Tag: London

InstantLondon : Brick Lane

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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.

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See also Beyond Retro – Brick Lane 2011

Exhibition : Sanubari by NIRMALA KARUPPIAH

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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.

Print

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

Web: http://www.bhavan.netPerfection1

Q & A with Yong Lin Tan – Sony WPO Youth Photographer of the Year 2015

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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

Sarah Choo Jing at A.I.

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I happened to discover this small and trendy pop-up gallery hosted by A.I. Studio‘s director Anne-Marie Tong who is currently showing Singaporean artist Sarah Choo Jing‘s From Across the Road on Redchurch Street in London’s uber trendy Shoreditch.  I was on a 1-day walk’n’ shoot London Street Photography for City Academy, and just finish the intros with my participants at Rich Mix’s studios.

Sarah’s dark and panoramic prints caught my attention from the window. In this exhibition, the artist is exploring themes based on the act of looking, surveillance and voyeurism. She delves in a mixture of photography with over-painting, video and installations and the show is on, till 15 March. More info here.

After lunch, the street photography class visited the exhibition and Sarah provided a brief introduction to the visitors about her works.

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Sarah Choo Jing and Anne-Marie Tong of A.I

A.I., 30a Redchurch Street, London E2 7DP

11am – 6pm (Mon – Sun)

Nearest tune : Shoreditch High Street, Liverpool Street, Bethnal Green