Pieces of Light
What is your history as a photographer?
I started photography 2 years ago with an iPhone 8 Plus. Back then I was amazed by how photography can document normal life which proved everything we see daily can be more interesting than just something passing by. And after I discovered Instagram as a platform for sharing photographic content, I was totally overwhelmed by the work of other creators and then got inspired to do street photography since then.
How have you grown and changed as an artist since you first began?
I started with street photography because back then I thought the street was the easiest way to get used to the camera’s settings, composition, lighting, especially the story telling behind the image since being able to tell a particular story through a photo is what I’ve always aim for when doing photography. And I found out street photography isn’t actually as easy as I expected, but that was also what motivated me to keep trying and learning which took months to achieve.
From that I began to get into the community of street photographers and things had completely turned upside down for me. I knew some of the top creators from around the world who were there willing to help and support me throughout the journey until I finally have my own style for photography, and that is something I appreciate and grateful for.
How would you describe your style? What makes it unique?
To be fair, the idea for my style is not original, I’ve got to say I got inspired from a lot of photographers and movies, cinematography related, especially from the movie Drive and Weeknd’ music album called “After Hours”. However, I’m trying to focus on low light and night photography to deliver the feeling of nostalgia, emptiness, and being alone in the modern world by isolating the subject by the surroundings or simply just a scene filled with artificial lights without any subject at all, and I think that’s what make my style different and unique.
I’m not considering myself to be an experienced photographer so I like to share more about my personal technique on how to get the vibes from the photo rather than camera settings.
I’d say when you’re out shooting at night, try to focus on a specific piece of light, then get the composition right and patiently wait for the subject to get in the shot (could be anything: person, animal, etc) or maybe just the scene itself since you’d mostly just use the light to give the feelings of quietness, minimalism, nostalgia or whatever you desire it to be
Editing also plays a vital role to spice up a photo, by understanding how color theory works, it’ll help you bring out the mood even more. We aim to get the viewer’s eyes straight to the story and the feeling of the photo without being distracted by other elements in frame so feel free to spice up the image!
Tell the story behind one of your photographs.
This has to be one of the most favorite shot I’ve taken by all means. I have to say it has everything that represent my style in the most obvious way: the color, the mood, and I can clearly feel the emptiness within the scene. Also I was so lucky to catch this hotel on the way back home during midnight, and when I was framing the shot suddenly the man went by…
Your photography has a cinematic feel. If you could work with any director as a cinematographer, who would you want to work with and why?
Definitely Roger Deakins because if you’ve watch his work for movies then you know how his visuals is outstanding which is super inspiring.
Currently as an artist, what are you struggling with? How are you succeeding?
Being productive and able to manage time to be efficiency in work is probably the most frustrating thing I’m dealing with, since I’m a self taught so most thing I learned came from online resources and although it has no limitation, it’s easy to get overwhelmed at first and there were lots of errors and mistakes were made to get to where I am today. So I find taking a break to get myself sometimes to look back and have a fresh vision whether if I want to note out what to improve in my previous works or set a goal for the next project.
What's next for you?
We’re all currently in hard time duo the pandemic, especially as a creator, being stuck at home is really a big fence keeps me away from taking photos. So recently I’ve been into Blender 3D to make artworks and I don’t know if it’s something fit with me in long term but for now, it’s really push my creativity to the limit and I do see the potential from it.
