Yanni - A Cinematic Perspective.

A Cinematic Perspective*.™

So she asked for something moody as well, akin to the lonesome nights. Alarm bells ringing! "My Blueberry Nights" went blinking light bright neon lights in my head! The forlorn glow of the airport and the reflective effect did some fantastic texture to the visuals.Not one who always enjoy having her pictures taken, I must say, I really had a great time photographing her.There was no pressure, no need for much direction.I let her roam and do as she pleases.

I firmly believe when people are at ease, they give the best photographs. Even if the body language may be slightly awkward, we know the genuine expressions will more than make up for that inadequacy. I personally love the loneliness that she exudes from the visuals. I think it speaks to her and ultimately to her audience as well.

With that, the whole photoshoot for Yanni was concluded. Much to my delight, I think I managed to give her what she wants, more than what I wanted. I am glad she was delighted with the photos when she received them.

The End Of An Affair...

The End Of An Affair*.™

An Affair With Life! ends its run at the Artoholic Art Gallery after this weekend! I will just like to extend my thank-yous to everyone who dropped by to support the exhibition!

And for those who did not manage to catch it, the 22-piece ensemble will be displayed at The Garden Slug for a good few months! Thank you to Joe for suggesting hanging them up on the red walls at the cafe!

Nicole is also in the midst of creating a virtual exhibition on the fotocology website. For those want to browse through the exhibition in the comfort of your home! All exhibits - from the Sons as well as the An Affair With Life! exhibitions Will be displayed through an interactive interface on the website, with prose and all.

Once again, Big Hugs, Thank Yous, Smooches to the Sponsors, Friends, Family, Clients, Nicole, Jonathan, and HIM above. I have been blessed with small little things that keeps me going. For that, I am thankful.

Yanni Trois - The Completely Blue Series!

TheCompletelyBlueSeries*.™

These are the "blue" series of Yanni taken at the airport for her cinematic portraiture package.
Really like some of her visuals because a softer side of her was being captured.
She has rather sharp features that can come across a little icy cold and fierce.
Am glad the blue dress top I suggested, softened her up and also the light natural make up made her lighten up.

The lighting at the airport, I remembered was not as ideal as I would like it to be. We arrived later than expected and I had to deal with the lighting constraint because of the setting sun. We still managed to get some radiant ones with the blue hues!

The whole cinematic effect was enhaved by the grey infrastructure at the airport and the evenly spreaded out spotlights did accentuate the whole lighting in the background. Yanni's porcelain skin did emit a certain glow, necessary in making a portrait "shine".

All in all, I was pleased with the photoshoot and I had fun because Yanni did not need much direction at all. It was a very pleasant session, with lots to talk and discuss about.

Yanni is currently a free-lance model and she owns Bigheadesign.

Yanni - Black and White Portraiture by Fotocology.

Yanni signed up a Deluxe Package with Fotocology for a series of black and white as well as cinematic colored photoshoots. I am just done post-processing the black and white series, and I thought it will be great to post them up! Sort of like the first set of photos for this inaugural blog gallery! Yanni currently works as a designer, and she owns Bigheadesign, in which she handles a whole gamut of design related projects. Quintessentially, I hope to have captured her aura as a designer through the black and white series. Bringing things back to basics and starting from the fundamentals, should after all be the working principle for any original designers, aiming to have fresh ideas.

Nothing out of the ordinary had been tried for this photoshoot.Done in my studio and with basic lighting - played around to achieve desired effects. I especially like the fact that she did not try too hard to engage the camera. The camera just goes to her, like how she commands her own body language and attitude. The hair caught in the wind look has been done to death, I know. But like a lullaby for a baby, it never fails to put a toddler to sleep! Just like how the wind and hair concept always manage to work! Old school but definitely worth trying once in a while.

There is just something about the deep dark and the feeble light that I am so attracted to.Kind of made me realise, the darker one's surrounding is, the more beautiful any source of light will be.Of late, I just feel that the more one is being pushed to a corner, the more one will try to appreciate space.

That's it for the first review and comments for this photoshoot. The colored series will be posted once I get them started on post-processing. In the meantime, I also want to conceptualized some interesting shoots for the coming future for incoming projects.

Interview With Artoholic - An Affair With Life! Featured on Artoholic Newsletter.

An Affair With Life! is featured in Artoholics first newsletter for the year 2008! In conjunction with the launch held on 12 Jan 2008, Artoholic did an interview with me, to sort of "paint a picture" of fotocology, where my inspirations come from and who I really am as an artist.

Do excuse some of my tongue-in-cheek answers in the interview because I was just being a ditzy himbo with some of the interview questions! Not thinking straight! The interview can be downloaded at http://www.artoholic.sg/ under Articles/Press.

Thank you Gerlene, mavis and Santhi for doing the feature on the exhibition and fotocology! I really do feel quite grateful that the exhibition launch went smoothly!

Below is the text version of the full interview.(Guess which is my favorite part of the answers! LOL)

You were a forensic accountant. What made you give up your cushy job and regular pay cheque for photography?

The witty Oscar Wilde once said, “The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one”. Photography allows me to feel like I don’t have one!

In a fast paced and demanding society like ours, not everyone is fortunate enough to have jobs that align our passion. The tenacity for survival often gobbles up our drive for our own passions. Work will always be work. If it is fun, it will be known as play instead!

It took me quite a while to figure that I am more of a visual rather than a number crunching person. The distance between one’s own dreams and one’s job is a very tall ladder. I just felt the need to start climbing!

Are you a self taught photographer or did you have a mentor that showed you the ropes?

Fortunately, and unfortunately, I did not receive proper education or training in photography. Being self taught is a double-edged sword. You are your own best teacher and you are your own worst student. On one hand, being self taught, I find myself having the constant need to find out more, make mistakes and learn from them. On the other hand, without a structured curriculum, I find myself having to navigate blindly at times!

I have a great friend who piqued my interest in photography a few years back. He used to shove the camera in my face all the time whenever we traveled! I don’t know anyone who likes to take photos more than him! Back then, I did not appreciate the joy in photography. But I have him to thank, for whatever I have learnt from him, that helped me reach where I am today.

What are your favourite subjects to photograph?

People - because they are the kaleidoscope of life offering different colours, emotions and expressions. Also, there is beauty in everyone, even in someone who is crying.

Food - because I get to eat them after the photo shoot!

Name a photographer(s) whose work you respect and admire.

I got to go with the late Herb Ritts, legendary American photographer, for shaping the landscape of art and editorial photography worldwide. His art form revolves around clean lines and simplicity, which impacts his audience instantly. I admire his ability to convey messages or evoke emotions through his works. Ritts images often challenged conventional notions of gender and race. He was also highly dedicated to HIV/Aids related causes.

However, in this day and age, we will find aspiring “Herb Ritts” in every city, and every country (including me!). I would say it is important to admire and respect photography works of all kinds, because your own personal style will probably be an influence of many.

What turns you on creatively, spiritually, or emotionally?

The need to be appreciated for who I am and what I can offer to the society as an individual.

What turns you off?

The constant need to be appreciated for who I am and what I can offer to the society as an individual.

If you can choose anybody in the world that you can photograph, who would that be? How and in what setting would you like to photograph this person?

The Pussycat Dolls, in a cage at the SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). Just kidding!

The homeless who found new families, the starving having enough to eat, the weak receiving strength, the unhappy finding new bliss…the list goes on. You get the picture, or rather, the photo!

The First Impression.

To all keen photographers, people from all walks of life who appreciates photography and recognizes it as an art, indulge me for a moment to allow me to say hi and thank you for visiting my newly set up Fotocology Photo Blog. I believe, there should be ample information about Fotocology and me under my profile. This blog serves to be a haven for me to share my work with others on a greater intimacy level, to share and learn more about photography or to just kick back and relax through blogging some random spur of the moments thoughts! Through this blog, I hope you will get to learn more about what I do, understand my idiosyncracies and to hopefully, support me in what I believe in by indulging in my works. I pondered how to properly introduce myself to you for the very first time, and I eventually decided nothing is more apt than posting a short promotional piece written by my best friend, Jamie, for my upcoming photograpahy exhibition, An Affair With Life! - which opens in officially 2 days! Pardon me for this lengthy debut entry - and as with all friendships, I hope to forge one with you and more importantly, keep it lasting for as long as it can. Do feel free to shout out or leave any feedback. At your own whim and fancy, of course. Cheerios!

An Affair With Life! – A Photography Exhibition by Dennis Chong of Fotocology.

John Szarkowski once said, “Photography is a system of visual editing.” The art of photography is an arbitrary one. A photographer chooses from among endless possibilities, a fragment of his cone of vision to tell a story. Dennis Chong, a local self-taught art-photographer has a story to share in his sophomore exhibition – An Affair With Life! Following the modest success of his debut exhibition titled Sons - an introspective look into a man’s life through black and white portraiture, An Affair With Life! digresses from it’s melancholy predecessor, diffusing an aura of optimism as its title suggests.

"Life is an affair that begins with a brief flirtation with time." So says Dennis. “Life is a road we take for which time marks its journey. We try not to look back for whichever path we choose, even if it is the less traveled one”. True to his words, the erewhile forensic accountant, ever ready to throw caution to the wind, quit his job to pursue a full time career in photography. Today, Dennis helms Fotocology, a creative establishment that offers a wide range of professional photography and design services. He believes that the principles of photography will always be about painting a vision, capturing beauty, documenting a transient moment in time and above all, evoking emotions from his audience by putting across a message through the captured images. It was with these beliefs that Fotocology was first conceived.

An Affair is an intricate showcase of still portraitures with accompanying prose that offers an intriguing insight to the artist's perspective on human relationships with life in general. The 2-week event will be hosted by Artoholic gallery, a chic, retrofitted space nestled in the heart of Joo Chiat. Up to date, the gallery boasts a steady pool of talented artists from Southeast Asia and beyond, lending voice to budding artists like Dennis, brandishing their work to greater audiences. The gallery's in-house cafe is a charming and cosy rendezvous for artists and art-lovers alike to exchange tidings or to simply while the afternoon away.

The underlying message the artist is trying to put forth is a simple and hopeful one. Walking through the exhibition, An Affair reminded me of a scene in the movie American Beauty where two mesmerised souls watched in silence, a plastic bag being carried away by the wind. If one looks hard enough, life is beautiful whichever you see it. Have a ball!

- Written by Jamie Tay

An Affair With Life! runs from 12-26 January 2008 at the Artoholic Gallery. Admission is free.

Fotocology by Dennis Chong
p: +65 9367 3670
e: foto@fotocology.com
http://www.fotocology.com/

Date: 12 January – 26 January 2008
Venue: Artoholic Gallery, 422 Joo Chiat Road
Price: Free (exhibition)
Enquiries: Call (65) 6348 7793 or visit http://www.artoholic.sg/