KANTA Portraits: ACQUISITION; Large Format

2016-08-11

ACQUISITION; Large Format

Late last week, a friend send this to me, closing down art centre getting rid of these two studio cameras. I'm too poor to save them, but darn i could take pics with these!

Venus Art Supplies, Petaling Street

enlarger at Pak Tai, Kuala Lumpur

what looks like a large format enlarger at the iconic photography studio in downtown Kuala Lumpur. Pak Tai is moving out end of this month. Thanks to the investigative 'report' of K Azril. found out from chi too, he's moving... next door!

large format studio camera

Acquired; meanwhile up north, studio camera 8 x 10, wish it was but not mine

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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2016-08-11

ACQUISITION; Large Format