TLR Street Photography

© Vivian Maier Photography

In a previous blog I talked about street photographer, Vivian Maier's work and how much I got inspired. Well, for the first time since I have had been doing street photography with 35mm rangefinder camera and film SLR, I took my newly repaired Seagull-4A out to the streets today.

I have had this undescribable sensation and it adrenalized me to do more street fotos. I guess I did. Well I did not shoot as many as 10 rolls of medium format film, but just 2 rolls. Previously I got 2 rolls of Ilford FP4+ left and thought I could just use them.

From the experience I got today, I discovered that there are advantages and disadvantages in using a TLR for street photography, which pose challenges. Let me list them out here as you make the jump:

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Unchanged Melody series 4 - Master Hong Hanlin, Artisanal Shoemaker 洪汉林 - 手工制鞋匠

Hong Hanlin 洪汉林, 80-year-old is making shoes when I arrived at his tiny shoe shop at Bencoolen Street Food Center. He is one of Singapore's few remaining artisanal shoemakers. His father passed away when he was a child, and his family was poverty-stricken. At the age of 15, he went into shoemaking, and endured a very hard period as an apprentice.

Make the jump to listen to what Master Hong said about his life as a shoemaker.

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Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010!!!

Another new year has begun, another chapter of our life just started. Eye é City 2009 just ended and every participant has submitted their photos today. Preliminary fotos selection will be held next week on 9 & 10 January 2010, Saturday & Sunday from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm at Beach Center, Beach Road. I'll be there as one of their facilitators in helping out the participants with their fotos selections. Looking forward to see their work.

It was my 5th year that I took part in this annual event. It was great to meet friends during the Registration night on 30 Dec 2009. On the actual day, weather was awesome; hot, sunny and occasionally windy day. A great day for street photography.

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Verticals - upright panorama

Since I purchased my new panorama camera, Horizon Perfekt in October, I have eventually made a few rolls of panorama fotos. As usual, I shoot exclusively on black-n-white film with this new camera. Well, OK I did a couple rolls of Agfa Vista 400. I don't really like the colors produced from these color negatives as they are flat and lacked of contrast. Maybe it was due to the scanning from the foto lab.

What are the great challenges posed when making vertical panorama photographs?

Make the jump to find out more.

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Street Photography with a TLR (Twin Lens Reflex) Camera

Recently I came across an article written by Chicago photographer John Maloof, in Flickr's HCSP (Hardcore Street Photography) Discussion column. In the article John said that he had purchased a giant lot of negatives (about 40,000) from a small auction house in Chicago. He discovered the work of French born street photographer, Vivian Maier. who passed away in April 2009. Vivian's body of work mainly featuring daily street scenes from the 1950s - 70s. John is gradually going through all the negatives and publishes Vivian's work in his blog site.

Vivian Maier, self portrait

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My Affinity For Panorama

Recently I got hooked on panoramic photography again. I was searching my stuff on a bookshelf and found a photography book on panorama, and it just struck me that I once did a roll of panorama photos back in 2006. Back then, I got the chance to borrow a classic HORIZONT panoramic camera from a friend of mine. It was certainly fun taking photos with it but one main problem with this old Russian-made camera is light leakage, otherwise mechanically it functions well.

So here's one best shot and my favorite shot, out of that roll of FujiFilm Superia 200 I took. I had posted the color version before.

Old and New Laughing Buddha

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On Reading...Update

I got back my Eye e City 2008 negatives yesterday afternoon. As I have worked as a volunteer and a facilitator for the Committee, as well as participating in the meaningful event, I was privileged and entitled to get 3 copies of Eye e City 2008. Yes, it came as a pleasant surprise to me.

As I went through my negatives and digital photos on CD, I recalled I did take a shot of a Malay man reading a newspaper under a shed, as shown below...

It was located at the Malay Heritage Center. Without saying, this shot is added to the On Reading project. I will keep looking and shooting for this project and add to the collection. When the time comes to select and edit the best 100 photographs, I will tidy up the gallery on my website.

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The End of KODACHROME

Eastman Kodak Company announced on June 22, 2009 that it will discontinue sales of KODACHROME Color Film this year, concluding its 74-year run as a photography icon. Check out their news here.

Personally I have never tried this transparency film before and would love to try out one roll. it's a pity it's coming to tis end and the price per roll is not cheap. I can still get couple of rolls from eBay, Adorama, or B&H. Alternatively, I can use Ektachrome E100VS which produces similar results but not as rich and vivid as Kodachrome.

My Exhibited Work @ Eye e City 2008 Photography Exhibition

Last Saturday I went down to Bras Basah Complex to check out my work @ Eye e City 2008 Photography Exhibition. I took up the Retrospective Challenge for the second time as it came naturally to be the ideal subject when I was really honored and delighted to join Eye e City committee in taking part to document the official closing down of New 7th Storey Hotel on 30 & 31 October 2008. In June 2008, news broke out that one of our oldest budget hotels is going to be demolished and make way for the new Bugis MRT line, Downtown Line One.

Here's the slideshow of the photographs I made. For better viewing, press F11 key for maximum screen display. Eleven out of those photographs are selected for the exhibition. The last shot was taken on the actual day of Eye e City 2008 event as the event terms stated. Therefore I do not have it as I have yet to collect my negatives back from the committee on 27 & 28 June 2009.

On these 2 days, Eye e City 2008 Book will be launched and participants can collect the book and their negatives and/or digital photos.

城市的眼睛 Eye é City 2008 Photography Exhibition

The book launch will be announced and released on another date. Below is the official e-poster from Eye e City Committee.

Postcards of Old Singapore

The old Capitol Theater. Year and date unknown.

In my earlier post, I posted on the event sessions organised and presented by National Museum of Singapore, on picture postcards and Chinese photo studios of the 20th century.

I want to talk more about the picture postcards in this blog. It comes to mind about whether people in this 21st century modern age, do collect postcards. Not only new ones but especially the old ones, particularly of our motherland, Singapore. Our country has came a long way since our independence in 1965 and it has changed so fast in its society, be it educational level, infrastructures, urban land development, etc. How many people do know abt this country's old past, way back when it was found or even further back in history. I doubt so even for myself.

At least at a certain point or level, we can get to know more about our country's past history through these old picture postcards, in which we and our younger generation are able to see how old Singapore once looked like.

I happened to have a few old picture postcards on a CDR that I kept in my database. I recalled that I had them scanned as digital files for "archival" purpose for an old ex-colleague. I thought I should show them here for all readers to see. It really occurred to me that upon seeing these postcards, no doubt there's nostalgia about them, but they make me feel like I have travelled back in time and realized that our country has certainly changed so rapidly that we are starting to loose our own self.

Let me know what you feel upon seeing these picture postcards.

I'll be starting to collect some of these old picture postcards and feature them here in my blog from time to time. So do come back and if you like my blog, you can subscribe via email or RSS.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a pleasant viewing.

Sultan Mosque @ North Bridge Road. Year and date unknown.

Cinema in Great World. Year and date unknown.

Chinatown area. Year and date unknown.

Picture Postcards of Singapore and Malaya

Following the highly successful series on Introduction to Singapore History in 2008, this new series of curatorial lectures highlights the latest research on the interpretation of cultural artefacts. Each week, the curators and guest speakers will use the Museum’s collections as a springboard to discuss ways of reading and interpreting these artefacts as well as understanding their contemporary relevance. In doing so, the lectures seek to provide an understanding of the role of history as a dynamic force in shaping museum's perspectives of artefacts and collections in the past and present.

Presented by National Museum of Singapore, below is the schedule for 2 out of 4programmes:

Saturday 2 May 2009
Picture Postcards of Singapore and Malaya

Speakers:
Iskander Mydin, Deputy Director (Curation and Collection) at National Museum of Singapore.

Dr. Koh Keng We, Curator at Documentation and Research Centre, Centre for International Collections at Alden Library, Ohio University.

Picture postcards emerged in the 19th century in Europe and soon became a world-wide phenomenon with the increasing popularity of photography as well. The picture postcard became a mass-produced commodity catering to the general population. In time, picture postcards also became collectible items. Picture postcards of Singapore and Malaya provided an easily accessible means of viewing the “exotic” landscape, people, and other areas of interest to a foreign audience. This lecture will feature ways of such visual representation of Singapore and Malaya in the 19th and 20th centuries as well as collecting perspectives. It will be based on the Museum’s collection of picture postcards.

Iskander Mydin is currently Deputy Director (Curation and Collection) at the National Museum of Singapore. His more recent works include the early colonial and World War II periods in the National Museum’s Singapore History Gallery. His research interests include the social history of the Malay community in Singapore, cultural history of Singapore and colonial art history with reference to historical paintings of the colonial period in Singapore.

Dr. Koh Keng We is currently a curator with the Documentation and Research Centre, Centre for International Collections at Alden Library, Ohio University. Dr. Koh holds a PHD in Southeast Asian History from the University of Hawaii. He has a wealth of experience in sourcing and collecting picture postcards.


Saturday 23 May 2009
Ephemeral Memories: Collecting Photographs by Early 20th Century Chinese Photo Studios in Singapore

Speakers:
Jason Toh, Curator at National Museum of Singapore.
Kelvin Lee, Private Collector.

This lecture will begin with a brief introduction into the history of Chinese photographic studios operating in Singapore during the early 20th century. Through works collected by the Museum, Curator Jason Toh will examine the rationale and collecting practices of public institutions. This will be followed by a presentation from a young private collector, Kelvin Lee. Through these two presentations, the participants will not just get a chance to see many visually interesting historical photographs but also learn about the similarities and differences between public and private photographic collections.

Jason Toh has been a curator at the National Museum of Singapore since 2004. He has curated Singapore themed exhibitions such as Port City (Singapore History Gallery), Photography Gallery (Singapore Living Galleries) and more recently, Weapons of Mass Desire, and written articles on Singapore photography. His upcoming projects include an exhibition on Singapore landscapes and a book on 19th century photographs of Singapore.

Kelvin Lee is the great-grandson of Lee Shui Loon (alias Lee Yin Fun), one the early leading Chinese photographers in Singapore from the 1890s to his death in 1935. He collects the works of the various studios associated with the Lee clan, which includes Koon Sun, Yong Fong, Tien Seng, Lee Brothers, Eastern Studio and others both in Singapore and the region.

For programme enquiries, please call (65)6332 3584 / 6332 4557.

Ticketing Information:
$15 for a single session
Concession rate is available to the National Museum members.

Counter SalesStamford Visitor Services Counter: 10am - 7.30pm
For enquiries, please call +65 6332 3659 / +65 6332 5642.

Thought you readers might be interested to attend these sessions. At least they sound interesting to me that I can find out and know more about the past history of Singapore.

Thank you for reading.