The Streets of SoHo (16:9 Aspect) | Work In Progress

With the advent of the cruel winter months in NYC, many of my favorite outdoors photography opportunities -whether street fashion or otherwise- are somewhat limited, but I'm currently building an inventory of photographs made in specific photogenic corners of the city.

I am starting with the SoHo district (From Wikipedia:"Almost all of SoHo is included in the SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District which consists of 26 blocks and approximately 500 buildings) with its high-end boutiques, graffiti-covered walls and cobblestone streets.

The aspect ratio of these photographs is 16:9 which gives them an elongated look resembling (but not quite) panoramic views. I choose this aspect ratio in-camera using the Fuji X-Pro2 and the X-Pro3.  

I hope these photographs will eventually make their way into a book.

More can be viewed here.

'Tis The Season of Photo Books

 

After a rather circuitous route due an error by Blurb's carrier, "Washington Square Park | The Center of the Universe" was finally delivered. The book is 90 pages (87 photos...each on a single page), in large format landscape (13×11 inches) and I used the top quality paper Mohawk Superfine Eggshell, with standard mid-grey end sheets.

The book is a compendium of the images I made during 8-9 months of photography of 2021 in Washington Square Park in New York City's West Village. It is not for sale.

"Meet In The Streets" is a 50 pages book of the photographs I made of various models (professional and non-professional) in the cobblestoned streets of SoHo. The book is in large format landscape (13×11 inches) and I used the top quality paper Mohawk proPhoto Pearl, with standard mid-grey end sheets.

It is also not for sale.

Lady Chi | Patrice Delmotte

Photo © Patrice Delmotte | All Rights Reserved

I recently received an unexpected and generous gift from Patrice Delmotte - a friend and a fine art photographer based in Taipei - of a photo book titled Lady Chi featuring Jan Farn Chi, an artist and model also based in Taipei.

There's a back story to this gift.

In late 2019, we started to plan a joint project with the concept of having a model in a Chinese Opera costume and headgear posing for us in a studio and in a well-known public historical park in Taipei. It was as a consequence of my just completed the voluminous photo book Chinese Opera of the Diaspora.

Patrice arranged all the details with Jan Farn, hired a specialized make up artist with experience in Chinese Opera and readied his studio for mid March 2020 sessions. Meanwhile, I arranged for my flights and hotel stays in Taipei and primed my cameras for this exciting opportunity.

However due to the emergence of Covid 19, all these plans and arrangements from my side had to be cancelled as I didn't relish risking infections and potential difficulty in returning home. 

Patrice completed the project with Jan Farn...produced many photos and the results are stunning. Realizing my disappointment at having missed it, Patrice sent me one of his two photo books from the sessions...which served to soothe the let down and as a predictor that I shall join him in 2022 for another opportunity.

His superb Lady Chi photo books can be found here (Opus I) and here (Opus II). The links also provide previews to these two books. 

Serendipity | Thanowa

Some weeks ago, I was contacted by a NYC designer who, through Thanowa Lual, sought my help in photographing her in a yellow evening dress and a pillbox hat. It sounded like her original photographer had an emergency preventing him/her to schedule a photo session the next day. 

I had already scheduled a photo session in SoHo with Chen Jia Lu and Yang Xueying that day, but I agreed to fill in provided it would be set nearby.

The photo session was held at a high-end designer store on Prince street, and it was really just to have a few photos for the designer to post on Instagram. The lighting in the back of the store wasn't great, the bright satiny yellow dress was too reflective, and the plain backdrop was uninspiring...but the eventual photos were deemed fine for their intended purpose.

I kept the photographs in my hard drive for about a month, but before I discarded them, I converted a few to black and white...and cropped them to a square format, resulting into much more pleasing aspect.

Lemons to lemonade kind of thing.

Street Cred | Nimika

Inspired by a slew of Japanese photographers' work involving baggy streetwear, I arranged a photo session with Nimika in NYC's SoHo to take advantage of its cobblestone streets and graffiti-laden backdrops . 

The definition of streetwear is fluid; but proportions mean little in streetwear fashion. The baggier the clothes, the more fashionable they are. Streetwear can easily be recognized by its baggy pants, graphic tees, baseball caps, beanies and sneakers.

And for a video and larger sized photographs:

Street Cred by Tewfic El-Sawy on Exposure

East Meets West | With Meg Tsai | Fashion Film

For the first blog post of 2022, I feature a short fashion film titled "East Meets West" with Meg Tsai as the ideal exemplar to personify the fusion of Eastern and Western cultures and aesthetics. 

Wearing a quintessential Chinese cheongsam (or qi pao) against the typical backdrops of NYC's SoHo and modern streetwear in its Chinatown streets underscores how the "city that never sleeps" is the world's prime melting pot of traditions, cultures, styles and characteristics...and will always be.

To accompany the images, I chose "The Ramble", a 1929 jazzy number.