Just finished a great exhibition called Our Last Polaroids. We had such a great time with the Polaroid community here in Hong Kong. I will soon update what happened with lots of great photos after a business trip to New York 15th-22nd August 2008. The following is just a preview. I made this clear stamp using a clear stamp making kit bought from Japan, at dedicated time slots, Polaroid lovers could go to LOG-ON to use this stamp on the event's postcard as a proof of their loyalty to Polaroid :)
I customized this Diana F+ camera for an event called Diana World Tour 2008 organized by Lomography Asia. The event exhibition is currently showing over a hundred Diana and Diana Clone cameras produced from 60's to 70's. I'm honored to be one of the 10 to appear in the Diana Vignettes photo story exhibits.
拿著 car car 的他總帶微笑;微笑的他,嘴總是尖尖的。天真可愛,出外勞碌工幹時想起他,心都軟下來,笑起來。每當回家看到他時他都興奮極地叫 daddy daddy,然後看著我的背包說“你是不是有買 car car 給我呀! 給我看看你的包包啦! 我知你有嘅!”九成時間我都令他失望,但他也是笑著的彈來彈去。
物質充逾,內在更重要,所以我會為他做紙 car car,也玩得一整天。劃幾幅由他主導的畫,看極也看不厭。造了這個俄羅斯公仔,每次一起看了,大家都會微笑。把這些拍下來更有意思,不止紀錄了事實,也紀錄了造這些東西時的心情。
My son is now 3.5 years old, his face literally changes on daily basis. Photos I shot of him a few months ago show a completely different him. I like to take photos him as much as possible, it is not difficult to find surprises and I love the fact that I'm recording his happy childhood we'll treasure a lot in the future. Gradually, this blank piece of paper emerges a character, how do I record his character?
When he holds his "car car" he always smile, when he smiles the tip of his upper lips has a tiny little peak. When I think of his smiles during my business trips my heart would melt and I keep smiling. When I come home he would be so excited shouting "daddy daddy" and often ask "did you buy car car for me? Let me see your bag, I know you have" but 90% of the time I disappointed him, yet he would still be smiling and jumping around in my presence.
Living in this materialistic world, inner self development became much more important. I would make paper cars for him and play for a whole day. Draw a few pictures directed by him and the results are pleasant to look at together. When we look at this Russian doll I painted, there are always smiles. Photos of these not only record objects and facts, but also the precious feelings during the process.
Biography:
爸爸喜歡欣賞及收藏中國字畫,也靠它維生。每天都看著他看畫看得入神,想東西想到自得其樂,說起畫時都眉飛色舞。這些都是內函的外在,量度不到也形容不到。我就是被這種內函浸吟著長大的。喜歡了劃畫,攝影,西洋書法...,做了city'super的文具採購已經五年。每天都能把爸爸傳受的內函活出來,已經很精彩,也喜望能對兒子有著相同的啟發。
Dad loves to appreciate and collect Chinese calligraphy and paintings, his interest also became his career. I would see him looking at paintings in deep pleasant thoughts, when he talked about them his eyes brightened. These inner bliss or satisfaction can't be described and measured but I was grown up in such environment without knowing it. I developed interests in drawing/painting, photography and western calligraphy, became a stationery buyer at city'super 5 years ago. I feel tremendous thankfulness for what my Dad passed on to me unintentionally, hope I'll be able to do the same for my son.
I longed to get the Fujifilm Pivi MP-300 and finally last week in Tokyo I bought it. I wish I bought it earlier because instantly my travel journaling or photo journaling becomes much much easier.
Catchy title isn't it? No they don't produce an orange leather Moleskine, it was just me playing around with colors to decorate my Moleskine. Gfeller leather cover was a gift from friend Kelly, which was painted with black shoe polish, a technique taught by illustrator/artist Steve Light, Faber Castell perfect pencil in orange, a promotional leaflet in the form of typewriter from Orange Airline (a stationery company in Japan), and orange/red brick floor tiles.
It has been less fun to see all those Moleskine exhibitions nowadays, for me. In June I visited Tokyo's Lifestyle show and just last week I visited Tokyo again for the International Stationery show. In both event, Moleskine was elaborately exhibited there. My feeling towards the writing, journaling, drawing culture of the Moleskiners lowered significantly simply because it all became too commercial.
Typhoon passed followed by days of raining, finally the sky is clear and blue on this public holiday. I stayed at home musing on recent events while my wife had an afternoon walk with my son.
This concept cafe is finally here (development), don't be deceived by just the look, I've added some very nice contents inside, i.e. if you care to discover.
After a week of setting up the Travel Photo Cafe promotion in various stores (which I will cover later), I must say a BIG THANK YOU to Moleskine, its distributor and colleagues who helped to pull this off smoothly. Finally, the long awaited Hong Kong and Beijing City Notebook versions are launched, the first 2 Asian cities for many to come. Moleskine enthusiastically rushed to release these two notebooks in order to catch the Beijing Olympic event, which generated a lot of excitement among the locals.
Thanks to Clairefontaine and Working Unit, an exhibition of Clairefontaine's 150 years of achievement is now showing in Times Square city'super! I couldn't go to Paris for their anniversary event on 1st April 08 but I received the save the day invitation.