As I embarked on the OneShot portraits project on 120 roll film, I also used my digital camera to make parallel portraits of my sitters. Despite the more methodical approach with shooting film, there is still the benefit of the instant review of the digital camera, and these are a few of the digital portraits done at the same time this week.
Imogen Meckel, 10
I finally took my trusty Rolleiflex off the shelf, dusted it, gave it a quick ‘once over’, clicked through all the shutter speeds, and twiddled the aperture ring to check for stiffness, and loaded a roll of Portra 160 to embark on this so-called ONE SHOT PORTRAIT project. Now that I am in Malaysia again for a good couple of weeks and then a few days in Japan, I intend to photograph with the Rollei with the hope of capturing spontaneous and ‘truthful’ portraits of my friends, family and strangers with just the one click. So, 12 shots per roll, 12 portraits. And so on…
The idea is for the subject to feel most comfortable when I press the shutter release, with a pose that is natural & calm. I hope to catch capture a decent portrait with just one shot. If I fail, so be it, no second chance.
(Be part of this project! If you are in KL/PJ and want to be photographed give me a holler! 012 284 5838)
Project : Fairground Attraction
I started this project a few years back, photographing an annual local fair on Wimbledon Common, a few miles from where I live. On this occasion, there were several new trailers that I noticed, that was setting up before the weekend opening.
See : Fairground Attraction
Spent last Sunday photographing with my City Academy Street Photography class in London’s famous East End street, Brick Lane and Columbia Road Flower market. Both streets were heaving with visitors by lunch time and there were many tourists there too armed with their cameras. This area is uniquely British despite the many languages one can hear spoken by the crowds. It has so much vibe, colour, smells, sounds and sights to astound you, A must visit place on any visitor’s itinerary to London.
See also Beyond Retro – Brick Lane 2011
Nirmala Karuppiah is a Malaysian fine art and documentary photographer and a friend whom I have known since late 90s. As one of the established fine art photographers in contemporary Malaysian photography she has spent the last two decades documenting various dance genres, mainly in the classical Indian discipline Odissi, Cantonese Opera, Northern Malay dance-drama Mak Yong and the healing rituals of Main Puteri from Kelantan, a northern state in the peninsula.
SANUBARI is her first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom. The Malay word Sanubari has various translations, but one, which aptly describes it in the context of this exhibition is the ‘inner-self’, of deepest feelings reaching fever-pitch and a ‘heartfire’ which laces each work seen in the show.
Nirmala’s intrinsic talent, merged with a deep love and respect for these artforms are evident in each of her work; and Sanubari is aimed at presenting to the masses, both a historic and personal views of these dance genres, seen through her camera lenses in a myriad of perspectives.
Working predominantly in black and white, Sanubari is the artist’s intense pursuit of conserving, documenting and disseminating these artforms which, although has been written about in many journals and publications, still need to be actively trailed.
Exhibition :
M P Birla Millennium Art Gallery
THE BHAWAN
Home of Indian Arts, 4A Castletown Road, West Kensington, London W14 9HE
11 June – 1 July, 2015
Tel: +44 207 381 3086/4608
Email: curator@bhavan.net
London Chinatown – Documentary Photography class with City Academy
‘Six big banks fined $5.6bn over rigging of Forex markets’ – Financial Times, 21st May, 2015
London West End, 3rd May, 2015
Photo by Andrew Suryono, from Facebook
I caught up with Yong Lin Tan by email and put the following questions to him, when he had arrived back in Malaysia, after a whirlwind trip to London for a weekend at the Sony World Photography Awards to receive his prize.
Q. At what age did you take up photography?
YLT. I paint since I was a young boy and I was thinking of trying photography as a different medium to create and express. I took up photography as a hobby at the age of 17 when my mother actually agreed to buy me my first SLR camera by signing the 3 years instalment plan for it, as we could not really afford it at that time.
Q. What were you photographing when you first started?
YLT. Basically, scenery of paddy fields in Alor Setar, because my grandparents house is there and every school holiday and Chinese New Year my mom would bring us to visit and have a short or long stay there, for sure.
Q. Do you have any mentor, established photographers whose works you follow?
YLT. I am a self learner, and I follow quite a wide range of works from different types of photography, whether established or just pure hobbyists.
Q. Who do you admire in your field of photography?
YLT. My photography subject’s lecturer when I was in my foundation study in Creative Multimedia – Che Ahmad Azhar, basically his dedication towards his street photography works – “Walk of Life” and the body of work itself, has inspired me.
Q. What is next for you, now that you have won your first major award?
YLT. I will keep shooting in Alor Setar and maybe some other parts of Malaysia, explored or unexplored. I wish to initiate more projects, photo essays and focus on the environmental issues in Malaysia, but it will consume a longer time and I need to do more in-depth research during my free time.
Q. Are you working on any long term projects?
YLT. Yes, documenting and capturing the environment and the unseen life in my mother’s hometown & grandparents home – Alor Setar.
Q. Would this award make you take a more serious attitude to your photography?
YLT. I am serious towards photography since the day I received my first camera. It is still unknown that whether one day photography will turn into my main career or profession but for now I will just ride the wind and do what I love.
Q. Do you believe photography can make the world a better place?
YLT. Definitely, not only photography I believe but any other medium in art such as painting or film which can be used to deliver a particular message and I wish I could prove it one day.
Q. How did you break the news of your award to your parents?
YLT. Haha .. I called and inform my mother first and she eventually passed the news on to my father, then my grandparents. They are not really that surprised at first because they thought it is just a small competition but when they realise it was the WPO and they will be flying me to London they are actually quite shocked and surprised, and worried as well, because I personally have not been to any airport and have never traveled so far before !
~ Steven Lee
explorenation.net ~ photography posts, workshops, writings and thoughts by Steven V-L Lee 
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