Back to Chinatown

Hi everyone, here is a little confession......

When I started photographing chinatown on the first day of workshop I wasn't sure if I pick the right place or not. Even though Larry said it's always nice to go to the place you're familiar with but I felt Kensington market is closer to what I experienced in Asia than Chinatown.

In fact many new Chinese immigrant or younger generation of chinese in North America are more likely heading out to the large Chinese shopping centers built on suburbs than Chinatown. So slowly many of these communities become more or less of the place for tourists. While that may not be the case in Toronto or New York. It is certainly happening in Vancouver or San Francisco.

I've been photographing Vancouver's Chinatown lately after the workshop......which will be part of long term project to document Chinatowns around the world. The image above is one of first few images I captured in Vancouver. This one was outside the store selling accessories for temple altars. 

I'll be heading out to Victoria, BC next month for a job........there's a small historical Chinatown so I'll try to visit there off work and hopefully bring back some images.

First day

Hello everyone!

First time on a blog, I'll try not to get to excited or crazy... Right now, is the end of my first day in Saint-Malachie, a small village about an hour south of the city of Quebec. I shall be staying here for two weeks, to continue my project on L'Arche. I really don't know how it's going to turn out, but... well, you know... Gotta give it a try. My last work with L'Arche was not yet satisfying and I'm simply trying not to get to nervous with this tryout. I'm actually simply trying to get the pictures coming to me, and trying not to force them into the camera. (anyways, I think I understand myself:)

Here is a little snapshot:


I followed these four guys for about two hours today while they were cutting people's grass. Man they were concentrated! Their names are François, Jasmin, Steeven and Michel. Three of them live at L'Arche, the other only works with them, and stays with his parents.

Have a good evening everyone.

JBG

Getting started...

Hi everyone, starting to get settled in Guatemala, rained the first few days gatos y perros, but the sun's finally out, and i'm starting to get down to work. Nothing new to post yet, but i'm going to be focusing on small coffee producers for the first while, so i'll start by posting an image from when i was down here last, and then build upon that...



This image was taken in a small collective coffee farm called Santa Anita, they're still getting themselves organized, but have already made great progress towards becoming self-sustaining.

I'll be heading out to this farm, along with several others in the coming weeks, and will post more then.

About This Site

I guess in certain degree I have to explain to the audience who so happen to stumble upon this site....

I was in Toronto around first week of May 2008 with a great Canadian photographer Larry Towell and 12 other wonderful members for the week long workshop provided by Magnum Photos, One of the most influential photography agency in the world. It was an intense yet a very rewarding week which we all learned a good deal out of it from Larry.

I remember nearly the end of workshop someone was mentioning about keeping in touch with each other and not let the momentum slip.......so having heard that I began to think about a good platform for group members to communicate with each other and at the same time continue to showcase their works. At the beginning my concept was restricting on email newsletters. But because the limitation email could provide I began to explore the possibility of having it on the web....the result.....the site you looking at it now.

The goal of this site is provide a space to showcase the project we're working on and the progression of it. Once in a while we'll update images for the critic and hopefully as time passes our projects will come to fruition. Please note given the fact that we're all documentary photographers it is hard for us to update our images in as frequently as dedicated bloggers as I believe a good photo story takes time to mature. But if you're patient enough and follow the site regularly in the coming future you'll realize the amazing works produce out of these wonderful photographers.

PK Ben Huang