Visiting SIPF 2014

Part 1

As I visited the festival, the series that attracted me was the After School, done by Lau Chi-Chung.

These are the 2 photos that I took when I visited the festival.

As you can see from the photos that the subject is someone wearing a school uniform, blindfolded, playing around hide and seek in a deserted area. In the second photos, the place was kinda like an old classroom which already being destroyed and books were all over the place.

What I first thought of the series was the sense of struggle as a student. The photographer portray the student as someone who always looking for fun ( that's why it's playing hide and seek ) yet being constraint in a frame of studying. 

I'm curious about the gender of the subject when I first looked at the photo, it's like a boy in a girl's school uniform. Is it some kind of connotation? Besides, I wondered how the photographer came out with this idea because I never really thought that it's a way to portray a student, and this would be the question that I will be asking him if he was there.

Part 2

The photographs in the festival are presented separately in 14 different locations. Most of them are mounted on hard material and presented in eye level.

I think that the curators grouped up different types of photographs and separated them into different genre to display to create certain cohesion when the viewer was viewing the photos. All the photos are displayed in different sizes, some of them are small and with more pieces of works, and some of them were printed in a larger scale.

I think the festival was a great place for people to really present their work to the world and kinda make up a name from it. It's a very good opportunity for exposure and also a way of learning. As a student who visited, it actually deepen my knowledge on the understanding of contemporary photography and always think out of the box when we are trying to create something, there's always someway that will work out and we just haven't realised.

Reading : Documentary Photography – Six Tips for Creating a Legacy

As photographers (and before you argue that you aren’t a “professional” or you aren’t a photographer, I’m here to tell you that you are! If you take photographs you are a photographer, and this applies to you!) it is almost our duty to record the lives and times of those closest to us, family and friends. I’m not just talking about birthday parties and weddings, which are both important, but how about everyday life?

Last fall/winter my husband and I lost our two cats who were 18 and 19. He had them for 18 years, they lived with me for five. It hit me hard and I wrote this: “Do What’s Important Photograph Your Loved Ones”.  I vowed to go and photograph my grandmother who is now 92. I finally did that and I have some tips for you on how to go and photograph, and document the lives of your loves ones both young and old.

So this article comes with both tips AND a challenge, for you to go do the same.

1. Documentary means as it happens naturally, in their environment.
2. Capture the person’s essence, their real personality
3. Remember to capture the details and scene setters
4. Think big picture, take shots for the background of a collage or potential photobook or album
5. Not every photo needs to show their face. Facing away from camera, hands and body are important too.
6. Create a story with images, leave a legacy

#1 DOCUMENTARY MEANS IT OCCURS NATURALLY

Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle significant and historical events. It is typically covered in professional photojournalism, or real life reportage, but it may also be an amateur, artistic, or academic pursuit. The photographer attempts to produce truthful, objective, and usually candid photography of a particular subject, most often pictures of people. – Wikipedia

Get into their day to day life. Plan to go spend a few hours chatting with the person, listen to their stories, capture what comes naturally and what just happens. Don’t create something that isn’t part of them, just be there to grab moments in time that will mean so much down the road.

#2 CAPTURE THEIR TRUE ESSENCE

This is not too far off from #1 but let’s take it a bit deeper. Just being in their home, using their environment doesn’t guarantee you’re getting into their heart and soul. If this is someone close to you, as in my grandmother, what is it about them you want to capture? What part of their personality do you want to shine through in the photos:  wisdom,  a gentleness; intelligence, caring, a sense of fun, or all of the above? Is there something quirky about them that makes them unique, how can you show that in your images? For my grandmother she is a social butterfly so I photographed her with some friends and playing cards (see above).  My husband’s uncles are farmers and storytellers. We got out the old family photo albums and listened to them for hours while they showed us old photos from the 1940’s. They came alive as they recounted tales of their younger days and when they had a TV delivered “a couple years ago” which we later learned to be around 1975!

#3 REMEMBER TO CAPTURE THE DETAILS

When photographing a person with the intent of documenting, make sure you think in terms of these three views: overall, medium range, and close-up or details. What that means is don’t forget to get in close on some things, and not just have the whole face or person in every image. Details like how they hold their spoon as they stir their tea (so get in close on the hands or maybe even just the tea cup) can add a lot of impact.

#4 THINK BIG PICTURE AND SET THE SCENE

Things around them in their daily life set the scene, so remember to capture some of those things too. If they live in a house make sure to get an exterior shot, some of the garden, and maybe even a close-up of the wall you can use later as a textured background. Does she has a favorite dress, one you always think of when you think of her – if so they photograph it, or a section of the material. Is he a craftsman, then by all means photograph his tools.

The most important thing in my grandmother’s life is her family and in her small living room the walls are literally plastered corner to corner with family photos. Weddings, graduations, new great grandchildren, and even the pets are all there. Every shelf and horizontal surface has photos on it. You can bet I captured that (even though I’d taken make of those photos over the years, seeing them all up in one places speaks volumes to anyone that enters that room and you instantly know what she’s all about. She also collects angels and always has one pinned on her blouse. She has hundreds of them in her house everywhere.

#6 CREATE A STORY WITH IMAGES

Every other point in this article leads directly into this one, telling a story. By following all the tips above you pretty much can’t help but create images that do just that so the only thing I will add here is to do it consciously. Go in knowing you’rl./e creating a story. Intention is a powerful thing. When you show up planning to create a story, your subconscious will naturally kick in and go to work for you, if you aren’t aware (hint:  that’s why it’s your subconscious). One other thing you can do it go look at other photo stories, specifically some of the great photographers, masters of the photo essay. W. Eugene Smith comes to my mind, go study some of his stories for LIFE magazine. Anything by Cartier-Bresson but especially The Decisive Moment. Or some of my favorites Dorothea Lange, Margaret-Bourke White and Walkers Evans who all documented the Great Depression. Find out what draws you in to their images. How do they use scene setters and detail shots? Learn from the masters.

W ( 14 ) - Koen Demuynck

Koen Demuynck was one of the most famous digital photographer in the world, through his creativity on creating each piece of artwork, you can really understand his aesthetic. 

His photos were very surreal, in an ironic or honour way. When you look into the details then you will understand it's actually just describing everyone's life. Probably that's why he is famous as he understand life and he can portray it in humour yet not being too annoying.

I love the details in the photos, he probably spent a lot of time in creating each photo. Through his photos, I realised the tone he used is more likely towards a warmer tone because there's a yellowish tint, but it's portraying something sad. A nice balance between the crossing point of two different point of view is very interesting.

Check out his others artwork on his website! He did all kinds of works and lots of them are great.

W ( 13 ) - Lyndon Wade

The photos below were took by Lyndon Wade in his series of Room 107. The photos were produced into a motion graphic by TheWadeBrothers. 

From my interpretation, it's about a series of incidents happened in Room 107. I always love this kind of photos when the photography decided everything in the photos. The space, people, expression, mood, props, even the wallpaper, Lyndon captured a series of stories with different people doing different things in Room 107.

There's s many stories in it. Lyndon successfully captured the emotions on the face of different people when they are in different situation.

I love the way the lighting is done., kinda vintage that fit in the Room 107 which is an old motor inn. The only photo with a different wallpaper, ( if you realised ) is the last photo, actually I also don't know why because when I watch the video of the motion photos, it was in the middle of the photos, probably it's another room?

Anyway, I life the mystery and the story that Lyndon created. It's very creative in an inspiring way of living.

W ( 12 ) - Florian Ritter

Germany born but eventually moved to Shangai to continue his career on photography and own a company named PRISMO. Try to search the website and it's an interesting website, not only doing photography but graphic, advertising and all sorts of visual designs.

Florian did a big world travel when he was young, and that makes him confirm his way on photography. His photos are mostly about landscape and life. And he travel everywhere to take photos. Of course, the one I'm showing below is one of his series taken in America, American Barn.

I particularly love the sky in his photos, the gloomy sky added a touch of feel into the photos. With a contrast edit in a darker tone, I think the photos are portraying some kind of loneliness?

It's beautiful to see all the scenery that we can never found in here, maybe that's why I'm so inspired by them. The composition are mainly centralised. A wide scene of landscape with a focus on the barn itself.

I enjoy looking at the details in the photos. The surrounding and the texture are beautifully shot.

W ( 11 ) - Alex Prager

Alex Prager is an American art photographer and filmmaker who lives and works in Los Angeles. Her photographs primarily use staged sets and models to create "film-like" images that invite a myriad references, not only to the history of Hollywood and photography, but also the cinematic image in art contexts. The subjects of her works, exaggerated and costumed, some times "hyper-real" speak to the ambiguity of seduction and spectacle.

The series that I'm sharing below is her 2013 Face in The Crowd, it's an inspiring series that featured a lot of faces in different expression, activity, emotion and thoughts.

I really love the way she set up her photos. There's a glamorous feel in all the costumes, make up and the setting in location, the backdrop then the props and surrounding. Maybe it's a reflection on your own as everyone will have different faces to look at when they first glance on the photos.

What I love to look at her photos is because it's so much stories behind. Everyone in the photo has a different background and I can just stare at one photo for 10 minutes to finally look at everyone with all the details.

W ( 10 ) - Lee Towndrow

Lee Towndrow started off as a visual artist and created several album cover for Canadian bands. With his career on a designer and photographer, he had created several great series of photos that I love especially the colours and the expression of the people in his photos.

I realised he took a lot of human in his photos, there's a sense of fullness and peacefulness within the happiness in all the smiles.

I love the colour edit. No matter in the yellowish or blueish photos, there's always a tint of purple in it that creates a subtle feel of calmness. It's interesting to see the composition of people and the expression on different faces being captured and the emotions of everyone just on the point.

In some of his photos, he created a feel of movement whereas some of them are s sense of calmness. The photos don't really have a centralised focus as the subject is all over the photos. A big contrast i the photos that creates the distance in between far and close is very beautifully done.

W ( 9 ) - Carlo Bellavia

Carlo Bellavia started off his passion towards photography since young. Self taught photographer who was always inspired by the time when he was still a kid. As someone grew up in a farm, Carlo photographed nature, water, landscapes and nudes.

Suggest you to go to his website to have a great view on all his photos because there's not much in Google. 

I love his unique take on the black and white photos, in those photos, there's a lot of contrast that showing the details in distance within the photos.

As my research, Carlo actually stated that his intention on all his photographs are mainly inspired by calmness, loneliness and peacefulness. He created a focus on the subject with a great edit on colour to enhance the illusion on feelings that he wanted the viewer to view his work.