張焯退休前曾從事攝影沖曬業務，八十年代結束店舖生意後，他曾將一批底片沖曬成銀鹽相片。由於為人低調，整批照片從未展示於人前，只是擱於床底下的紙箱，就這樣默默存放逾二十年。2012年，前《攝影畫報》主編伍小儀說服他舉辦展覽，在石硤尾藝文空間「光影作坊」舉辦《那些年 張焯舊日情懷作品展》，展出二十幅1960及1970年代的黑白影像，引起不少迴響。事隔兩年，同樣在伍小儀的遊說下，從影逾六十年的張焯，才於2014年姍姍來遲出版首本作品集《香江掠影——張焯攝影集》，收錄逾百幅他在1960及1970年代拍攝的寫實照片。文章轉載自《Milk Motor Club》，完整版本請瀏覽《Milk Motor Club》037期。
Boogie Woogie Photography & PhotogStory are pleased to present “Reminiscence,” a solo exhibition by Elsa Jeandedieu, a Hong Kong-based muralist and visual artist, at the Loft in Wong Chuk Hang from 29 June to 22 July 2023. The exhibition is presented together with 18th-century French museum-quality furniture and decorative art displayed by the prestigious Kraemer Gallery from Paris.
Born and raised in southern France, Elsa’s artistic journey began at a young age, experimenting with various mediums and techniques. Her passion for painting was ignited by French art history and family background, drawing inspiration from great artists – notably by the textures of French painter and sculptor Pierre Soulages or the use of colors by Mark Rothko and Piet Mondrian. Her signature style emerged as she honed her craft, a harmonious blend of vibrant hues, bold compositions, and expressive brushstrokes.
Elsa Jeandedieu, Waterfront, 2023, Courtesy of Boogie Woogie Photography
Elsa has been expanding her creative talents and bringing her unique texture artworks and murals to Hong Kong, Paris, Italy, and many other places. In the past twenty years, her inspiring energy and creativity have resulted in hundreds of commissioned paintings and luxury art pieces for high-profile clients, including CHANEL and other high fashion brands.
As she turns forty years old this year, Elsa moves on to a new chapter and dedicates herself to artworks that reveal her inner voice. Her inaugural solo exhibition Reminiscence invites us to embark on a journey through her universe. As the exhibition title demonstrates, Elsa’s painting brings the viewers to her childhood in a poetic way.
Elsa Jeandedieu, Denim from Nîmes, 2023, Courtesy of Boogie Woogie Photography
Elsa的繪畫植根於個人經歷，探索情感、家庭和記憶的主題。畫作中的顏色，還有石膏、銅箔和油漆等不同材料，均象徵著她童年時的不同回憶片段。在《Denim from Nîmes》這幅作品中，Nîmes正是她成長的南部城市尼姆，傳統上用來製做牛仔褲的丹寧布Denim，就是來自尼姆 (De Nîmes)，在作品則以一塊塊的藍色色塊呈現。
Elsa Jeandedieu, The Garden of the Fountain, 2023, Courtesy of Boogie Woogie Photography
Elsa’s work is deeply rooted in personal experience, exploring love, family, and memory themes. Her extensive application of materials like plaster, copper leaf, and marine varnish reminds her of something about childhood. As Elsa recalls, each piece brings her back to a specific place she had been in her teenage years. For her, childhood is blurry yet happy. Whenever she looks back, it is always shiny and colorful. She spent a lot of time on her grandparents’ boats – the use of gold and rusty material in her paintings may be reminiscent of these memories. Elsa’s work also delves into the realm of abstraction, as she skillfully manipulates color, light, and texture to create a palpable sense of depth and tension.
Elsa’s paintings are a testament to her excellent command of plastic art techniques at the service of a profound understanding of human emotion. With great pleasure and pride, we invite you to explore and appreciate the evocative memories captured by this remarkable French painter with what constitutes her first solo exhibition.
Reminiscence
Date: 29 June – 22 July 2023
Time: 2-7pm (Wednesday – Saturday)
By Appointment, Info@bewephoto.com
Address: The Loft, 8/F, E. Wah Factory Building,
56-60 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Wong Chuk Hang.
Elsa Jeandedieu by Felix Wong, Courtesy of Boogie Woogie Photography
Elsa Jeandedieu (b. France,1983)
Elsa spent five formative years developing her craft at the prestigious Atelier Lucien Tourtoulou in Paris, where she specialised in the creation of unique textures and interior decorating for high-end clients. Looking for a new challenge, Elsa moved to Hong Kong in 2008 after being hired as Artistic Director for a local art company, where she brought her unique vision to clients in Asia. In 2015, Elsa launched her eponymous atelier, Elsa Jeandedieu Studio, where she now heads up a team of dedicated artists.
Boogie Woogie Photography is a company founded in Hong Kong in 2016 to promote photography in Asia. The mission is to act as a platform for galleries, collectors, companies, and photographers aiming to develop photography projects in Hong Kong and Asia.
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.
對秦偉而言，香港國際七人欖球賽作為香港回歸後碩果僅存的大型英式體育文化活動之一，其實是有象徵意義的。1993年，在法國留學多年的他回到香港，思考如何捕捉這座殖民地城市的最後歲月，於是萌生拍攝七人欖球賽的念頭。從1995年至2018年期間，秦偉幾乎每屆賽事均會在南看台附近為裝扮趣怪的球迷拍攝肖像，這些照片最近結集成攝影集《異域狂歡 香港的南看台》(A Revelrous Heterotopia – The South Stand of Hong Kong)。
多年來，秦偉拍攝過數以百計的球迷照片，在攝影集中，他以球迷所扮演的角色並置，天使與神父、蝙蝠俠 vs 超人、蘇聯士兵與公安，可見排版與編輯的心思。當這些照片以並排的手法呈現時，既有歸類效果，同時也加強觀看時的趣味，令人不禁好奇下一頁會是甚麼角色。事隔三年，香港國際七人欖球賽去年尾再次在香港大球場舉行，重看這些作品時，不免有久違之感。
Chun Wai’s Cubicle Life narrates the livelihood of the poor in Hong Kong. These people have no alternative but to dwell in cubicles that have an area of only three to four square meters. These cubicles usually do not have windows; thus, the air does not circulate, and the atmosphere becomes stuffy. The room is unbearably hot in summer, and bed bugs run rampant, making it an extremely harsh living environment.
People dwelling in these cubicles are mainly the grassroots who have no means of changing their destiny. They barely exist below the poverty line, with poor quality of life and confined social networks, and thus often live in a passive, lost, alienated, and melancholy, sub-health mental state of mind.
The stories of cubicle dwellers are presented from cinematic angles through touching scenes, portraits, and point-of-view shots. With great sensitivity to color and tonal subtleties, a highly coherent body of powerful images has been created. Chun Wai deftly uses medium shots and close-ups to connect and interact with the subjects. The results were honest yet unobtrusive – to capture the characters on camera with their dignity.
Martin Heidegger, exploring Taoism in his later years, ruminated over the phrase:
‘Poetically man dwells.’
This is a state of life.
We must remove the shackles of alienation and oppression before we can end inhuman states of existence and enable every individual to reach their true potential.
Cubicle Life highlights the lives buried under the dictates of elitism revered by our society. It also exposes the plight of the underprivileged in a situation where they are deprived of any opportunity for upward mobility. It also attempts to find out the meaning of life and the worth of human existence.
Boogie Woogie Photography & PhotogStory are pleased to present « My Hong Kong, 我城 (Part II) », a group exhibition at the Loft in Wong Chuk Hang from 15 October to 27 November 2022.
Every city has its own story to tell. More stories are yet to be told in a vibrant and bustling city like Hong Kong. Following the success of the exhibition « My Hong Kong, 我城 », we are thrilled to present Part II, comprising twelve Hong Kong and international photographers’ artworks about the city.
Raymond Cauchetier, Hong Kong, 1954. Photo Courtesy of Boogie Woogie Photography
Everyone sees and feels the city from their perspective. People who have been to Hong Kong at different ages always have a reason to fall in love with the city. Raymond Cauchetier and James Chung‘s cityscapes from the 1950s and young talents’ impressions of Hong Kong are on display.
Even though Cauchetier and Chung lived in different worlds, they had similar paths. They were both self-taught photographers and recorded Hong Kong’s street scenes nearly seventy years ago. Their images reflect people’s simple life at that time. Later, in the 1960s, Cauchetier became a set photographer for the French New Wave and Chung for Hong Kong films. With the passing of Jean-Luc Godard in September of this year, Cauchetier’s photographs brought back vivid memories of the French New Wave director, which left a critical testimony of the golden era.
Hong Kong’s attraction is not only the city’s history and appearance but also the people who live here. For nearly two decades, photographer Chun Wai has photographed spectators dressed in amusing costumes during the Hong Kong Sevens. Meanwhile, Rensis Ho captured celebrities like Anita Mui and Kate Moss in Hong Kong, who are the Pop Culture Icons of our times.
The culture of Hong Kong is a mix of Chinese and Western influences. Such background inspired photographer Lean Lui’s artistic experimentations project “Disorder Sensing” (2022). She folded the light-sensitive paper into a pinhole camera, repeatedly threw it at the wall, or tossed it in a washing machine for exposure.
The process is done in complete darkness, relies on her experience and imagination, and finally obtains a series of abstract and gorgeous tints on paper. The process echoes Lui’s interests in Tao Te Ching, which says, “everything bears Yin and embraces Yang, and rushes into harmony.” After experiencing darkness and light, the photographic paper shows the beauty brought by the balance of Yin and Yang, which is reminiscent of the Taoist philosophy.
Hong Kong is a charismatic city. Whether in the movies or the reality, this place always attracted and fascinated visitors. The exhibition not only presents the city’s past and present but also embraces the city’s diversity through the photographers’ eyes. We hope the audience can recall their unique memories of the city with this exhibition.
My Hong Kong, 我城 (Part II)
Date: 15 October – 27 November 2022
Time: 2-7 pm (Friday – Sunday)
Address: The Loft, 8/F, E Wah Factory Building,
56-60 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Wong Chuk Hang.
Guided tour with Curator and Artists: Saturday 12 November, 2-7 pm
About Boogie Woogie Photography
Boogie Woogie Photography is a company founded in Hong Kong in 2016 to promote photography in Asia. The mission is to act as a platform for galleries, collectors, companies, and photographers aiming to develop photography projects in Hong Kong and Asia.
About PhotogStory
PhotogStory is an online Photography platform and Guest Curator based in Hong Kong. We focus on reports of local and international photographers and stories behind classic photos.
Artists Profile
Raymond Cauchetier (France, 1920-2021)
Raymond Cauchetier was the most famous photographer of French New Wave cinema. His first photographs were taken in his thirties while serving in the French Air Force press corps in Indochina. Cauchetier traveled through Hong Kong in 1954 and stayed for one week. He left a bouquet of memories, a little yellowed but always authentic.
James Chung (Hong Kong, 1925-2018)
James Chung embarked on his journey in photography in 1957 when he acquired his first Rolleicord. Entirely self-taught, he became a full-time movie-still photographer in 1963. James started his studio in North Point In 1968, focusing on portraits for commercials and print enlargement. His achievements in photography were further recognized by the Honorary Fellowship from the Photographic Society of Hong Kong and Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain later. The Hong Kong Heritage Museum collects his works.
Takeshi Shikama (Japan, 1948)
Takeshi Shikama’s life ambition is to capture the “invisible” world that lingers beyond the visible world of the trees. Each photograph is hand-printed by Takeshi Shikama, using the ancient platinum/palladium technique, considered the highest quality in black and white photographic printing. The Japanese Gampi paper on which he prints is a handmade UNESCO national treasure. It requires a great deal of time and manual labor, which reflects the intimacy Shikama has with his subject matter.
Roger Ballen (United States, 1950)
Roger Ballen’s photographs span over forty years, and he is one of the most influential and important photographic artists of the 21st century. His strange and extreme works confront the viewer and challenge them to come with him on a journey into their minds as he explores the deeper recesses of his own. Roger Ballen is one of the artists representing South Africa at the Venice Biennale 2022 in Italy.
Chun Wai (Hong Kong, 1958)
Born in Hong Kong and educated at the École supérieure des beaux-arts de Mulhouse in France, photographer Chun Wai’s perspective lies in his humanistic vision and macro-historical framework in interpreting the changing world. His project covered a vast area in the region, including Hong Kong. His work is full of a sorrowful yet romantic mood and reveals his personal landscape. The phantasmagorical image like a rhythm poem of a stray, is a unique work of art.
Thierry Cohen (France, 1963)
Thierry Cohen has been a professional photographer since 1985 and a pioneer in the use of digital techniques from the end of the 1980s. He lives and works between Paris and Monségur, close to the Atlantic Coast. Since 2006, he has devoted most of his time to personal work. Thierry is interested in the impact of human activities, particularly on nature. His works are held in private and public collections and regularly exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, and Paris.
Rensis Ho (Hong Kong, 1964)
Rensis Ho, a well-known Hong Kong photographer, studied finance in New York and then majored in photography at the Fashion Institute of Technology. After returning to Hong Kong in the 1990s, he has been engaged in photography for more than 25 years. Rensis is particularly noted for still life and portrait photography and has photographed numerous celebrities, including Kate Moss, Chloe Sevigny, Marc Jacobs, Sakamoto Ryuichi, Anita Mui, etc.
Julian Cohen (United Kingdom, 1967)
Julian came to Hong Kong in 1998 for three months, fell in love with the city, and stayed. He was called to
the Hong Kong Bar in 2010 and founded Resolution Chambers in 2021. He is today a renowned Barrister & Arbitrator. He photographs the city with his passion for the place and people.
Jocelyn Ho (Hong Kong, 1973)
Jocelyn has always been interested in photography – not to be behind or in front of a camera, but to see through a different pair of eyes. To her, everyone is a photographer. We may be looking in the same direction, the same object, but she believes we all see differently, and we choose which images to imprint on our minds.
Paul Bradshaw (United Kingdom, 1979)
Paul is a photographer, designer, and publisher based in Hong Kong since 2004. His photographs are either candid shots or spontaneous collaboration, which happens when his subject is suddenly confronted by the camera. The ambiguity of these fleeting moments, captured without exchanging words, encourages personal interpretation of the images.
Lean Lui (Hong Kong, 1999)
Lean Lui, a Hong Kong fine art and fashion photographer, graduated from Central Saint Martins (Philosophies & Photography MA). She has shot for the 2020 DIOR Global Campaign and VOGUE Magazine cover and was a guest of DIOR TALKS. Lean’s works were exhibited at the 2018 Beijing Three-shadow photography Award Exhibition, Hong Kong International Photo Festival, etc.
Dion Leung (Hong Kong, 1999)
Dion Leung is a Hong Kong-based visual artist who mainly works with photography and collage. She explores topics of rebellion and conflict with the practice of realism. As a self-taught artist, Dion is constantly looking for the expression of art amongst human interaction in other disciplines. Having an interest in history and politics, she is trying to fulfill her understanding of the sophisticated world through her art practice and reminding herself that everything true is beautiful.
