Picture courtesy of Maxime Even
It is with great pleasure that I introduce myself. My name is Gary and I’m a rangefinder fanatic. For as long as I can remember, I have been really fascinated by photography. Cameras, films, scouting for great spots for amazing shots, developing photos and every aspect of the wonder of photography is my thing.
The vivid memory of the first camera I handled, my dad’s Minolta Weathermatic 35 DL, still warms me. It was a funky little compact camera with a dual 35mm & 50mm lens in bright yellow. I cannot remember any of the photos I took then but I did recall the joy that I felt in taking them.
When I was younger, my parents used to send me for piano lessons at Parkway Parade. Whilst waiting for my parents to pick me from the music school, I would always be at the MPH bookstore, looking and browsing through books on photography. I was really fascinated and amazed by the pictures that a camera is able to capture but never really had a chance to get my hands on one to try them out for myself. Back in those days, SLRs or any camera in fact was really costly & not to mention the cost of film as well. The film, developing and printing cost was too much for a kid my age and allowance to afford.
If my memory serves me well, it was during my secondary school days that my dad bought an SLR. I cannot remember the exact model, but I remember that it was at Tampines Mart and the shop was called Pertama. Even though we finally had an SLR, I was never allowed to get touch it as it was still my dad’s pride and joy. Back in those days, an SLR did cost quite a fair bit and I was still considered ‘too young’ to use it, let alone, bring it out on my own. Such was my childhood and I am sure, many others would find themselves in similar shoes too.
I never had the chance to pick up a real camera and take it out for a shoot till my NS days. Back in those days, I had a girlfriend for quite sometime. When we parted ways, I spent most of my days doing nothing apart from bummming around the house like a recluse. One day, a friend who was a NS Regular, Bobby came up to me and handed me his Lomo LCA camera and told me to take it out for a spin, shoot as much as I wanted and keep it for as long as I felt like shooting. It was really exciting to have a camera of my own to bring around for a shoot. I googled about the camera, realised it was a lomo camera & signed up with a local lomo forum called Lomotion. I joined their activities over the weekends and met a great bunch of friends along the way.
I have always been interested in what some labeled as Street Photography. I remember reading books, flipping through the pictures in MPH Marine Parade, staring in awe of the beautiful documentation of photojournalism. I wanted to re-create those images I remembered seeing.
By this time, I was already armed with a Yashica GS Rangefinder camera. I shall not go too much into details of my journey into using a rangefinder. here.
Through the regular outings with my lomography buddies, I gradually started to shoot people on the street, started to build up the confidence needed in street photography. The thing I like about street photography, is that it is an open book, there are no written rules on what is right or wrong, it is nothing too technical. It is about documenting everything around you. The people, the surroundings, environment all come into play when you are out on the street. The scene changes every few seconds, making it exciting.
Initially, I started shooting in color but as I progressed, I gradually became incline to the dark side with black & white film. Presumably, the two people that really influenced and molded my basic grounding on shooting style would be Ben Tay and Xavier Teo. I really like the up close and personal kind of style that Ben employs. Till today, I have not mustered sufficient courage to be as close to my subject as Ben has. I would call his ‘up close’ to his subjects really extreme. As for Xavier, I picked up black and white street photography from him. Black & white as we all know is classic and just by looking at a black and white picture, it invokes the feel of timelessness.
When I first started out shooting in black and white, I really went in deep to the dark side. I loved images that comes out really dark and black with low details. With my lomography background, heavy vignetting became my signature. My images mostly came out dark, jet black with an extreme high contrast. I shot using that as my signature for at least a year. One day I decided to try and tone down the images, get in some greys to balance the tones and see more details. At first I was not used to it. The pictures came out well but I just did not like the fact that the tones were not dark enough but I just told myself to persevere and see if it helps in getting better pictures. As this went on, I started to appreciate the fact that the images did appear better and showed more details. Lately, I have begun to mix the two styles together. These days I go for high contrast, nice controlled jet black looks but preserving the details to allow the viewer to actually see some details. I am enjoying the current process, churning out the black portions to my liking but with image details still clearly visible.
I have never been a technical person in photography. All I know is just exposure, some bits of composition and that is it. I always believe that it is good to have technical knowledge but in street photography, one doesn’t have to be too technical. Too much technical considerations on creating a picture merely causes you to hesitate and spoils the shot. You need a good eye, fast reaction and very good anticipation skills. The ability to build a good rapport with the subject is a definite advantage as well.
Looking back, I think it has been almost 4 years since I started my photography journey and it all began with loosing a girlfriend and the discovery of a simple Lomo LCA camera. Lately, I’ve went through my archive of pictures from my very first shots till the latest today. I’am glad that my photography work has been improving, it has been a never ending but rewarding journey as I discover and gain valuable knowledge with each passing day.
These days, I look forward to my holidays away from my day job where I can shoot overseas on all my travels. With the upcoming trip to Nepal in 6 weeks, I look forward to my next adventure on the Nepalese streets.
Here are some pictures to share from my lomography days to the latest and current, small personal project that I have at Little India.
Article Contributed by: Gary Wang