Art Piece of the Day

This photo was taken by artist Dave Chan.   I just randomly found this image when searching for Holga Photos on line. Here is Mr. Chan’s “Bio” from his own website:

“Dave Chan has worked as a photojournalist in Canada for almost 20 years and has documented a wide range of events from politics to sports.

He was the official photographer to Prime Minister Paul Martin and photographed the Prime Minister’s daily life on Parliament Hill in Ottawa as well as his travels across Canada and the world.

Mr. Chan’s photographs have appeared in most major daily Canadian newspapers including the Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star and the National Post. His work has also appeared in several international publications including Newsweek, Time and the New York Times.

In 2002 Mr. Chan was awarded the National Newspaper Award for feature photography.”

Now that we have given the artist his due credit, let’s DISCUSS!  Just what is a HOLGA you ask?!  Only to coolest, cheapy plastic toy camera ever!   My husband and I own three of them and love their unpredictability.  In professional photography, you would often think of high-end equipment, expensive gear and reliable technology.  Not so for the Holga-lover!  The camera is 100% toy-grade plastic, has tons of “light leaks” (open seams that have to be taped up with TAPE) and often becomes misaligned inside causing the film to uncurl from the sprockets that are supposed to hold it in.

BUT!  If you like surprises (and I do) in art, this camera is so much fun!  The light leaks cause weird exposures and uncontrolled flares.  Often there is “vignetting” (say: “vin-yet-ting”)  which is the look of a shadowy black edge around the entire photo.  Often, images are distorted.  If you don’t manually advance the film the proper number of clicks forward, you can get double exposures.  These are great fun to do on PURPOSE! For example, if you took a picture of your little brother, then, did NOT advance the film and took a close up picture of a toy dinosaur, the two images would overlap each other when the photo was printed.  With practice, you can make educated guesses as to where the images will align, resulting in exciting and sometimes other-worldly looking photos.

Notice that in Mr. Chan’s photo, the Great Wall of China creates a diagonal linear element in teh composition.  This act like an arrow, drawing our eye directly to the face of the young man.   The repetition of his black hat and collar help our eye to then jump to the dark little figures to the right of his color.  Repetition and Movement are both Principles of Design.  Why not experiment with composition in your own photos!  🙂