Sontag does not agree with Brassai on this point and neither do I.

The essay makes its way back to the work of Diane Arbus and makes some very astute observations about Arbus. She states that Arbus clearly wanted her subjects to be fully aware of being photographed. Sontag explains a little about the psychological impact of photographing people’s faces at different angles. Sontag believes Arbus must have befriended most of her subjects to be allowed to photograph them from the front.

Sontag concludes this essay by saying that people in industrialized nations have become ‘image junkies’ needing reality and experience confirmed by photographs. “Ultimately, having an experience becomes identical with taking a photograph of it….” I don’t quite agree with this last statement, but can see that people attach great importance to recording their experience through photography for fear of losing something that no longer exists.

Melancholy Objects

Sontag looks at the class issue and how it relates to photography. She compares several famous photographers works and how they documented people differently. She discusses how in USA so many photographers have photographed the decay and soon to be last part of USA.

I’ve noticed that decay is still something that draws a lot of photographers focus. This maybe because photographing decay is easier than finding something beautiful in today’s hectic world. And even once something beautiful has been found, like a flower, it’s not so easy to make the photograph stand out as a work of beauty.

The Heroism of Vision

Sontag talks about photographing the world in this essay. She says photographs have beautified the world; “Photographers were supposed to do more than just see the world as it is, including its already acclaimed marvels; they were to create interest, by new visual decisions.” This is becoming truer by the day as almost everything has already been photographed. She says that what became beautiful was just what the eye can’t (or doesn’t) see. She’s talking about abstract impressionists work here.

Sontag talks about how the impressionists were influenced by photography. She says it is common place, but I doubt all painters will admit to such a thing. Interestingly, I read that Eugene Atget owned a shop in Paris called ‘Documents pour Artists’ – providing pictures for painters.

She says from 1840 onward that painters and photographers have influenced and pillaged each other.

Sontag discusses a observations about Atget. She says that Weston thought Atget as “not a fine technician”, however contemporary taste faults Weston for his devotion to perfect print. Imperfect technique has come to be appreciated precisely because it breaks the sedate equation of Nature and Beauty. I dare say John Szarkowski had something to do with the change in taste after promoting Atget’s work after his demise.

One last interesting quote from this essay; “Photographs can do distress. But the anesthetizing tendency of photography is such that the medium which conveys distress ends by neutralizing it.” Here Sontag is talking about how a photograph of something unpleasant can cause distress, but after it is viewed so many times, the next photograph of a similar situation is no longer as distressing.

Photographic Evangels

This essay deals with a reoccurring question from some of her previous essays; whether photography is an aggressive act. She states that few photographers has spoken openly about the exploitative aspects, but two who have are Avedon and Henri Cartier-Bresson. In a biography of Henri Cartier-Bresson by Pierre Assouline it is mentioned that Cartier-Bresson likened his photography to his days in Africa as a wildlife hunter.

From a different perspective Sontag says that Ansel Adams called the camera “instruments of love and revelation.”

For me, photography falls into both sides of the fence depending on the type of photography and even perhaps the photographer themselves. Still life photography can hardly be called aggressive, whereas some paparazzi would appear to be aggressive.

The essay discusses the common topic of whether photography is an art or not. She gives some interesting ideas. It’s the first time I have seen where someone compares commercial assignments or picture postcards with photography as an art. She states that museum exhibits become studies of the possibilities of photography. She, however does not try to determine at what point a photographers work becomes art.

Then, she goes on to discuss what makes a good photograph. “one criterion of evaluation which painting and photography do share is inovativeness; both painting and photographs are often valued because they impose new formal schemes or changes in the visual language. Another defining characteristic is quality of presence.” Quite different from value of a photograph, there is not enough written about what makes a good photograph in my opinion, and Sontag statement above is quite accurate and daring.

Sontag says its not altogether wrong to say there is no such thing as a bad photograph, only less interesting ones, less relevant or less mysterious.

At the end of this essay Sontag very clearly summarizes photography in terms of being an art; “Photography is not, to begin with, an art form at all. Like language it is a medium in which works of art (among other things) are made.” “Out of photography, one can make passport photos, weather, porno, wedding albums and Atget Paris.”

The Image World

A large part of this essay is about how photography differs in China from other places and Sontag suggests that photography will probably not be put to best use as a surveillance tool in China because of the strict formal way in which most photographs are taken. This was very good analysis from the 70s and it would appear that she was correct. I wonder if she saw how much the West was going to relay on photography as a surveillance tool.

Women

Women by Annie Leibovitz and Susan Sontag

Although this book is about women it goes much further than this single subject for me. It shows how a collection of often dramatic photographs can be compiled into something quite profound and with greater meaning than any single photograph within the collection. Of course the quality of Annie Leibovitz’s portraits is among the best and this is the main reason for this book being so great. However, if the same quality can be applied to other subjects in a such a diverse and sometimes dramatic style, then they will also form something worth looking at and understanding.

Sontag, in her true fashion hits the mark in a most original way as a foreword essay. “Each of these pictures must stand on its own. But the ensemble say, so this is what women are now…”

This statement rang out to me and I wished that I had seen this book at the beginning of the course. Each picture must stand on its own and as the ensemble must show the greater meaning. This is what needs to be remembered when putting together a portfolio or even a small set of photographs. I’d say this even applies if the intention is only to show a set made up of completely different topics.

Last Assignment

For the last part of my last Assignment I have been studying other peoples photographs to try and generate a few ideas. So far I have covered street vendors, night scenes, tuk tuks, klong buildings and I've nearly finished selecting my choice of temple images also for this last assignment. The very last part I left open so I could judge how everything was fitting together before deciding on how the whole set should be rounded off.

After some recent reading of On Photography by Susan Sontag and Women by Annie Leibovitz and Susan Sontag, I'm drawn more and more to making a small set of ordinary people from Bangkok to finish off the collection.

A useful source of inspiration to me has been a Flickr Group called "Bangkok Street" that has some great street photographers making regular contributions. One of them is called Terrosa, and I've posted three of his recent images below. I can see that he's a real street hunter and when he finds his target he nails it perfectly. Most of his work is in b&w, but would work equally well in colour.

This first image by Terrosa shows a man sitting on a dirty street massaging his fighting cock. Despite being comfortable with the surrounding, he has taken the precaution of wearing a face mask. Perhaps it was taken during a period of bird flu.





In this next image by Terrosa, of a barber shop, I like the angle he has taken the photo from and the way the reflection takes the eye back and forth diagonally.





This third image has been taken on a train and almost looks staged. Not only has he managed to capture the interesting scene on the right, he has balanced the photo with the dark clothed man on the left.





As there are some holidays coming up I plan to hit the streets to find what I'm looking for. I'll be taking a Nikon D3s so I can continue to photograph well into the night without extra lighting. Attached to the camera will be a 17-35mm VR lens as I believe this will be best suited to quick action close up street action. As with my last submissions I want to show a common sight in Bangkok, but taken in a way that doesn't look like a picture book, postcard or average tourist snapshot. I want a part of real life!

Kathmandu

This month I was trekking in Nepal with a friend. We started off and finished the holiday in Kathmandu that is a treasure trove for photographers. I've added a few images below that provide some feeling about the place.



This first image is a bath of colour, but with orange taking on the most prominent role, the purples and greens can be seen as harmonious. The scene is one of happiness and the fruits, vegetables and flowers take on the same shape as the surrounding building making the scene less chaotic.













Almost one hour later I was making my way back to the hotel when I spotted this butcher only a few meters away from the image above. The contrast is quite obvious. This image changes my mood completely. There is a lone man with a depressed look, trying to sell some cuttings from what looks like goats and a bird of some sort. The table looks dirty and the carcasses look like they have been cut with a blunt instrument. In the foreground there is an old bicycle that may belong to the butcher. This image makes me feel slightly sad.




















In this image there is a holy man dressed in bright orange robes making a meditative sign with his right hand. After negotiating a small fee for the privilege of photographing him, I asked him to position himself in front of the temple because I noticed the colours were very similar to his robe. I used a wide aperture so the point of focus remained on his face. I would have preferred not to have the tall post on his right, but it was unavoidable. I may try and clone it out.



















I like this image despite the chaotic colours. The reds all around draw the eye too and fro, but when the eye realizes everything is slightly out of focus except the rickshaw it comes as almost a relief. By panning the camera and freezing the rickshaw amongst all the colour, a 3D appearance is made.














This next image shows four young boys playing in a public square. Their shape forms a square that matches the square paving tiles and the shape of the water fountain and stupa in the background. It reminds me of when I was young and free.