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fan ho
Fan Ho, a Chinese photographer in the 1950s and 1960s, captured street scenes of growing urban life, alleys, markets, and rural areas as he grew up in Hong Kong and Kowloon. Many of his photos show youth whimsically running around the streets, such as in the second photo above- the low angle is playful and taken as if seen from another child’s eyes. The world around them seems so big, with clothes lines forming linen jungles above them. The scenes seem very dreamlike, especially those with shafts of light filtering in the frame.
The 9th photo above, “Approaching Shadow” (1954), is one of his most well known works. The shadow was actually edited in during processing in the darkroom. He described the shadow as the girl’s (his cousin) youth about to fade away, an inevitable fate that everyone must face.
Looking back on his work, he reflected longingly for a time past, before his home in Hong Kong grew into the bustling metropolitan that it is now.
“Sometimes I want to find my old memories. My work includes many alleys... that no longer exist. I love Central Market. I went there for hours and hours, day after day, for many months, maybe years. It was hard to take photographs because of the lighting. It no longer exists.When I came back, I could not find the atmosphere I loved from half a century ago. I don’t know why. Maybe I am old, or old-fashioned. Maybe I am remembering the past too much.
“I love “As Evening Hurries By.” It’s a shot I took in Sai Wan. The atmosphere, the mood, no longer exists. It only exists in my dream, in the image. Now it’s all steel ships and Cadillacs. At that time, there were tricycles.”
There is something magical about the world he photographed, and now that it is lost, his documentation is all the more valuable. I suppose I fear that feeling, that the world may not ever be the same and that in my own photography I feel a desperation to capture my life as it is now, so as not to forget it in the future.
https://fanho-forgetmenot.com/hong-kong-yesterday-1
https://www.scmp.com/magazines/hk-magazine/article/2034956/ho-fan-memory-hong-kongs-iconic-photographer
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shoji ueda
Shoji Ueda, a Japanese photographer, has many different visual styles- color, black and white, painterly, dreamlike, humorous, and uncanny are a few words that can be used to describe his art. The series “Brilliant Scenes” (1980-81) (first three photos above), and its hazy softness, reminds me of impressionism, like Monet trying to capture fleeting light and color. His more well known work, depicting his family in the sand dunes, has a playful and airy quality to it. His later nude and fashion photography in the dunes hints at a surrealist environment that reminds me of Dali’s stark and distorted paintings. Still different is his series “Illusion” (1987-92) (last photo) with still lives of fruit in vibrant rich colors.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/dec/18/shoji-ueda-most-beautiful-surprising-photobook-of-the-year
https://loeildelaphotographie.com/en/event/the-world-of-shoji-ueda/
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harry gruyaert
Harry Gruyaert’s rich colors are what drew me in when looking at photographers on Magnum Photos. His colors seem to bleed in the the frame, and he seems to push the entire gradation of color without fear of shadows and blacks. His series “Last Call” takes place in an airport, a place where people wait- he calls it theatrical, like props and players on a stage. It is fascinating how he thinks of places of transit as being literally transitory.
“Airports are also places that bring together everything that catches my eye as a photographer: the interplay of light, transparency and reflections, the overlapping layers that make you lose your bearings and create a very strong impression of being caught between two worlds, the ambivalence between inside and outside.”
I wonder what he thinks of airports and places where people wait, now, when travel is restricted and social distancing prevents groups from forming and idling. The first photo above, “A lounge of Roissy airport” (2010), depicting a man eating lunch alone, feels like it could have been taken yesterday.
https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/travel/harry-gruyaert-last-call-photography-photobook-airport-travel/
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neo serafimidis
Contemporary photographer Neo Serafimidis’s recent series “The Sheltering Night” takes a look at Bay Area families, both friends and strangers, in their homes under the shelter-in-place order.
Recent photos on my social media have been about the local protests (Freedom Rally, Waffle House, people storming a councilmember’s home), so it was nice to discover these photographs as I was searching for pandemic photographers. The people inside have mostly solemn expressions, showing how they feel about the state of the world. There are a few with people who are posing with smiles as if it is a normal family portrait. The removed aspect, with people being shot through their windows rather than on their porches, makes me think of the complexities of other people and their relationships. Like families that have been reunited, whether or not they wanted to be, or having to be alone with yourself. All of the things that you need to confront when the world stops.
https://neoserafimidis.com/the-sheltering-night
https://www.instagram.com/neoserafim/
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reflecting on my mom is something i’ve had to face recently. without putting the blame entirely on “cultural differences,” my mom has always been easy to believe in alternative medicine. part of it comes from her rural upbringing in a village in china. it’s not that she has ever neglected us by refusing to bring us to the doctor, but it has since carried over into chain messages on wechat with horribly false information:
“SERIOUS EXCELLENT ADVICE by Japanese doctors treating COVID-19 cases... Even if the virus gets into your mouth...drinking water or other liquids will WASH them down through your esophagus and into the stomach. Once there in the tummy... your stomach ACID will kill all the virus. If you don’t drink enough water more regularly... the virus can enter your windpipes and into the LUNGS. That’s very dangerous.”
“In 1938, Henan plagued dead countless, my grandfather is every day to others to see a doctor, save countless. At that time, there is no mask that is, this method to block infection is very effective, so secretive... The family dips the cotton swab in white rice vinegar, then put the cotton swab into the nostril, so that white rice vinegar attached to the nostril wall, and finally a few of the bridge of the nose”
it is especially terrifying because my mom worked at the international airport in san francisco (she has since been temporarily laid off), and lives with her elderly parents. for her to be spreading misinformation is scary.
yesterday i video called her for a couple hours trying to convince her not to travel to visit my post-chemotherapy dad, elderly grandma, and sister.
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Richard Billingham
after watching the video “Richard Billingham’s Ray’s a Laugh” and expanding upon it in class, we were prompted to think about our own families. the series depicts raw snapshots of a difficult-to-look-at family-- his mother and alcoholic father. many people can relate to having an ideal of the perfect family growing up, but in reality that it breaks down and they eventually come to the realization that their parents are really just other people, each with their own complexities and faults. billingham unashamedly revealing his dysfunctional parents is brave, and something that would be difficult for me to do.
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francois vogel
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A post shared by Francois Vogel (@francois.vogel) on Apr 23, 2020 at 9:06am PDT
“Kitchen sport”
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A post shared by Francois Vogel (@francois.vogel) on Mar 4, 2020 at 1:43pm PST
“Two crossing people”
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A post shared by Francois Vogel (@francois.vogel) on May 8, 2020 at 6:40am PDT
“Sick walking”
website: https://www.francoisvogel.com/en
Francois Vogel is a French artist whose work centers around photo and video manipulation. According to his website, he “plays with our vision, he manipulates our perception of reality and immerses us in a unique universe, distorted as the clay, or fragmented as crystal.”
I first discovered him on Instagram, containing clips from short films on his website. his usual content feels whimsical and playful, but his more recent posts during quarantine set a more grim tone
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a few ol’ guys having a tailgate lunch outside the park in the neighborhood
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“Avoid gatherings / stay at home / save lives”
“If you must travel / do not speed”
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before
I was looking through my phone for the last photos I took before the quarantine started. these are two of my friends walking back to their cars after hearing that classes were canceled that night
03 12 20
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