Monday, 3 March 2008

Alan Soon: Viet Nam

Image © Alan Soon-All Rights Reserved

Alan Soon is a photographer from Singapore with an affinity for "vintage" rangefinders and for traditional film processing. A producer for a global financial TV news network, he has been in journalism for 13 years; a career that has taken him to television, radio and magazine newsrooms in Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

He started photographing in his early teens with a Minolta X-300, and now uses compact rangefinders, most of them older than he. He shares his apartment with some 30 antique cameras, the eldest a 1949 Canon IIb, engraved "Made in Occupied Japan" which still works.

Alan traveled widely across Asia, North America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, which, along with his interesting cameras, makes him an obvious candidate for the pages of TTP.

I feature his work of Hoi An in Viet Nam which Alan describes as "In its heyday, as a major port in East Asia, it stood as a contemporary of Melaka and Macau. The architecture reflects that heritage: the town is home to building designs left behind by the Japanese, early Chinese settlers, and Dutch, French and Portuguese traders. Many of the homes and stores are well preserved, with some over three hundred years old.

Apart from using black & white film, Alan's photographic style has an edge to it...part travel and part documentary. Explore his various galleries, and you'll know what I mean.

Alan Soon's Monsoon Photo

Street Art Of Lisbon

Lisbon is an open-air gallery, not just for its beautiful tile-covered façades and the traditional cobblestone designs, but also for its str...