《William Klein: Painted Contacts》，29 x 20cm，HKD320，可inbox @photogshop 購買，
While reviewing his contact sheets for a film he made in the 1980s, William Klein conceived this original series by working at the nexus of painting and photography.
Referencing the age of film photography, when photographers selected images by circling individual negatives on a contact sheet with brightly colored grease pencils, Klein’s works invent a unique art object that organically combines painting and photography.
The resulting pieces are bold, kinetic color frames and reframes of enlarged black-and-white images throughout his career. Klein‘s iconic fashion and street photography always look gritty and bold, and are given a new vanguard and extraordinary perspective.
In his foreword to this edition, Klein describes these works as ”all brush strokes and jubilation. The jubilation of painting recalls the celebration of taking the photo.“
Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze’s ‘Concrete Stories’: A Fresh Angle on Hong Kong Rooftop Photography
‘Concrete Stories’ is a collection of genuine moments capturing people’s daily lives from the rooftops in Kowloon districts.
From 2014 to 2018, Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze, a French photographer based in Hong Kong, explored the city’s rooftops in a unique way. His lens captured the city from a fresh angle, focusing on aged buildings without alarms or security cameras and favoring sunny days for enhanced luminosity.
In his lens, you can see students skipping rope, women drying clothes, and people practicing Tai Chi. The scenes on the rooftop become more dramatic under the setting sunlight. After taking the photo, the final step was to carefully crop the images to highlight the rooftop and people’s activities.
These buildings, once a vibrant part of the city’s landscape, are now disappearing at an alarming rate. The pressing need for land has led to the demolition of low-rise structures, making way for taller, more modern ones, often with inaccessible rooftops.
植田正治曾說過：「只有普通人看得懂的照片，才是真正的好照片。」以業餘攝影愛好者自居的他，一生主要以沙丘為舞台，拍攝家人與家鄉鳥取的人文風景，雖然大部分作品都如舞台攝影般以「擺拍」進行，但卻絲毫不顯生硬，反而有一種魔幻的趣味。由日本便利堂(Benrido)推出的珂羅版迷你作品集《Gone are the Days》，精選六幅植田正治與家人在鳥取沙丘擺拍的照片。
Shoji Ueda《Gone are the Days》 時間來到1983年，一直支持植田正治的妻子紀枝離世，對他造成巨大打擊，他變得沉默不語，甚至喪失對攝影的興趣。讓植田重燃熱情的人，是身為藝術總監的二兒子充，他委託父親為設計師菊池武夫的品牌Takeo Kikuchi拍攝時尚寫真。一向以業餘自居的植田正治，忽然要拍攝商業攝影，震驚當時的攝影界。
不過對植田而言，這卻是難得的經歷，他重回熟悉的鳥取沙丘，模特兒自由地表演，他則透過鏡頭重拾攝影的樂趣。由日本便利堂推出的這本植田正治迷你作品集《Gone are the Days》，是植田正治晚年時期的商業創作，精選六幅由珂羅版 (Collotype) 印刷的照片，包括沙丘上的地壇與煙花、頗有Rene Magritte超現實風格的手持圓頂禮帽的照片等，這種充滿舞台感的超現實畫面，正是為人熟悉的「植田調」。
Issei Suda《Anonymous Men and Women Tokyo 1976-78》，「顯影·書櫃」有售。
個人最喜歡的作品是他1977年發表的《Self and Others》系列，六十張照片皆以人物為主體，從中審視自我與他人的關係。攝影師拍攝他認識的人，如家人、朋友以及學生等，以一種直接的方式接近他們，而且大多數拍攝對像都直視鏡頭。作為一名身材矮少的病人，牛腸茂雄的身型難免受到他人注視，他在作品中加入一張自拍照片，在觀看與被看之間，探討自我與他人的關係與距離。
《見慣れた街の中で Familiar Street Scenes》
《Familiar Street Scenes》是牛腸茂雄第三本、也是最後一本自行出版的寫真集，1981年發表。書中47張照片全用彩色正片拍攝，記錄城市中來來往往的途人。 與他過往的風格大相徑庭，在這系列作品中，牛腸茂雄以廣角、近景、長焦距等不同距離拍攝陌生人，時而不依靠觀景器以低角度拍攝，在熟悉的街頭捕捉不一樣的景象，有趣的視角也有別於一般的街頭攝影，在一系列色彩鮮豔的照片中，也可見在日本經濟泡沫前，消費文化在城市中的盛行。
《幼年の「時間 」 Childhood》
至於他創作生涯最後發表的《Childhood》系列，則包含六幅黑白影像，刊登於1983年6月號的《日本カメラ》(Nippon Camera) 雜誌，作品的主題是孩童。牛腸茂雄一生都在與死神拉鋸，對於生死也有不同的領悟，當時他希望透過「幼年」與「老年」兩系列作品呈現他的生死觀：童年的時光是生命的綻放，可能邂逅每個燦爛的時刻；而晚年的人雖然都要面臨無可避免的死亡，但也絕非只有悲傷與黑暗。只是，世人並未見到他的「The Time of Old Age」作品，牛腸茂雄便在同年逝世。
在攝影以外，牛腸茂雄也嘗試過畫作，《Spiritual Travels》收錄14幅記錄心理投射測驗的「墨跡測驗」圖案。他在1972年開始嘗試創作此系列，在紙與墨的交融之間，觀眾或許可透過他的「墨跡」，了解他的內心世界。至於1980年創作的《水の記憶 Memories of Water》，他將偶然浮現水面的圖案染印於紙上，57幅圓形的大理石紋水拓畫作，可見大自然的奧妙，也頗有禪意。
Enclosed Landscape is an urban landscape documentary project by Alan Ieon related to his hometown Macau, a place known for its spectacular casinos.
Hidden from the spectacle-like scenery, Ieon focused his camera on the artificial construction hoardings. Viewers are confronted with these tall steel fences that wrap around and disguise construction sites keeping curious on-lookers away. Whether it is an idle land resumption by the government or an under-construction area, one can always find these pre-fabricated, man-made objects lurking in the foreground.
These hoardings occupy the city’s skyline and shape the physical boundary of our sight toward the Landscape. The photographer deliberately combines the construction hoarding with the background in a typological attempt, and these repetitive landscapes are juxtaposed precisely like displaying specimens. The barrier landscape also challenges the seemingly natural relationship between development and landscape.
Hong Kong Stories, A Photography & Photobook Exhibition
Photography was introduced to the world in 1839, and Hong Kong became British Empire’s colony in 1841. The coincidence and proximity in time connect photography to Hong Kong’s history. To a certain extent, photographic images construct our impression of Hong Kong. Especially in the 20th century, when many Hong Kong and foreign photographers roamed or passed through Hong Kong, they captured the city’s appearances differently.
PhotogStory is pleased to present “Hong Kong Stories,” a group exhibition of old Hong Kong images, along with more than 50 old Hong Kong photo books by multiple Hong Kong and international photographers, as clues to connect Hong Kong’s stories in the 20th century.
Everyone sees and feels the city from their perspective. Hong Kong is a vibrant city under the lens of the late photographers Yau Leung and Ngan Chun Tung in the 1960s to 1970s. The fleeting moments captured by the French New Wave set photographer Raymond Cauchetier in 1954 reflect people’s simple life. Their photographs left a critical testimony of the precious era.
Hong Kong Stories
Date: 1 August – 17 September 2023
Time: 11am – 8pm
Site: House by Kubrick, 5/F, Cityplaza, Tai Koo
About PhotogStory
PhotogStory is an online Photography platform and Guest Curator based in Hong Kong. We focus on stories of local and international photographers and stories behind classic photos.
Michael Rogge是當時少有在香港拍攝16米釐片段的攝影師，1952年，他是HK Amateur Cine Club聯合創辦人之一，留港數年間拍攝許多珍貴片段。十多年前他開始在Youtube公開當年拍攝的片段，這些影像引起很大迴響及關注，連在影片中穿插的舊香港照片也引起人們的興趣。2010年，中環Tao Evolution畫廊邀請他舉辦攝影展覽，並出版攝影集《Hong Kong Fifties》，他的故事及照片在香港也逐漸為人所知。
攝影集《Hong Kong Fifties》，54頁，精裝版，26.4 x 32.8cm，HKD250。「顯影·書櫃」 @photogshop 有售。
The 94-year-old Dutch photographer Michael Rogge set foot in Hong Kong in 1949 to work for a Dutch Bank. He has been a genuine enthusiast of photography and filmmaking since childhood. He always carried a small Kine Exakta 135mm camera and a Paillard Bolex movie camera to walk through the streets of Hong Kong to document people’s daily lives. Street barbers, letter writers, and passers-by carrying wooden barrels with a shoulder pole, his camera witnesses the life of ordinary people in Hong Kong at that time. Children are always seen under his lens, little girls drinking beverages with younger siblings on their backs, a boy sitting in a rattan basket, and the kids swimming at the pier.
Michael Rogge left Hong Kong for Japan in 1955 and then briefly returned to Hong Kong in 1961 to continue photographing the city. After 28 years, when he returned to Hong Kong in 1989, the city underwent tremendous changes in the era of economic take-off. Many colonial buildings had long gone, and the country lanes in Shatin became concrete roads. The images he recorded can hardly be seen anymore.
