Hin Chua's Magnetic North
Magnetic North can be considered a base camp, a general point of reference for my wanderings and ramblings.
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Take 3
Writing is hard work for me. It’s a constant struggle to sound vaguely eloquent, to link terse sentences together into some kind of flowing prose. I’ll spend days tweaking sentences and shifting text only to remain frustratingly dissatisfied by the ponderousness of it all. When Port Magazine asked for a short piece, I worked for a couple of days on something which was considerably rewritten and improved upon by my contact there. Not willing to let it rest (let’s face it, this blog could do with some activity), I present to you my version of his improvement. Y’know, what I really need is a good editor I can regularly lean on for help!
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The Good, the Bad and the Just-About-Okay (exhibition reviews, that is)
Here’s a selection of reviews from my recent show at the Third Floor Gallery. The opinions range from the positive to the opaque to the downright scathing, which goes to show again that you can’t expect and shouldn’t attempt to please everyone.
When I was first starting out in photography, every negative comment used to nag away at me until I realised that this was the artistic equivalent of high school dating, another pursuit involving aspiration, rejection and failure that I could easily relate to. Back then, it was always easier to brush off the girls with questionable taste: “you don’t like me? And you ended up dating that guy?! Have fun with that, frankly I’m relieved to be in your reject pile!” As always though, the truly distressing dismissals were from the pretty, funny and brainy girls who just wouldn’t give you the time of day when all you wanted to do was to share a Big Mac and play Streetfighter II with them. Well ok, maybe Streetfighter II was part of the problem… and yeah, you really wanted to play more than just that, which was maybe another part of the problem… but anyway, I digress.
(But even though I disagree with it, major kudos for the negative review. I have huge respect for anyone who’s willing to tell-it-like-they-think-it-is!)
“Transcendental” “Evocative”
“Devoid of meaning” “More suited to a Greenpeace campaign poster” “After a while it leaves you feeling underwhelmed, and even bored”
Intelligent and insightful, but I have absolutely no idea if the reviewer loves or hates the work (personally, the pessimist in me leans toward the “if you have nothing good to say, don’t say anything” line of thinking).
And so the great dating wheel continues to turn…
Solo show at the Third Floor Gallery in Cardiff
So all I seem to be doing recently on this journal is announcing new shows. I know, I know, my bad, but I will atone for my sins later in the year.
This is my first solo show in the UK! The Third Floor Gallery in Cardiff have been fantastic with this. The exhibition is from February 2 to 17 March, with the opening on Friday February 1 at 102 Bute Street, Cardiff.
You’ll see more posts about this show later, but for now if you’re in Wales, I hope to see you on Friday night!
Group show in Austria
Having enjoyed a social-networking-free summer, I’m delighted to return… wait, no, I’m not delighted, every photographer’s announcement of something good involves the words “delighted” or “honoured” or “humbled”. I’m tickled pink to announce that 30 of my photos will be exhibited in the Stadtmuseum Graz in Austria as part of their “Eyes on the City” exhibition, opening on Saturday 13 October at 19:30.
The photographers involved are:
- Olivo Barbieri
- Peter Bialobrzeski
- Sabine Bitter & Helmut Weber
- Hin Chua
- Lee Friedlander
- Aglaia Konrad
- Anne Lass
- Paul Albert Leitner
- Simona Rota
Yeah, who would have thought that by the coincidences of alphabetic sorting that you’d see me next to the big F right? Anyway, here’s more information about the exhibition and the catalogue.
Exhibition details
Stadtmuseum Graz
Sackstrasse 18
Graz 8010
Austria
Tickled pink, tickled pink!
Photos from my show in Paris
So a giant big fantastic thanks to everyone who came to the opening and to everyone else who made this possible. It was great meeting up and talking to all of you and even greater getting drunk with some of you.
And to all of those that backed up their enthusiasm for my work by actually dropping cold hard cash for prints, thank you so much! I never expected to see so many red dots on the first night (a very very cold night, I may add). You all made it worthwhile!
The opening picture of Gregory Halpern’s book “A”
When Stanley first showed me this book a few weeks ago, I remember he told me that this may be one of the all-time great opening photographs in a photography book. The longer I look at the book, the more I realise that he could be right.
Solo show in Paris
Greetings comrades,
It may please you (it certainly pleases me!) to know that I will be having a solo show in Paris in a couple of weeks. I first met with the great crew at La Petite Poule Noire during Paris Photo in November and we spent the next month discussing the possibility of an exhibition. I’m thrilled to say this has come to pass.
So for everyone in the vicinity, please consider this to be your formal invitation to the opening. I’ll be displaying 30 prints from After the Fall and for those of you with money in your pockets, they’ll all be for sale. I will also be in Paris for the weekend of the opening, so it’d be more than a pleasure to catch up with some of you!
Opening details
Saturday 4th February (18:30 to 22:00)
La Petite Poule Noire
12 bd des Filles du Calvaire
75011 Paris
The gallery is nearest the Saint Sébastien Froissart metro station on the 8 line, but also very walkable from Oberkampf on the 5 line. Here’s a map.
The exhibition proper runs till Saturday 17th March (the gallery is closed during Fashion Week).
Mailing List
Ok kids, I’ve gone and set up a mailing list to keep you in the personal one-to-one (ok, one-to-many) loop in case of future interesting Hin Chua-related announcements? Why? Because future interesting Hin Chua-related announcements are pending.
So sign up here!
Joel Sternfeld at FOAM
I just returned from seeing ‘Color Photographs since 1970’ in Amsterdam. The appeal for me was not only to get a look at some of the ‘American Prospects’ work in the flesh but to explore Sternfeld’s earlier 35mm images. While only a limited selection of photographs could be displayed due to space constraints, it was interesting to watch his development as he wandered through various styles which could be described as Egglestonian, Winograndish or Levittesque.
Indeed there were some pretty mediocre street photographs (using flash) of the type that many photographers make the mistake of getting into during at least one point in their careers. But even then, one could clearly discern a progression, an increasing sophistication and subtlety in his photographs. You see that too with many newish photographers; you tell yourself “wow, this person has an eye, I wonder what could happen in a few years?” The curse of potential, like the hopes placed on many a high-school baseball pitcher, is both a sad and wondrous thing. You see the photographer grow for a period, and then bump into a few walls, stuck at a particular plateau, and then that usually is the end of the story.
In Sternfeld’s case, he may or may not have run into his own share of obstacles as he began. But what is certain is that within 4-5 years of making most of these photographs, he began work on ‘American Prospects’. And that took things to a totally different kind of level…
Format Festival hanging guide
Here’s the hanging plan I used for my exhibition at the Format Festival earlier this year. I wanted to use images of different sizes, and I was growing exceedingly tired of the traditional horizontal grid. I felt I needed something a little more organic that gelled more closely with the meandering way I made my photographs.
This hanging plan was the result. At the festival’s opening night, I was boogying on the dance floor with the delightful girl who hung my work. “Hin, to be honest I was terrified of making a mistake! This was the most complex thing I had to do during the whole week!” While I sympathised in the flesh, a part of me quietly rejoiced internally: I wouldn’t have had it any other way!
New Territories, Hong Kong, January 2009
The story behind this photo was that I needed a place to pee badly. Really badly. I came across a small scrapyard that was sealed off by a gate and fence. As I debated whether to dash inside, the caretaker noticed me looking in with my camera and very generously beckoned me inside. I made this exposure and then quickly ran behind the pilings to relieve myself. Too much information? I think not!
The Great Leap Sideways
Stanley on The Great Leap Sideways has posted an interesting little essay on ‘After the Fall’.
