New Perspective: Rausu, Hokkaido // 羅臼, 北海道

After I posted this on my blog yesterday, I set out to go through my photos that were taken in Japan in 2012. I started with the images from the first week of our family holiday (even though I had reviewed most of these some months ago) to refresh my memory.

What struck me as I was going through the photos was how I was seeing some of these with fresh eyes – as in, they had not left an impression on me previously and while I didn’t delete them, I didn’t process them either and left them as RAW files.

This reminded me of a recent conversation with someone who used to assist French photographer, Marc Riboud. We were talking about the archival challenges related to analog photography and digital photography. He shared how sometimes Riboud, while going through old contact sheets, would point out certain unmarked images and wonder why he hadn’t notice them before.

I suppose this is due to new perspectives because the photographer and/or one’s memory of the event has/have changed. Which is why certain things that didn’t stand out to us may grab our attention at a later time.

Back to the photos taken in Hokkaido… For instance, I find certain images that were taken in Rausu tell a more interesting story as part of a diptych instead of being presented alone. I could see these coming together as a series, except that I didn’t take many photos in the village as I was unwell (car sick!) for half of the time when we were there. Perhaps this calls for a return visit!

Why, or what brought about, the change in my perspective?

1. I’ve visited more photo and art exhibitions, as well as browsed more photo books, in past year than ever before – thus expanding my horizons, exposing myself to new and different styles of visual communication. Love it!

2. What I learned from the Magnum Photos workshop with Chang Chien-Chi, especially with regards to photo editing and how I see images coming together to tell a story. This was an invaluable experience and I only wish that the workshop was longer.

By the way, here’s the four-page mock-up of what I submitted for inclusion in the Blurb book that was produced following the workshop:

I would like to work on a photo project this year but am still thinking of what I want to do. In the meantime, I shall focus on editing my 2012-2013 RAW files. Who knows, maybe something might trigger an idea for a new photo project!