KANTA Portraits: May 2016

2016-05-28

Imageneiro, Photography Workshop Studio, Liberdade

Meet up with Maurício Sapata at Roger Sassaki's workshop studio, Imageniero! wicked place to be if you're a photo-phanatic. really stoked to have met great practitioners of photography in its purest form. long live photography, Liberdade, São Paulo, Brazil

upstairs santa's workshop

downstairs study, group & solo exhibition

collodion darkroom, bench left, bench right

collodion prints

densitometer and don't-touch-this-
acid-mix-will-burn-a-hole-in-your-lung bottle

2016-05-27

First Encounter with an Afghan Box Camera build

done by Maurício Sapata, his prototype #1 what a beautiful built! large, light, smooth, it's great to see one with the afghan mechanism up close. Momentus day, wished i took more pics!

Tá teno lambe-lambe no mercado de pulgas do minhocão!

Mobile Kit, Version 2

mobile kit, Kamra #1 prepped and ready. bringing it along to meet Mauricio in São Paulo. different carrying orientation, possible to strap as backpack. in preparation for some remote excursions, testing stage.

It's still abit heavy, bout 7kg without stock chemicals (+2kg more for tripod), but fits well as a backpack to hike or cycle. should be able to process bout 100 positive prints on a single trip.

my lightest, strongest tripod. shorten to fit the luggage, hope it survives the trip

mobile kit version 2

mobile kit back pack

dismantled tripod for fitting

2016-05-11

SOURCING MATERIAL: velcro

local tailoring shop, doubles as a curry puff cake shop, getting some Velcro, 2 meters

2016-05-09

UPGRADE: Paper Box

Project in hibernation at the moment, pending completion of Mapping work end July/ August. Downtime means refinement & repairs. Making a new replacement light-safe box for photo paper. need a thinner one too.

2016-05-02

VISIT; Master Chan

an attempt at cataloguing Master Chan's collection for sale. It's been years since I've tried in vain to get that done, and this visit was like most of the previous. This time though we had some new visitors, Mahen Bala, a budding filmmaker. together we've come up with a few strategies to get it done. Anyhow, was really nice to have some new company share the love of photography with one of my mentors.

Jeffrey JC Lim

Jeffrey Lim’s exploration into photography started with the family’s point & shoot film-camera and the stories behind their black & white photographs. It was later in art school that he discovered the magic of the darkroom and explored deeper into the craft of image-making & printing.

He started experimenting with self-made box cameras utilising pinhole and lenses, and also explored using century-old box cameras, crossing between different mediums and methods to producing an image. At the same time, he started researching his family’s roots through interviews and photographs.

After watching the Afghan Box Camera Project video in 2011, he was inspired to design and build variants of the Kamra. Starting the project Kanta Box Kamra, he built the first four prototypes. He then developed new techniques in reproduction & printing after visiting the exhibition Retrato Popular, Sesc Belenzinho, and studying the Lambe-Lambe cameras of Brasil, he built several other prototypes.

In 2017, he started Kanta Portraits to explore the concepts of identity and the national-construct. Travelling to different parts of the region and many different indigenous communities, he recorded their narratives and in return, gave instant portraits. He is currently archiving the portraits and reflecting on the journey in the hopes of producing an exhibition and publication.

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