Here is a rework and rewritten assignment notes for Assignment 3.
Mobile Phones
I live in Hong Kong and street style shooting is what revived my passion for photography. However, the crowded streets do not always allow for graphic Henri Cartier-Bresson-esque shots, and this has made me look at the decisive moment from a different angle and lead more to me capturing a moment in life; which I suppose inverts the traditional view, capturing the usual not unusual.
One thing that has always struck me about Hong Kong is how much smartphones are part of the culture here and always have been in the close to 7 years I have lived here. You may think that is not unusual, mobile phones are everywhere but, think back. I left the UK in 2009, and if you had a friend with an iPhone it was unusual, they were in their infancy, you would crowd around them to ask to see it. However, immediately on landing in Hong Kong, I felt like a Luddite not having an iPhone. Everyone was connected 24/7.
And this has just grown and grown faster that you can imagine everyone see now is glued to their smartphone – it’s not just iPhones now! With this in mind, I wanted to capture a set of images that use mobile telephones to illustrate my Hong Kong style of the decisive moment.
I shoot primarily around 35 to 50mm focal range when working on the streets, this a focal length I’m comfortable with and for this project I did not try to shoot in one day I shot images over a period using the following statement of intent:
“Use black & white images to capture the prevalence of mobile telephone use in Hong Kong society.”
All the images were converted to black & white using the same technique decision to use Black & White is because Colour in Hong Kong can be distracting one of which there is such a variance in quality of light, from unusual mixtures of neon to harsh, flat daylight. As this was an essay on the decisive moment shot throughout the day over many days, I didn’t want the variances in light/colour to cause an image or 2 to standout from the set.
Following tutor feedback that the set was patchy, I have taken the time to re-edit and shoot to remove the hackneyed and less successful images.
The images
Image 1.
In this picture, we have an older man heading up an escalator in an MTR station making a call. I like how in this moment of the man in his world. He is focused on both the call and his direction of travel holding the handrail tightly. Behind him are two women around his age who you can see clearly are engaged in a conversation. At this moment we can wonder or what is happen why is the call so important, what are the women chatting about
Image 2.
Here I like the captured moment of a man just looking up from his phone in a crowded MTR train, his face shows a moment of surprise perhaps from a message on his phone – however, the positioning of the other passengers looks as if he has an audience and he is shocked to find them there. I like this image; perhaps it could lose some of the train ceiling, but that would spoil the overall set dynamic.
Image 3
Here we have a businessman caught with wandering eyes – the shot came from seeing the girl taking a call away from friend and was waiting or unusual shadow, but the crowd played into my hands. While we can infer what he is thinking I like how is in the different direction to the other in the scene – perhaps an indication his thoughts are different to others.
Image 4
Here I like the fact that we have an older and younger person both checking their phone, with the live feed of the stock market in the background. Again this fit to my vision of the decisive moment because the image brings the question; are they both doing the same thing? Are they making rapid changes to their investments?
Image 5.
Here I like how the main subject is almost silhouetted against the contrast of the bright corridor. He is on the phone and smoking in his break-time, a classic look at the back of any restaurant and bar. There is a tiredness to his stance, is this a tough conversation or his is he just getting moral support from a loved one during a long shift?
Image 6
Crossing the flow of traffic in her world. Here I think is she rebelling by not following the herd, but iy maybe she is so engrossed, on her phone, that perhaps she is just lost from the herd. Will she be gathered back up or when she leaves the frame will she be lost forever?
Image 7
Boredom or attention seeking, what is going on here? It would appear the Mum is giving too much attention to the phone and not enough to the child. Why are they sitting in such a quiet station? Every viewer I can infer a slightly different story.
Conclusion
I have found this a very challenging assignment (even after the rework) as I have tried, with each image, to capture a moment in the daily life. I overall I’m happy to have kept a theme throughout the pictures, but tried to make each of them as a little individual.
As with the original the shot are all exposed well, and well standardized with uniform crops and black & white conversation, but still the project does have weaknesses, but I think less patchy that the original project.
Street photography is hard and sometimes can only reap one keeper image from several days of shoot – particularly when keeping to a theme and this project could run and run.
I’m on the whole I like the set of images I have submitted, but it has been a tough edit to get to this point.