Portfolio of the Week: Kit Yip

Dear Readers,
This week we moved quite a bit east, to Hong Kong and it's my pleasure to introduce Kit Yip and her featured work. She started her photographic journey in 2006. She states that her photos are are mostly inspired by light and shadow, as well as character and mood. But I would add the she is also a master of bokeh (check the photos, what a subtlety!). When chance occurs, she promptly joins to collaborate with other artists and models, since it's always a good learning experience one can draw from such a circumstance. She describes herself as wanderer in her spare time, being that very wandering in the streets her major source of inspiration. As for the films and cameras used; she uses a really wide range of films and cameras. However, her mostly used cameras are a Leica M and a Hasselblad, being always carried around. Nice choice, Kit! You can get a grasp of Kit's work on Flickr and her Facebook page. Enjoy!

Mitja

 

 All photos copyright: Kit Yip

Portfolio of the Week: Jochen Abitz

Dear Readers,

there's no completeness without the other half, right? So it's my pleasure to introduce 4Spo's »partner in crime«, Jochen Abitz, from Germany as well. Jochen started his photographic journey about a decade ago, with digital gear. Then, as it often happens, he got »infected« with film photography and with medium format (also thanks to 4Spo), and stuck with it (oh, how I like to tell such stories!).  Similarly, he also likes fine cameras,  many different films, mostly BW, developed by himself. Besides sharing a common website, Jochen also performs some photo projects, editorials etc., together with 4Spo. As he states, they have quite a similar taste when it comes to photography. And obviously, they are quite a tandem! You just cannot find every day photos with such a masterful lighting as in their work (besides other aspects)! I urge to reinvite you to visit their site, there are many analog goodies to be found there! Jochen's work can also be found on Flickr. Enjoy the photos!

Mitja

 All photos copyright: Jochen Abitz

Portfolio of the Week: Niccolò Barone

Dear Readers,

This week we feature another Italian photographer, Niccolò Barone. He is an autodidact photographer. He works essentially in medium format (Hasselblad 503/500, Rolleiflex 2.8f, Pentax 67, Minolta Autocord, Mamiya 645 and some others) and 35mm (Leica M2, M4, M5, M6, Contax II, Nikon fm and some others) as well as with polaroid and Holga cameras, with available natural light as his favorite lighting source. His preferred films are Kodak Tmax 400, 100 and 3200. He develops BW films by himself, usually with Xtol (Kodak) or Gradual (Ornano) when he shoots at low film speeds, and HC110 or R09 when exposing film at high ISO. Yes, noise and graininess is a matter of choice for him.

Niccolò’s photography really focuses on many diffrent things, but essentially on the female form, most images are solitary and the most part is in black and white. When you look upon the photographs you get the feeling as the portrayed women have all endured some kind of hurt, not the physical kind though. All seem lost in their thoughts, gazing out toward distant lands, even those gazing right through the camera lens, are not really seeing, expressions are vacant and glazed.
Most of his inspiration comes from the classics, and some from the web where there's a great number of talented photographers and beautiful photographs. He has already been featured in a number of publications, including Vanity Fair. His work is certainly one of the most accomplished you can find on the web. Niccolò’s work can be found on Flickr on his first and second photostream and on his website. Enjoy his photos!

 All photos copyright: Niccolò Barone

Monday Column: The Right Tool for a Hill Walking Hike

This Friday my brother, I and our uncle will go hiking in the beautiful Slovenian Julian Alps. More accurate: We want to get to the highest mountain in Slovenia. This is Mt.  Triglav, 2,864 metres (9,396 ft) high. It’s a two day hike, first day up, sleeping in the Kredarica hut and the next day down. It’s a 2200 meters (7,218.2 ft) rise and then descent.

First mountain hut "Triglav temple" at opening 1871

source:http://www.gore-ljudje.net/novosti/52045/

Now, I’m a photographer. So I want to take a photographic camera with me on the hike. But it’s will not be an photographic excursion, As a contributor to this blog, would be inappropriate to take with me a digital camera (I admit I will be using a small P&S for snapshots... I’m guilty). So my dilemma is which camera to take with me to the hike? Why dilemma? Take your best camera you own or camera that you could give you the best performance, or the camera you prefer the most and enjoy shooting with? Hm... Probably the best camera, none the less of its simplicity, is my Russian large format camera FKD 18x24 cm or 7x9.5 in, with its wooden tripod. It would require a Sherpa to take it to the mountain top, but they are scarce in those mountains (satire alert!). Probably the second best quality would give me (loan from my friend) Kowa 66. This is a medium format 6x6 cm camera. Here is no need for help from Himalayas but it is large and heavy and bulky. Remember the rise? Much lighter and also with enough quality would be my Canon EOS 100 and some lenses. Lightweight would be with 24 2.8 and 50 1.8 lenses. But is also too much bulk, and I already explained in the last column what’s for me analogue shooting. I have only a small backpack and must take with me all necessary for two day trip and this season in mountains has already fell first snow... 

  Secovlje Saltpans shot with Agfa Isola 1

The most lightweight option would be my Agfa Isola 1 and Altix-n. First is a medium format P&S from late fifties and early sixties. It weight’s only 300 g. Problem is that the number of exposures is limited to only 12. And it has only one shutter speed (1/30 s) and only two aperture values: cloudy f11 and sunny f16, and quality of the lens is in the lomographic territory (I like it). The other option is a 35 mm fully manual “guess the distance rangefinder” with nice 50 mm f2.9 lens. But it lacks the mf look and it’s heavier.  

 Secovlje Saltpans shot with Altix-n

I must decide by myself but I want to hear your opinion. What do you think about my options and what would you bring to that kind of hiking from your arsenal?

Plustek OpticFilm 120 update (and a rant)

It was one of the first posts on the blog  about this medium format scanner. The actual market release date still seems to "float". When should this happen? Who knows, I don't. The vendors have been accepting preorders for the scanner for quite a while now. The feaures look promising, at least on paper. Not so for the price. Wex Photographic offers the scanner (in pre-order, of course) for £1999. Wow, that's serious money, 2.5k€! In these days people get a medium format camera in mint condition for some 15-30% of that amount! And you can get a (used but working, of course) Imacon or drum scanner for that sum.....I really do not understand who will ever buy such a monster (price-wise). If one needs to scan MF film for sharing online, then a Canon or Epson flatbed does the job just right, for 10% of that price. When you ever need high quality scans (exhibitions, print sales), then it's just better to pay a professional to do that. But yes, it is a problem to find a good professional these days.....I don't know for you, but I'm not gonna buy it. Not in a million years. If I ever get crazy one day, I'll get to scavenge an old drum scanner....and a SCSI adapter :)

Portfolio of the Week: 4Spo

Dear Readers,

We have moved back to Germany and feature another great photographer from this great country, 4Spo. Of course, 4Spo is not his real name, as he wanted to preserve his privacy, but that's his username on Flickr. And that's OK, we respect your privacy-it's your work that counts. He is with no doubt a modest guy, even though his work tells another story, and he mainly defines himself as a fan of Peter Lindbergh.  No doubt he is a die-hard guy as well! After a few years, he happily came back to film, using the many fine cameras in his possession: Leica, Plaubel, Hasselblad, Nikon etc. He has no particular preferences for film brand or type, but he likes very much expired film for its unpredictability and the effects it gives. Possibly with the lens wide open-another bokeh fetishist, I would say. He states that he likes the subtle eroticism in photography, with a nice bokeh, with the great help of film medium. And he obviously makes his job right! Also in the fashion/editorial field.  Enjoy his work! 4Spo's work can be found of Flickr on his website, along with his colleague work.

Mitja

All photos copyright: 4Spo

Monday Column: Analogue Photography as Escape from Digital World

What’s the reason to practice an analogue photography? It is because it’s better than digital? Or maybe it’s not better quality but better looking? Maybe it’s the reason the thrill of unknown, the so called chocolate box effect; that you never know what you will get until you develop the film? Or maybe it’s all about the feeling of operating the beautifully crafted mechanical photographic box?

We live in a frenzy world. The photographic technologies are developing too fast for my taste. They are excelling and superior at first sight. But like fast food tasteless and fatting (your mind). Photographically I’m a digital child. So I often catch myself just shooting (with my digital camera) at my photographic subject/object without thinking about it. And when I’m not satisfied with the results I just shoot more. But when I’m shooting with a vintage camera loaded with film I just switch the mind. I’m suddenly aware of my subject/object, I think about it, how to capture it without ruing my film. I’d had a success ratio about 25-30 frames of 36. How many do you think I had at same time shooting digital? Ok. I’m improving and I’m trying harder with my digital camera. So I’m improving my digital success ratio. But without analogue photography I would remain without experience that only shooting film gives you. Its calmness, some kind of therapy how to heal of digital frenzy that surrounds us every moment of our lives. And that’s just one reason why a photographer should practice an analogue photography.

 

I think that every photographer it has his own reason. Or reasons?  What’s mine? I’m not really sure. Analogue photography exists officially from 1839 when Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre presented to French Academy of Sciences the first photographic process in the world. So the analogue photography has at least 170 (or more) years of history. How many photographic processes, techniques, cameras and films were developed and worth to try out in that time? I’m interested in many of processes, techniques, cameras and films and in some not so much. In contrast digital photography exists only a decade or so (at least when majority of photographic professionals migrated to digital). Maybe in the future our grandchildren will find technology of today relaxing and interesting? Who knows?

Portfolio of the Week: Jens Taube

Dear Readers,

we still stay in the same country and this week we feature another photographer from Germany, Jens Taube. Interestingly, Jens' photographic journey has some similarities to Marc's path, the photographer we featured last week. The portfolio Jens sent us is quite compact and concise, as you can see. But nevertheless, it includes all the »substance« he aims for in his photographic endeavours. Jens is working primarily in medium format, with different Rollei cameras (SL66 and 6006), and in black and white. Besides the best technical combination in my view (6x6 and BW film), I was attracted by Jens' photos also because they have some particular kind of inherent emotional charge.

Here it is how he describes his path:

»Long before I started to photo-portray people, it fascinated me, how many different facets and how many different feelings a face can express. Or the gesture of a human hand. I took pictures I found in magazines or photo books as a drawing pattern as they gave me the chance to study frozen moments. Then in 2006 I exchange the drawing pencil for a DSLR. I wanted to create my own pictures instead of copying what others had seen and captured.

Two years later I made the step from the digital tool to classic black and white analogue photography.

Emotion is the subject that I focus on, more than on beauty and grace. Whenever I create pictures with someone, I encourage this person to listen carefully to their own insides. I show interest on which mood they encounter being at this particular place, in this particular hour. And that is the moment, when the face in front of my camera changes, when it convinces me to be honest and authentic, when it radiates another side of “beauty”. That is the moment that I long for when I portray.«

Jens described very well the very essence of his work and I think he succeeded very well in accomplishing his very own style. Bravo, maestro!

Jens' work can be found on Flickr and on his own website. Enjoy his work!

 Mitja 

All photos copyright: Jens Taube