Tag: personal

Photography, to me.

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Is a drug.

More than the pursuit of the perfect image, it is an obsession to see more, understand more, and encounter more.

Photography is a journey to discover what exists, and can exist, if we see with our hearts and feel with our minds. Writers write and artists paint, starting with a blank canvas. With photography, the difference is subtle. We start with a canvas that is already full of life and colour. It is as real as it gets. Photography, by its very definition, cannot exist without light as there will be nothing to photograph.

I’ve immersed my entire adult life in this magic light trick, and now I take a step back. Long flights and drives allow me to think. Having just completed co-organising a third photo festival, even if it’s a minor one in comparison to others I’ve been to, I cherish the high moments and dread the lows. But there is no middle ground. It comes as a package deal.

The connections I’ve made in the name of photography over the past years have been fulfilling and rewarding. It has brought me to far flung places and closer ones to, meeting incredibly talented artists and wonderful people who are open minded and dedicated to the practice.

I’ve reviewed countless portfolios and continue to do so, and nominated artists to international awards. The takeaway I’ve learnt from all this is, there are stories to be told. Every photographer wants to tell a story. Even if it’s just one incredible image, without a story the image just hangs on the wall soulless.

The audiences to these are picky and may not be all too appreciative, however. It is very easy to overlook and brush less striking work aside and go for the visually popular images. After all, today’s society prefers repetitive and spoon-fed visuals that are easy to understand, aesthetically pleasing and requires no thinking. We like ‘hi-fi’ photography, where bass and treble are set to the maximum, loosing the subtleties and nuances in between.

I started KLPA because I am interested in the face and how every portrait is a reflection not only of the sitter, but the photographer as well. We just celebrated the 15th back-to-back edition of the KLPA and therein lies a dilemma. Is interest waning? At times I feel a responsibility towards the photo communities, to its followers, and to the past winners, to retain KLPA’s vision and standards, year in and year out. This is not easy to maintain. I have good years and lesser ones. Ebbs and flows. 2023 was a good year. The finalists received record worldwide views. But there is a constant fear that KLPA is not being sufficiently visible, especially locally. Perhaps it’s just my expectations on what I would have liked it to become.

Similarly as festival organisers, do we alienate certain interest groups to the benefit of others? Or do we keep to our mission and yet be inclusive. Like an ocean liner, once the course is charted, we set sail, avoiding the icebergs along the way. And the people we cater to are the paying passengers. Or do we pick up new passengers along the way and explore new destinations?

I photograph less nowadays. Perhaps I have no stories to tell, yet I have unfinished projects that need to be completed and these are being put off year after year. There are always stories to tell.

Pic: Man with brolley, Kobe, 2017 © Steven Lee

Sands of Time, Goodbye 2021

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Camber Sands is a stretch of fine sandy beach about 2 miles long on the south coast of East Sussex, the only beach with sand dunes along this coast. I love to photograph these grassy, undulating dunes in the dusk light of winter. The golden sand is so fine, like talc which is uniquely rare in England, as most of the beaches have coarse sand or pebbles.

Rita M, RIP

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Last weekend I heard that Rita, a dear friend from a local church community whom I gotten to know over the years had passed away. You know how sometimes you meet someone, despite the age gap, you get acquainted, not in the sense of a close friend, but still, but a friend nonetheless. She’s always in church, at almost every mass, and she has been a firm volunteer in the parish, being responsible for producing the weekly newsletters and also a regular reader. She’s a cheeky so and so too, and so soft spoken, a very English lady from an era where respect and dedication is everything. From the way she dresses to her hair style, she would not be out of place in a 40’s British war time drama. She is also a very private woman.

There is another reason why I am writing this, partly as a dedication to Rita, but more so because I was in a slight fret a few days ago when Rita’s grand daughter rang and asked if I had the digital files of these portraits as she really liked them and wanted to make prints for the upcoming funeral service.

Now, every photographer worth his/her salt would know about workflow and the archiving process. I was certain I knew exactly where these files were stored. These were taken in June 2008 in Cafe Rouge in Kensington. I even remembered that!

Over the years, I have invested in external hard drives as back ups, and these were before Google Drive and cloud services. From about 2000 onwards, the commercial fashion and wedding shoots were burned to CDs, and I have them readily available still. Some were put on Iomega ZIP drives (remember them?). Around 2006 I got a Seagate GoFlex 2TB SATA shared network drive which was accessible via WIFI and used that as my main back up device and also home to the Time Machine back ups for my iMac. Then about 2011 I began to use Google Drive and DropBox as backups and smaller external plug in drives for portability.

Not really knowing where Rita’s files were exactly, I spent several days shifting through all my current drives, using keywords, algorithms etc but no luck. All I found were website thumbnail files which were about 800 px in height which is totally useless for print. I categorise my shoots files into folders named under year and month, but none of these folders contained the files.

I knew they had to be in the now defunct Seagate network drive but upon plugging in, the app failed to register. Shiite. The drive was making all the right clicks and whirrs but it’s been several years since I accessed it. After a quick search on the internet I found out that the Go Flex system is now no longer working and supported and the only way to get to the drive was to take it apart and somehow connect it directly to the laptop. So, another hour on YouTube self-learning about drive recovery, SATA, PATA, IDE, converters, and adapters I finally ordered one of these [https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B078GZG4ST] . China – Geeks Love You. Amazon Prime 24 hour delivery is amazing. I literally clicked BUY last night and this evening, I got the adapter.

This isn’t the end.

Upon connecting the naked drive with this gadget into my Macbook, the drive popped up instantly on the desktop. However, the drive folder is err.. empty! Nada, although inspecting the drive properties showed it has over 400GB used. How strange. I couldn’t understand why the files weren’t showing up. Until closer inspection brought up the words Windows NTFS on the drive. I am not really clued up about compatible drive formats between Mac and Windows OS but I knew I had to connect it to a Windows machine somehow. Luckily, I have an ageing Windows laptop which I quickly powered up and got it hooked up to the drive and voila! All my backup files showed up.

I finally managed to locate the Rita folder with all the CRW files shot on my Canon 5D with a 35mm f2 and 50mm f1.4 lens and I can sleep easy tonight. There is a lesson to be learnt here, but for now, I can’t think what it is. Goodbye, Rita.

    Elizabeth’s garden /1

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    My neighbour Elizabeth is an elderly spinster who has been very ill ever since I moved in next door to her last year. She is bedridden and does not go out, and she gets visits from carers several times a day to feed and care for her. Since February this year, she deteriorated and I understand she is now staying in a local care home.

    Her garden is completely overgrown but there grows some beautiful wild weed, roses, blackberries and shady trees.

    In Trento 2

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    We stayed at a lovely B&B run by Lorenza Paris in Trento for 3 days. Every morning at 9:00 am sharp, she will bring over breakfast on a wooden tray.  3 types of cheeses, ham slices,  scrambled eggs, crusty bread rolls, Nutella spread, jam, butter, orange juice, and coffee.

    https://www.bedandbreakfastallecoste.it/

    Happy New Year 2019!

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    Window to the World ~ Conservatory, Chiswick Park, 2018

    2018 has been an eventful one for me. We launched Kuala Lumpur International Photoawards 2018 in February, celebrating the 10th installment which saw some amazing entries.  A milestone achievement, which I’d like to thank all our sponsors, partners and the KLPA team.

    In May, we gathered again at the KL Journal hotel for Photosymposium Asia, the second event discussing Photography and Social Change. The event had a small turnout but was intensive and our speakers gave insightful presentations followed by a popular open tabletop portfolio display.

    The next weekend in May, I had another intensive weekend spent with the international jurors for the KLPA judging, followed by a long weekend stay in the beautiful city of Auckland, attending the Auckland Festival of Photography!

    In July, I had the opportunity to visit Cortona On The Move Festival in Tuscany and saw some brilliant exhibitions and of course, sampled the wonderful Italian cuisine.  End August was spent in Kobe at Mt.Rokko International Photo Festival, where I reviewed portfolios and ran a portraiture workshop. This was followed in September with the setting up of the KLPA finalists exhibition and hosted awards presentation at the Whitebox Gallery in Kuala Lumpur.

    Later in December, I was back in KL again to host the Two Mountains Photography Project 3.0 at the ILHAM Gallery. The opening reception was a great success and the Malaysian artists involved appeared on radio and television broadcasts.  In December, the finalists’ images of KLPA2018 traveled to Medellin, Colombia for a 4-week exhibition at the MUUA Museum, University of Antioquia, and will travel to the Centro Cultural Facultad de Artes in March 2019.

    I take this opportunity to wish all my friends and followers, supporters and fellow photographers a very Happy New Year and I hope to meet some of you at the KLPA events and festivals. ~ Steven