ROBIN WONG

I appreciate both color photography as well as black and white. I do admit I do more color photography - it is not fair to compare really, as the bulk of my photography work I shoot for clients, and my jobs demand everything in color. Or at least I have not found a client that specifically requests anything in black and white delivery. As for personal projects, yes color photography is dominant, I am not going to lie, I do celebrate the bold, loud, bombastic colors that I can easily find on the streets of Kuala Lumpur, so it is no secret that maybe 90% of my personal photography is done in full glorious colors. I love colors, but this year, for street photography so far, the ratio has been shifting to maybe 70% color and 30% black and white, and I do want to do more black and white, which will be a topic for another day. I cannot resist good color minimalist framing! 

I have been shooting with wide angle more and more for my street photography recently and I found myself loving the Panasonic 15mm F1.7. I made a video to talk about the reasons why I love the Panasonic 15mm (you can find the video here). I have had the lens for a while, I used the Panasonic 15mm mainly for video making, one of the main lenses to create content for my YouTube channel, as I use it alongside the Olympus 45mm F1.8. The two lenses setup works very well, compact and easy to carry around. The other reason I got the Panasonic 15mm a while ago was to use it as a wide angle prime for my street shooting, which I have been doing more lately. 

So one random day I chanced upon a dinosaur camera in the archived section of the office, the 2004 released advanced compact camera, Olympus Camedia C-8080. While the whole world is obsessing over newer cameras with superlative megapixel counts and sky-high ISO numbers, I somehow found this old C-8080 rather appealing. The camera called out to me (if such a thing can be understood) and I decided to bring it home with me, and utilized it for my usual shutter therapy session. This camera was considered one of the legendary, best, compact camera at its time, and if that is true, it should still be able to perform rather well today, in my own opinion. Or was I wrong?

When it comes to an environmentally challenging situation, such as shooting inside a charcoal factory where dust is a big problem, I would not hesitate to pick up the ever reliable Olympus OM-D E-M1. I armed myself with all the necessary lenses for this particular shoot: M.Zuiko 7-14mm F2.8 PRO, 25mm F1.8 and 45mm F1.8. This marked my second visit to the charcoal factory, the first one being about three years ago with a group of Sony shooters (it was a Sony Malaysia official photography outing, back then) and boy was I excited to get some shots with Olympus this time around! I joined a group of passionate and enthusiastic photographers from the PSPJ (Photographic Society of Petaling Jaya) and we drove all the way from Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Sepetang (it was more than 3 hours long drive out of the city), where the charcoal factory was at. 

I was faced with the exact similar issues as I did few years back, it was a Sunday, and the workers were not exactly working. Furthermore, it is now the fasting month for the Muslims (Ramadhan), and we encountered a slow, rather quiet morning, with little to almost no activity all around the charcoal factory areas. The weather was not on our side, the sky was cloudy, blocking the important sunlight, thus negating the "sun ray" effect through the holes and cracks on the ceilings/walls of the factory. While all things did not seem to work, the important thing is to stay positive, keep the optimism going and not to give up too quickly. As we walked around we did find some friendly workers were rather chatty, and friendly enough for us to shoot them! I immediately shifted my photography objectives to what I do best: shooting people in their environment and portraying what they do. So here you are, portraits of charcoal factory workers!

Before jumping into photographs of my usual, weekly, now getting more and more predictable shutter therapy sessions, I shall divert your attention to Rizki Skema Maulana, an awesome, young and talented photographer who has just self-published a mini magazine, .IMG. The .IMG project is a collective of photographs from a group of KL street photographers, many of whom I have shot alongside with frequently for the past few years! 

Last weekend, I was working in Malacca, probably the oldest and most the historical city in Malaysia. I was giving talk on stage at Mahkota Parade Shopping Mall on both Saturday and Sunday evenings, and on Sunday morning there was an official photography outing organized by Olympus Malaysia, which was headed by me. I knew very well that I would not have much time to shoot on my own if I were to be there bringing a group of photography hungry people walking on the beautiful streets of Malacca. I would be too busy answering questions, sharing some shooting tips and composition techniques, as well as making sure every one was ok. Not having shutter therapy, especially street shooting for several consecutive weeks will turn me insane!

Therefore, I decided to travel to Malacca a day earlier, on Friday evening, staying over a friend's place, and started my Saturday extra early, roaming the streets and attacked whatever subjects that I came across. I had with me, the trusty Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II, and I used the much underrated M.Zuiko 17mm F2.8 Pancake lens as my main gear for this session. It was a fruitful, enjoyable session and I managed to grab quite a few good shots which have become my personal favourites. 

Those of you who follow me on Instagram (@Shutter.Therapy) and Facebook Page, you would have noticed my "What's In The Bag" post. 

If you have spent time exploring my older blog entries you will find that almost every week I will post some photographs from my shutter therapy sessions, which usually involved me and several friends shooting on the streets of Kuala Lumpur. From these street shots that I share, there would be a few portraits of strangers. In this blog entry, I shall share my thoughts on street portrait photography, and subsequently, my favourite photographs of these portraits. 

Why Shoot Strangers on the Street?

I do not exclusively shoot just tight portraits of strangers, in general that only accounts for about 10% of my shots during my usual street hunting sessions. I think street photography is quite a subjective genre that has been debated endlessly yet never been properly defined and has spawned almost ridiculous amounts of sub-genres and categories. I am not quite sure when and why I was attracted to shooting street portraits. I think it was a dare, or a challenge by one of my earlier blog readers who criticized me on my cold, soul-less street photographs that were (at that time) void of human elements, or more accurately put, there were no people in my street shots. I have learned tonnes and improved myself from these constructive feedback and comments posted on my blog (some can be quite brutal, but it helps that I am a thick-skinned typical Asian). Taking up the challenge I braved myself to approach strangers and shoot them as close as I can possibly manage. The feeling that I had after successfully executed the shot was nothing short of breathtaking. There was a thrill that I cannot describe in words, the sense of accomplishment, though just mere ordinary portraits of people that may not get me anywhere far in photography, but it was enough to satisfy my weekly shutter therapy cravings. I get more satisfaction in shooting one perfectly executed street portrait shot, than a hundred posed, arranged beautiful bikini-clad models by the beach (that most other photographers seem to prefer doing here in KL). 

I do not have a fixed purpose or final objective in shooting strangers on the street, unlike the popular works of Brandon Stanton in his Humans of New York, or undertaking serialized projects like Bruce Gilden in spreading terror on the streets. I shoot entirely just for the fun of it, and I enjoy shooting portraits. I think that is enough reason to justify me returning to the KL streets week after week. That way, I am not attached to any strings so I can do anything I want with my shots, and choose to shoot or not shoot anyone on the street. 

How Do You Approach the Strangers?

I normally choose my subjects carefully, and I do not just attack random people. I generally would not stop someone who is walking, or obstruct whatever the people are already doing on the street. For such close up shots I look for people who are standing still waiting for something or someone, or comfortably sitting down somewhere. I will always be careful not to disrupt those who are working or cause trouble if my presence is not welcomed. It works best when the people you want to shoot is at a comfortable position, and it takes a lot of body language reading and anticipation on my part to understand or predict if the subject of choice will agree if I were to ask for a photograph to be taken. If the person is busy, or doing something important, or did not look happy, or was obviously not in the mood to engage in a conversation with a stranger, I will give it a pass. 

I think what drove me to shoot close up portraits has something to do with the excitement that I get when I actually do have to interact with someone I am completely alien to. Nervous is an understatement but I have learned that a little sincere smile, and polite conversation can go a long way. Breaking the ice is not easy. I would establish my presence within the peripheral vision of the subject, before jumping straight in for the kill. I observe what is the response of the stranger with my inclusion within his comfort zone, breaching his personal space. People will react when you get so close, and with all the right signals I read, I then ask if I can take a photo. 90% of the time? A solid YES. 

I do engage in conversations, but normally brief, and quick. Sometimes, it was just a nod if it was ok for the photo to be taken, and no words exchanged. In some rare circumstance I would have a long conversation. 

Here is the thing, there are times I do get rejected. So what? Just smile politely, and move on. For every one rejection there are possibly dozens of opportunities waiting else where. Forget him or her, and focus on finding the next opportunity. The trick here is to stay positive and always be positive. Your facial expression, and how you present yourself is the key in getting the response that you want. People react to you the same way you treat them, especially if you are a total stranger to them. 

Some famous photographers would point out that for such street portraits the character would exhibit better without them smiling. I disagree. We smile when we see each other, especially amongst friends and family. There is magic in human smile that even science cannot explain. Animals have other ways of greeting one another, but for us humans, our smile is so unique and universally accepted as a peaceful language. Why exclude something that is so exclusively human, when you are shooting humans?