Another chapter in the Chronicles. As the scene in Saigon keeps expanding, more venues are beginning to host punk and hardcore shows, and this was the first one at Cafe Stagiaires in District 2. With multiple floors, this venue is able to host a show while having a completely different vibe on the rooftop. Think open air laidback cocktail vibes, And then think about a DIY punk show blasting on the floor just beneath. Endlessly amusing to watch those different worlds collide. Definitely saw a few interesting looks as the suited, booted and cocktail dresses passed by kids losing their shit to breakdown after breakdown.
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Saigon Punk Chronicles : Frank Turner, 7uppercuts & Papa Lam
Another chapter in the Chronicles and what a chapter it was. The fine folks at Loud Minority and Noise Saigon put together an absolute banger of a show. Frank Turner boarded a plane in London, got off of the plane, and played a show a few hours later… If you didn’t know this, you’d have been well impressed by his performance and the energy in the room. Knowing this, it’s ever more impressive… What an absolute professional road dog.
Read MoreSaigon Punk Chronicles: The Metal Edition
Not really a hardcore or punk show per se, but this show still had a lot of overlap in the crowd. The bill consisted of Orca from the Philippines, Diarsia off their brand new release, Method, Obsess, and the Korean shred machine Oathean. I grabbed the Fuji x100v and an old speedlight and rolled the dice. These shows give me a chance to experiment with different set ups - multiple cameras, light set ups, techniques…No pressure if I shit the bed and they turn out awful, but at least I learned something. That said, I don’t think I’ve run into any insurmountable challenges, and different tools yield different results. I tried to shoot a bit more abstract images to bridge over from the usual dragged shutter and speedlight combo and I think they turned out interesting. Tried a bit of multiple exposure shenanigans. Essentially played around and threw everything at the wall to see what stuck. Maybe a bit artsy even… what is going on?!
Read MoreSaigon Punk Chronicles : Aftershock
This past Sunday I headed out to a show and to see some old friends I hadn’t caught up with in a while. The bill consisted of HSA, Song Am, Katto Katto, District 105, Cut Lon, and Luan Quan Collective. A mixed bag of genres and I wasn’t familiar with all the bands, but I knew there’d be some thrashy goodness with Cut Lon and of course the homies in D105. I didn’t get images of everyone, but I decided to shoot this a bit differently than what I’ve been shooting this project and brought my studio lights in much like I did back in the day in the States. It’s going to take some tweaking, but here we are and it’s nice to get a different look. I’m not going to divide the images up into bands this time around but rather an overall vibe of the show.
Read MoreThe Week in Photos: Volume 5
We’ve wrapped up a few commercial projects and had a few days before preproduction started on a couple of others, so I wanted to go out and shoot some images for myself a few days this week. Technically some of these are from the week before, so this is the week(ish) in photos. I’ll get better about the scheduling of this whole thing, but it’s been hectic lately so this will have to do until I get it together on the schedule.
Looking at what I’ve shot recently, I’ve noticed how I’ve gradually been shooting more and more at night. I think this probably has to do with a smaller camera that I can take with me on social outings and snap some images along the way, but also I think I’ve just become more and more intrigued with how pools of light and their contrasting shadow makes for such dramatic moody images. If you’ve been to Saigon, you’ll know how frenetic it is and how there’s never any shortage of energy when you’re walking around the city. Similarly, its easy to have very busy compositions and I’m a minimalist at heart. Using shadows to hide distractions and isolate my subjects is always going to be my first approach. So here’s the last week and a half in photos.
Read MoreThe Week in Photos: Volume 4..... a bit delayed
I started this whole series of The Week in Photos to keep the creative juices flowing and partially because I have this little camera that I can take everywhere with me and it’s just so fun to shoot with. I debated on whether or not to mix in travel images and maybe some of my actual work, but that seems a little messy and my sense of order wouldn’t let me go down that road. So maybe I should rename this “The week in photos when I’m not working or on the road or have a million other obligations”……probably not. But in any event, I had these photos from right before I headed out on the road and forgot that they were even on the hard drive until I started importing some random images from this past week. These are from around a month ago. So here’s The Week in Photos. From last month.
Read MoreThe Week in Photos: Vol.3 - Rainy Season's Arrival
It looks like rainy season has decided to make an entrance. Cue thunderstorms, unexpected downpours, and slight inconveniences in travel - read ridiculous traffic. While most lament the rain, photographically I’m digging it. The light right after a storm, drama in the skies, reflections… its a new season and it’s nice to have something different to photograph. While I don’t have the seasonal changes like I did in my upbringing, I love having the demarkation of time through different weather. I’ll take what I can get. No waxing on poetically this week, just the images of the week. Complete with the obligatory reflection shots, and they ain’t stopping any time soon…so get used to it until the rains cease in around 6 months. There are some randoms from the day to day sprinkled in as well for good measure.
Read MoreThe Week in Photos: Vol. 2
Busy with commercial work this week, I’ve not had too much time to come up for air. That said, in the downtimes, I’ve made an effort to find some time for myself at least once a day to disengage and walk around so I can keep a clear headspace. Even if I’m not managing to make it far, I’m trying to see things I’ve seen a countless times with new eyes. Shoot places multiple times in different light, different parts of the day, different angles… dig a little deeper and slow down a little more to really look at things rather than merely strolling by. Finding beauty in the mundane.
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