Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Interesting: We all get dressed for him :)

Late one afternoon, like so many afternoons before, I found myself wandering aimlessly with a mouse in one hand, staring blankly straight ahead. Click after soulless click, hopping from one numbing page to another, hoping to find gold but all I’d found were grits.

bill_cunningham_newyork-960x638That was until ‘The best 50 movies of 2011’ (of course there are probably a million more sites claiming to have the same list but with totally different films). Most of the films I have never heard of, but one particular film caught my eye like a vice laced with super glue, perhaps because it was a documentary about a photographer living in New York.

The documentary was “BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK”, if you are into documentary / biography I am sure you’ll like this one; what a life :)

Talking about dedication to one’s trade, he is the manifestation of the word “Passion”, he literally sleeps with his work :) the art of photography may not be his main concern, he simply wanted to catalogue everything he believes is important in the world of fashion, perhaps that sounds too simplistic, but the way he goes about it and the way he thinks is so fascinating (in a very good way).

With over 3 decades worth of photographs, consisting of street fashion and important social events (for the New York Times), he had seen it all, oh, did I mention that he was born in 1928/1929!. There are many memorable points of view from Mr. Cunningham, one of my favourite is “You see if you don’t take money, they can’t tell you what to do kid. That’s the key to the whole thing, don’t touch money, is the worst thing you could do” (Bill Cunningham New York, 18:12 – 18:23).

I wonder what he will do, now that Kodak (sadly) is no more, only kidding, I think he uses Fuji films anyway (saw a few glimpses of green film boxes), will he ever move to digital?  The way he takes a photo is like watching fencing at the Olympics; the camera starts down low just below the chest, with both hands on either side of the camera, then suddenly it comes up to his eye as fast as an alcoholic downing a shot of whiskey in a typical Hollywood cliché film, SNAP SNAP SNAP, a quick jab and it’s down again.

After the documentary all I wanted to do was to go out, buy a blue smock, steal a bike, ride down to Siam Paragon to take pictures :)

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Monday, February 13, 2012

Thousands of these… :)

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Dear Marcella,

Using a camera with a left hand, sounds easier in words than in practice, trust me I should know, I have thousands and thousands of this exact shot of just you and me :) (with different mirrors though, and I am sure there will be thousands and thousands more :)

I was thinking of creating a Yoga class for photographers, I sure could have used it here :)

By the way, your mother and I now know exactly when to catch you smiling. So simple, all we have to do, to be guaranteed with a beautiful huge smile, is to make sure that you are full of milk. ‘Stomach Full of Milk’ = ‘Mogwai’, ‘Stomach Void of Milk’ = ‘Gremlin’.

 

Just got back from Vietnam, lovely place and people, and just found out today that I have to go to Singapore the day after tomorrow… so be a good girl and keep you brother in line, ok. :) Missing you already…

Monday, February 6, 2012

Moment to Remember: Angie’s comment :)

New HaircutDear Matt,

Your hair cut was long over due, so late Saturday evening I drove you to your usual place, but this time it was only you and I, so when the lady asked for the style, I’d said one simple word, 'Short', now if your mother was with us, her direction to the lady would have been just a page shorter than the Bible, lol.

Of course your face have totally changed, haa haa haa, and everyone who knew you have since rushed up to you to make all sorts of comments (of course all were favourable, at your bafflement :) ).

Today is Monday, the traffic was terrible as usual, by the time we arrived at your class most of your friends were already busy doing things in class.

Here is the moment to remember, as always you have to take your shoes and socks off before going into the class room, the only separation between you and the class is a huge pane of glass with two huge sliding glass doors. As soon as you sat down, Angie (she was in your class at Noddy, and she has always been one of my favourite, totally adorable with great manners, an absolutely beautiful little girl) came running out of the class, plonked herself next to you, all smiling and laughing!

In her sweetest little voice she simply said "Matt you had a hair cut", no… I got it wrong, it was like “MATT YOU HAD A HAIR CUT!!!!!!!!!!!”, with a laugh and a huge smile between each word, she was more excited than me :) you muttered some kind of an answer that only an elf could decipher, of course I was already on the floor laughing :)

I shall never forget today :) perhaps I should ask your mother to join us for the next trip to the barber (actually I can never imagine your mother letting me go anywhere alone with you again (ever)) :) with hind sight, going from a Korean-ish style to a Dek Wat (Temple boy) style was a bit much, haa haa haa.

Love you (and sorry, lol :)

 

Dad :)

Friday, February 3, 2012

I am a wolf, a nice wolf :)

Dear Matt,

A couple of days ago it was ‘Jungle day’, so all ‘early years’ had to dress up as an animal of their choice, for the past week you felt in love with the ‘song of the week’, “Who is afraid of the big bad wolf, big bad wolf, big bad wolf…” (and kept singing over and over like a broken record), so it was so appropriate for you to go as a wolf, luckily you had a wolf hat (actually its a wolf/sheep soft hat, I can’t even remember who bought it in the first place), so on that day a wolf you will be :)

Of course that morning you had suddenly decided you didn’t like the wolf hat after all, and absolutely refused to wear it. What could I have done, we were running late so there was no time for one of our infamous negotiations, and decided to tackle the ‘no hat’ issue at the school.

IMG-20120131-00389sWell, you’d won, so instead of being a wolf, you went as an ‘activist’ (your shorts did say “Save wildlife”, it was a good enough excuse in my mind). You jumped out of a car like a young joey (baby kangaroo), all triumphant and all smile having won a hard fought battle (known as ‘Battle of no hat for me, thanks dad’, fought at Shrewsbury’s car park, on the day of 31st 2012).

But soon after, I could tell you were changing your mind :) because as soon as we left the car, there was a tiny elephant in front of us, one of the boy from another class had dressed up like an elephant, and I don’t mean a t-shirt with an elephant hat, I mean a full grey body suit and an elephant’s mask that would have surely won the 2012 Best Costume Design at the Oscar.

IMG-20120131-00403dYou looked at me with your soppy eyes, they were saying “holy crap, why didn’t I just wear that darn hat”, a couple of steps further we saw a wonderful zebra, and by the time we got to your class I had really thought I was in the jungle and was ready to leg it with all those wild animals roaming around.

I just couldn’t let you be the odd one out, I knelt down next to you by the door to your class and asked if you wanted to be a wolf, you’d simply nodded with a gentle smile… After breaking the current 100 metres’ record rushing to the car and back (wolf hat in hand), you had already started your class so I had to call you out, through the large glass sliding door you came running all smiling, in a blink of an eye you had transformed into a wolf and rushed off back to your friends.

Is was so good/funny to see you all smiling and growling at your teachers and friends, just to let them know that you were a wolf wearing a ‘save wildlife’ shorts :)