There is no more ridiculed activity as photography. Admit that you constantly accompany yourself with a digital camera while heading out for dinner with your friends. In the digital age of ours, a profession that once belonged to an elite group with inspiring aesthetic vision has collapsed itself to the rigours of democratic virtues, where an unpredictable number of young artists emerge out of no where to establish their photographic talents, suggesting that youth always aligns with creativity, thus with art.
Their photographic interests are not merely exclusive to the grandeur of high-class restaurants which often appear in magazines and on television. They have violated the traditional code of honour that is often associated with western and Japanese cuisine; rather, they force us to sharpen our awareness of the usual yet neglected dishes in many local Hong Kong restaurants that carry a cocktail of more than three to four type of cuisines, for example, those of what we might call the "soy sauce western cuisine", or even a spectacularly ordinary drink of "milk tea".
However, many condemn such rampancy of photography. Not only it tends to destroy the aesthetic superiority that it has established itself for almost two centuries, it also wishes to persuade us artistic talents can be cultivated through trial and error, as opposed to the traditional perception of them being God-given. But to rashly condemn their adoption of a fetishistically reverent attitude to digtial cameras is to unfairly consign them to disgrace and us to respectability. What could account for such culinary, photographic obsession? In what sense might we arrive at a charitable assessment of such seemingly meaningless activity?
One possible answer is our need to record bits and pieces of our lives. To photograph is also to find a visual outlet for our philosophical sentiment to understand who we really are. Recording bits and pieces of what we wear, what we eat, how we decorate our homes, and the like may direct us to the correct direction to knowing our true selves, because what we do in everyday life is a largely ignored, yet genuine self-expression. It implies an inevitable link between our psychological make-up and what we do. And for the first time, we may think we have been returned to ourselves without excessive reliance on friends and lovers, for photographs cut away dead periods that often arise in conversations, which are often associated with the art of going with the flow, especially in the times when our friends are forced to say halfway unbearable truths about our somewhat deeply flawed characters.
Moreover, not only photography makes room for those who suffer from the rigid inability to write beautifully, it also helps articulate certain aspects of feelings which are far beyond the capacity of a word that can deliver. We are often in trouble to cultivate our verbal and literary instincts to depict a range of emotions and sceneries that provoke a certain mood or a state of mind. Photographs overcome the limits of words and afford us a better visual comprehension of what we feel.
Hence photography is the visual articulation of our own biographies. Through photography, we may be able to unearth certain sides of ourselves which we are reluctant to disclose, for our opinions might be moulded by the company we keep- our friends, relatives, and lovers, tempting us to fit in with the expectations of others. Only when we look through our photo albums, we may encounter our true selves, suggesting our usual behaviours are founded on mutual deceptions.
If we care to glance through the course of art history, artists might be thought as the ones who keep pointing out different objects that are worthy of our attention: Jean-Baptiste Chardin for peeling an orange, Rembrandt for portraits of ordinary faces, Marcel DuChamp for the fountain and broomstick, Andy Warhol for a can of Campbell's soup. If the young have a need to capture a Hong Kong local dish, it is perhaps because they have the unusual receptivity like the past masters. They want to sensitise us, inculcating in us an appreciation of once neglected beauty. Even a dish of local-flavoured fried rice might deserve our aesthetic attention.
If biography is the key to understanding ourselves, then photography is perhaps a better medium for them to serve its ends. A photo album is not complete without including the fullness of life. Why is a biography necessary for every one of us? It's because everyone is composed of unique experience, thus legitimately deserving the right to be the author of his own life. It comes the time we may have to revise the intellectual conscience of the young all over again, and perhaps, learn from them.
W
Their photographic interests are not merely exclusive to the grandeur of high-class restaurants which often appear in magazines and on television. They have violated the traditional code of honour that is often associated with western and Japanese cuisine; rather, they force us to sharpen our awareness of the usual yet neglected dishes in many local Hong Kong restaurants that carry a cocktail of more than three to four type of cuisines, for example, those of what we might call the "soy sauce western cuisine", or even a spectacularly ordinary drink of "milk tea".
However, many condemn such rampancy of photography. Not only it tends to destroy the aesthetic superiority that it has established itself for almost two centuries, it also wishes to persuade us artistic talents can be cultivated through trial and error, as opposed to the traditional perception of them being God-given. But to rashly condemn their adoption of a fetishistically reverent attitude to digtial cameras is to unfairly consign them to disgrace and us to respectability. What could account for such culinary, photographic obsession? In what sense might we arrive at a charitable assessment of such seemingly meaningless activity?
One possible answer is our need to record bits and pieces of our lives. To photograph is also to find a visual outlet for our philosophical sentiment to understand who we really are. Recording bits and pieces of what we wear, what we eat, how we decorate our homes, and the like may direct us to the correct direction to knowing our true selves, because what we do in everyday life is a largely ignored, yet genuine self-expression. It implies an inevitable link between our psychological make-up and what we do. And for the first time, we may think we have been returned to ourselves without excessive reliance on friends and lovers, for photographs cut away dead periods that often arise in conversations, which are often associated with the art of going with the flow, especially in the times when our friends are forced to say halfway unbearable truths about our somewhat deeply flawed characters.
Moreover, not only photography makes room for those who suffer from the rigid inability to write beautifully, it also helps articulate certain aspects of feelings which are far beyond the capacity of a word that can deliver. We are often in trouble to cultivate our verbal and literary instincts to depict a range of emotions and sceneries that provoke a certain mood or a state of mind. Photographs overcome the limits of words and afford us a better visual comprehension of what we feel.
Hence photography is the visual articulation of our own biographies. Through photography, we may be able to unearth certain sides of ourselves which we are reluctant to disclose, for our opinions might be moulded by the company we keep- our friends, relatives, and lovers, tempting us to fit in with the expectations of others. Only when we look through our photo albums, we may encounter our true selves, suggesting our usual behaviours are founded on mutual deceptions.
If we care to glance through the course of art history, artists might be thought as the ones who keep pointing out different objects that are worthy of our attention: Jean-Baptiste Chardin for peeling an orange, Rembrandt for portraits of ordinary faces, Marcel DuChamp for the fountain and broomstick, Andy Warhol for a can of Campbell's soup. If the young have a need to capture a Hong Kong local dish, it is perhaps because they have the unusual receptivity like the past masters. They want to sensitise us, inculcating in us an appreciation of once neglected beauty. Even a dish of local-flavoured fried rice might deserve our aesthetic attention.
If biography is the key to understanding ourselves, then photography is perhaps a better medium for them to serve its ends. A photo album is not complete without including the fullness of life. Why is a biography necessary for every one of us? It's because everyone is composed of unique experience, thus legitimately deserving the right to be the author of his own life. It comes the time we may have to revise the intellectual conscience of the young all over again, and perhaps, learn from them.
W
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