*Dogtown*
Ricoh GR1 + Kodak T-Max 400
Sai Kung is a seaside town North-East of Hong-Kong Island. For some reason, either there’s a lot of dog owners there, or dog owners converge there at the same time I go there. Either way, I intend to go back to do a series of nothing but dogs and dog owners. This is one of them. Interestingly, while many people aren’t too happy about being photographed in the street, if you show interest in the dog, they agree readily!
*Waiting for the MTR*
Ricoh GR1 + JCH400
You know this annoying feeling when you’re going to drop film at the lab and the one roll in your camera has only a couple of shots left ? I tend to shoot anything, and it’s virtually always crap. Well, not this time! This is one of those rolls. I think it was even shot in the Lai Chi Kok station where Camera Film Photo is located!
*Sham Shui Po Life*
Ricoh GR1 + Ilford FP4+
Sham Shui Po is an area of Kowloon that feels like it has still retained much of the Hong Kong life of old. It’s busy all times of day (and night, I suspect) with street vendors of all sorts buzzing around. These guys were just setting up, I have no idea what they were selling, but it’s such a typical scene that I thought I would share it.
*The Narrows*
Ricoh GR1 + JCH400
One of the things that feels to me to be uniquely Hong-Kong is the narrow passages that connect the streets. Sometimes they are wide enough for small street markets to live there, but sometimes they’re just so narrow that their only function seems to be as a refuge for smokers.
*Framed!*
Ricoh GR1 + JCH400
The light in Hong Kong can be very harsh, and JCH400 is a great film but very contrasty. So some might argue that the above shot is too contrasty with some blown highlights. And yet to me this is what Hong Kong on a bright day looks like. The woman in the temple door is just a great bonus.
*Oxford in the Sun*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Ilford Pan F
Last summer I did a bit of mad traveling going from Bordeaux to Paris to Mâcon to Paris again, to Vienna to Lyon to Marseille to Bordeaux to London/Oxford and back to Bordeaux, most of it for work and in the space of two weeks. It was too much. When I arrived in Oxford it was brutally hot, very unusually so for Britain, but very clear as well. Just outside the train station, I saw this row of beautiful old British houses, took out the camera, and voila.
*Anonymous Lounging*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Fuji Velvia 50
Lyon’s Hôtel Dieu is an ancient hospital that has been decommissioned and rehabilitated as a series of indoor parks, hotels and shops. Its classical architecture is both monumental and sparse. I took a few shots in there, taking advantage of the great light. Despite my chronic underexposure of the Fuji Velvia, some of them came out really nice, like this picture of a friend lounging anonymously on a deck chair in a courtyard.
*Pestacle de Guignol*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Fuji Velvia 50
Lyon is the birthplace of Guignol, the French panto version of Punch and Judy. As I was walking the streets of the old Lyon in a brutal, brutal heat I saw this shop window with a Guignol dummy (at least I think it was a dummy), kids and on the side a guy working on a building. It was my first ever roll of Velvia 50 and I suspect I underexposed it some, but I quite like the warmth in the final photo nonetheless.
*Moody Lantern Portrait*
Fuji XT3
The beauty of really wide open lenses is that even at night you can do portraits with wonderful background bokeh. This guys was standing a few meters from me, and I waited a while for him to be looking in (roughly) my direction. This is the final shot I selected of a few and I really like it.
*Keep your Lantern Trimmed and Burning*
Fuji XT3
I took a lot of portraits of lantern bearers. I was looking for interesting subjects, but also interesting moments. Here, I liked how the lantern light was directly lighting the young man’s face. Of and yes, the title is a bit of a nod to an old, old song…
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