Photographs from Hong Kong and mainland China
by Jonathan van Smit
I wasn’t able to do much street photography back in New Zealand as I was living next to a beach and there simply weren’t many streets or people!
…I like getting up really close so I use 15mm and 21mm mostly. I need to feel something when taking photos and I don’t get that if I’m standing several metres away with a longer lens. I’m not sure that I’m especially ‘discreet’ when I’m taking pics … after all I’m standing right next to my subjects. A head-to-toe photo taken with a 15mm means that I’m less than 1.5 metres away. I don’t use the viewfinder very much and often just guess the focus and exposure. The actual moment of taking the photo is quite important to me. People can move quite a lot in a second or two and there’s rarely enough time to compose and focus so I’ve taught myself to estimate all that on the run and can change shutter speed or aperture without looking down at the camera…
…We can’t really control how people interpret our photos, can we? They bring their own point of view and life experience into any interpretation, and that’s fine with me. We’re all so saturated with images that I don’t think mine make any meaningful difference anyway…
…I frequently have frustrating periods when I experience blocks, when I can’t seem to get the photos I want without repeating myself.
…I’ve been walking around West Kowloon for nearly four years now, and know quite a few people there. I like listening to their stories. For example, hostesses in karaoke bars, Mr. Number 2 who spent 18 years in jail, Connie who lives on the streets but speaks perfect English, a few drug users who come and go, a couple of social workers, and so on. I sometimes do some community work in Sham Shui Po so I also get to know people through that…
…I had my M8 stolen in a mugging a couple of years ago, a drug user once pulled a knife on me in an alleyway behind Chungking Mansions, and three pimps chased me down the road once, and another drug user punched me last year, but Hong Kong is generally very law abiding and people are very friendly too…
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