Two weeks ago, I was really lucky, I managed to actually had the opportunity to shoot with Junku Nishimura, the brilliant street photographer from Japan.
Big thanks go to Kevin Lee of IPA for having me a long. It was really nice & I felt honored to be shooting for a couple of days with Junku.
Also, it wasn’t just Junku, we had the famous Instagram iPhone street photographer, Chia Aik Beng with us as well.
These three big guys are really hardcore on shooting street photography. I did 3 days with them, I’ve shot more rolls of film than I would in three weekends. It was a lot of walking, traveling round the island & shooting under the blistering Singapore heat.
With them around, I was burning through rolls & rolls of film non stop. I did learn quite a fair bit from the famous three in these 3 days. Each of them of course have their own individual styles on the whole, it was a lot of observing, I’ve learn to observe my surroundings more. How the surroundings can actually affect the turn out of the picture be it exposure or composition. It was quite a bit of the waiting game as well. Choosing the right spot to be in & just patiently waiting to shoot when the right moment happens.
Through these three days of hardcore shooting, I’ve come to realise that street photography isn’t about your gear. It is all about what I mentioned above, a lot of observing, a lot of patience & waiting to spring the trap to our “victims”. Aik Beng himself uses nothing but just his iPhone & the pictures which he churns out are amazing, all shot, all edited & uploaded for your view pleasure on instagram/flickr etc. on the iPhone itself. Aik Beng tends to be up front like me to where the action is. People are actually not intimated by him shooting close up with his iPhone but rather bystanders are curious on what he is shooting.
Junku on the other hand is way different from the way I shoot street. He walks with a steady pace, observes a lot before taking the shot. Even after taking the shot, he actually stands there to re-think & observe again before re-composing for more shots on that particular scene. When we were shooting I notice Junku is more of a observer & documenting what he observes in contrast to mine which is being right in where the action is & getting up close & personal.
Junku shoots with nothing fancy but just a Leica M6 & a Summarit 50mm F1.5.
The work that he has presented on his Flickr is amazing. For the whole week he was in Singapore, all he shot was only with that set up & he didn’t actually bring along any other cameras or anything else to back up him, just lots & lots of film. He carries no camera bag, just the camera slinged on his neck & films in his cargo pants.
I think the major lesson of the day here is your gear does not help you to construct that street picture you want but it is how you do it as a photographer.
For a street photographer to actually capture the essence of the street, observance & patience play a key part. Luck only comes into play when you nailed these down.
I’ve learnt a lot from these guys not only through observing them shooting but also during the beer breaks & meal times when we actually stop & rest. A little bit of chat to actually understand their insight & their individual style of street photography was priceless indeed.
Check out this video done by Kevin on Junku:
Junku Nishimura: Japanese Street Photographer in Singapore. from Invisible Photographer Asia on Vimeo.
Article contributed by Gary Wang