quoted from 'Our Daily Bread Sept-Dec 2005'
If your faith is in anyone or anything other than Christ, it is inadequate. Here's how to have the right kind of faith
1. Admit your sinfulness and desire to turn from it. Jesus said, "Unless you repent you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3)
2. Believe that "Christ died for our sins ... and that He rose again the third day" (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)
3. Trust in Jesus Christ alone as your Saviour and Lord. "Of you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9)
My faith is not in my ability to control my own destiny
My faith is not in my good name and good living
My faith is not in my church or ceremonies
My faith is not in my ability to push all negative thoughts out of my life
My faith is not in my own sincerity
My faith is not in my power to tap some inner, godlike resources
My faith is in Jesus Christ
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Henri Cartier-Bresson
IF, IN MAKING A PORTRAIT, you hope to grasp the interior silence of a willing victim, it's very difficult, but you must somehow position the camera between his shirt and his skin.
Whereas with pencil drawing, it is up to the artist to have an interior silence.
Whereas with pencil drawing, it is up to the artist to have an interior silence.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Extracts from 'The Mind's Eye' - Henri-Cartier Bresson
'The Picture Story' p.23-29
What actually us a photographic reportage, a picture story? Sometimes there is one unique picture whose composition possesses such vigour and richness, and whose content so radiates outward from it, that this single picture is a whole story in itself. Bu this rarely happens. The elements which, together, can strike sparks from a subject, are often scattered - either in terms of space or time - and bringing them together by force is "stage management", and, I feel, cheating. But if it is possible to make pictures of the "core" as well as the struck-off sparks of the subject, this is a picture-story. The page serves to reunite the complementary elements which are dispersed throughout several photographs.
The picture-story involves a joint operation of the brain, the eye, and the heart. The objective of this joint operation is to depict the content of some event which is in the process of unfolding, an to communicate impressions. Sometimes a single event can be so rich in itself and its facets that that it is necessary to move all around it in your search for the solution to the problems it poses - for the world is movement, and you cannot be stationary in your attitude toward something that is moving. Sometimes you light upon the picture in second, it might also require hours of days. But there is no standard plan, no pattern from which to work. You must be on the alert with the brain, the eye, the heart, and have a suppleness body.
Things-As-They-Are offer such an abundance of material that a photographer must guard against the temptation of trying to do everything. It is essential to cut from the raw material of life - to cut and cut, but to cut with discrimination. While working, a photographer must reach a precise awareness of what he is trying to do. Sometimes you a have the feeling that you have already taken the strongest possible picture of a particular situation or scene, nevertheless, you find yourself compulsively shooting, because you cannot be sure in advance exactly how the situation, the scene, is going to unfold. You must stay with the scene, just in case the elements of the situation shoot off from the core again. At the same time, it's essential to avoid shooting like a machine-gunner and burdening yourself with useless recordings which clutter your memory and spoil the exactness of the reportage as a whole.
Memory is very important, particularly in respect to the recollection of every picture you've taken while you've been galloping at the speed of the scene itself. The photographer must make sure, while he is still in the presence of the unfolding scene, that he hasn't left any gaps, that he has really given expression to the meaning of the scene in is entirety, for afterward it is too late. He is never able to wind the scene backward in order to photograph it all over again.
For photographers, there are two kinds of selection to be made, and either of them can lead to eventual regrets. There is the selection we make when we look through the view-finder at the subject, and there is the one we make after the films have been developed and printed. After developing and printing, you must go about separating the pictures which, though they are all rights, aren't the strongest. When it's too late, then you know with a terrible clarity exactly where you failed, and at this point you often recall the telltale feeling you had while you were actually making the pictures. Was it a feeling of hesitation due to uncertainty? Was it because of some physical gulf yourself and the unfolding event? Was it simply that you did not take into a certain detail in relation to the whole setup? Or was it (and this is more frequent)
that your glance became vague, your eye wandered off?
For each of us space begins and slants off from our own eye, and from there enlarges itself progressively toward infinity. Space, in the present, strikes us with greater or lesser intensity and then leaves us, visually, to be closed in our memory and to modify itself there. Of all the means of expression, photography is the only one that fixes forever the precise and transitory instant. We photographers deal in thins that are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished, there is no contrivance on earth that can make them come back again. We cannot develop and print a memory. The writer has time to reflect. He can accept and reject, accept again, and before committing his thoughts to paper he is able to tie the several relevant elements together. There is also a period when his brain "forgets", and his subconscious works on classifying his thoughts. But for photographers, what has gone forever. From that fact stem the anxieties and strength of our profession. We cannot do our story over again once we've got back to the hotel. Our task is to perceive reality, almost simultaneously recording it in the sketchbook which is our camera. We must neither try to manipulate reality while we are shooting, nor manipulate the results in a darkroom. These tricks are patently discernible to those who have eyes to see.
In shooting a picture-story we must count the points and the rounds, rather like a boxing referee. In whatever picture-story we try to do, we are bound to arrive as intruders. It is essential, therefore, to approach the subject on tiptoe - even if the subject is still-life. A velvet hand, a hawk's eye - these we should all have. It is no good jostling or elbowing. An no photographs taken with the aid of flashing light either, if only out of respect of the actual light - even when there isn't any of it . Unless a photographer observes such conditions as these, he may become an intolerably aggressive character.
The profession depends so much upon the relations the photographer establishes with the people he's photographing, that a false relationship, a wrong word or attitude, can ruin everything. When the subject is in any way uneasy, the personality goes away where the camera can't reach it. There are no systems, for each case is individual and demands that we be unobtrusive, though we must be at close range. Reactions of people differ much from country to country, and from one social group to another. Throughout the whole of the Orient, for example, an impatient photographer - or one who is simply pressed for time - is subject to ridicule. If you have made yourself obvious, even just by getting your light-meter out, the only thing to do is to forget about photography for the moment, and accommodatingly allow the children who come rushing at you to cling to your knees like burrs.
What actually us a photographic reportage, a picture story? Sometimes there is one unique picture whose composition possesses such vigour and richness, and whose content so radiates outward from it, that this single picture is a whole story in itself. Bu this rarely happens. The elements which, together, can strike sparks from a subject, are often scattered - either in terms of space or time - and bringing them together by force is "stage management", and, I feel, cheating. But if it is possible to make pictures of the "core" as well as the struck-off sparks of the subject, this is a picture-story. The page serves to reunite the complementary elements which are dispersed throughout several photographs.
The picture-story involves a joint operation of the brain, the eye, and the heart. The objective of this joint operation is to depict the content of some event which is in the process of unfolding, an to communicate impressions. Sometimes a single event can be so rich in itself and its facets that that it is necessary to move all around it in your search for the solution to the problems it poses - for the world is movement, and you cannot be stationary in your attitude toward something that is moving. Sometimes you light upon the picture in second, it might also require hours of days. But there is no standard plan, no pattern from which to work. You must be on the alert with the brain, the eye, the heart, and have a suppleness body.
Things-As-They-Are offer such an abundance of material that a photographer must guard against the temptation of trying to do everything. It is essential to cut from the raw material of life - to cut and cut, but to cut with discrimination. While working, a photographer must reach a precise awareness of what he is trying to do. Sometimes you a have the feeling that you have already taken the strongest possible picture of a particular situation or scene, nevertheless, you find yourself compulsively shooting, because you cannot be sure in advance exactly how the situation, the scene, is going to unfold. You must stay with the scene, just in case the elements of the situation shoot off from the core again. At the same time, it's essential to avoid shooting like a machine-gunner and burdening yourself with useless recordings which clutter your memory and spoil the exactness of the reportage as a whole.
Memory is very important, particularly in respect to the recollection of every picture you've taken while you've been galloping at the speed of the scene itself. The photographer must make sure, while he is still in the presence of the unfolding scene, that he hasn't left any gaps, that he has really given expression to the meaning of the scene in is entirety, for afterward it is too late. He is never able to wind the scene backward in order to photograph it all over again.
For photographers, there are two kinds of selection to be made, and either of them can lead to eventual regrets. There is the selection we make when we look through the view-finder at the subject, and there is the one we make after the films have been developed and printed. After developing and printing, you must go about separating the pictures which, though they are all rights, aren't the strongest. When it's too late, then you know with a terrible clarity exactly where you failed, and at this point you often recall the telltale feeling you had while you were actually making the pictures. Was it a feeling of hesitation due to uncertainty? Was it because of some physical gulf yourself and the unfolding event? Was it simply that you did not take into a certain detail in relation to the whole setup? Or was it (and this is more frequent)
that your glance became vague, your eye wandered off?
For each of us space begins and slants off from our own eye, and from there enlarges itself progressively toward infinity. Space, in the present, strikes us with greater or lesser intensity and then leaves us, visually, to be closed in our memory and to modify itself there. Of all the means of expression, photography is the only one that fixes forever the precise and transitory instant. We photographers deal in thins that are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished, there is no contrivance on earth that can make them come back again. We cannot develop and print a memory. The writer has time to reflect. He can accept and reject, accept again, and before committing his thoughts to paper he is able to tie the several relevant elements together. There is also a period when his brain "forgets", and his subconscious works on classifying his thoughts. But for photographers, what has gone forever. From that fact stem the anxieties and strength of our profession. We cannot do our story over again once we've got back to the hotel. Our task is to perceive reality, almost simultaneously recording it in the sketchbook which is our camera. We must neither try to manipulate reality while we are shooting, nor manipulate the results in a darkroom. These tricks are patently discernible to those who have eyes to see.
In shooting a picture-story we must count the points and the rounds, rather like a boxing referee. In whatever picture-story we try to do, we are bound to arrive as intruders. It is essential, therefore, to approach the subject on tiptoe - even if the subject is still-life. A velvet hand, a hawk's eye - these we should all have. It is no good jostling or elbowing. An no photographs taken with the aid of flashing light either, if only out of respect of the actual light - even when there isn't any of it . Unless a photographer observes such conditions as these, he may become an intolerably aggressive character.
The profession depends so much upon the relations the photographer establishes with the people he's photographing, that a false relationship, a wrong word or attitude, can ruin everything. When the subject is in any way uneasy, the personality goes away where the camera can't reach it. There are no systems, for each case is individual and demands that we be unobtrusive, though we must be at close range. Reactions of people differ much from country to country, and from one social group to another. Throughout the whole of the Orient, for example, an impatient photographer - or one who is simply pressed for time - is subject to ridicule. If you have made yourself obvious, even just by getting your light-meter out, the only thing to do is to forget about photography for the moment, and accommodatingly allow the children who come rushing at you to cling to your knees like burrs.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
on looking back
on looking back, if i crudely conclude that i never at one moment liked or enjoyed what i major in ... there are only a few benefits i can draw out from the past 5 years of experience
- i hate long difficult, lengthy sentences
- i discover the beauty of simple words
- i appreciate the visual as a way of expression
- i like to use my ears and hear music
- i learn how to be very patient
- i learn how some people are undeserving to be called teachers and needless to say educators
- i learn why friendships are important
- i learn how people perceive fame and status
- i learn how to regain perspective when i am dissatisfied
- i remember the feelings and emotions of being very satisfied
see, this is the bowl of rosebuds i took in August 2006 when i arrived in Sydney. It holds a lot of my dreams yet to be realised ... i always like the match of the pink and turquoise-green, goes well, right? I wanted to create a book which you can hardly categorise as poetry, design, photography or artistic ... it is a mixture which transcends the rigid boundaries, so it will not be a boring and one-faceted book.
- i hate long difficult, lengthy sentences
- i discover the beauty of simple words
- i appreciate the visual as a way of expression
- i like to use my ears and hear music
- i learn how to be very patient
- i learn how some people are undeserving to be called teachers and needless to say educators
- i learn why friendships are important
- i learn how people perceive fame and status
- i learn how to regain perspective when i am dissatisfied
- i remember the feelings and emotions of being very satisfied
see, this is the bowl of rosebuds i took in August 2006 when i arrived in Sydney. It holds a lot of my dreams yet to be realised ... i always like the match of the pink and turquoise-green, goes well, right? I wanted to create a book which you can hardly categorise as poetry, design, photography or artistic ... it is a mixture which transcends the rigid boundaries, so it will not be a boring and one-faceted book.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Allusion
"art as resurrection of art gave prominence to three formal principles - allusion, parody, quotation. Of these, the first is the most profound, the true ghostly principle of historical revival, since by allusion the thing alluded to is both there and not there ... Allusion is the basis upon which painting could, step by step, dispense with depiction without loss of meaning. On the contrary, depiction as was already well realised in the nineteenth century, could be an obstacle to communication of the artists' meaning, besides having its age-old mystery extracted by the camera..."
- Harold Rosenberg in his book on Arshile Gorky
- Harold Rosenberg in his book on Arshile Gorky
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Learning
"Learning is a long-term investment which increases production
Leaning is not restrictive, you can acquire knowledge whenever and wherever you want in solitude
With my hope that all people on earth can become lovers of books and scholars
With my wishes and encouragement for Form 7 graduates
Mr. Leung Ching"
It's an English translation of what Mr. Leung wrote to us in 2003 for the graduation booklet. I've dug it out from my files of papers that I have kept for so many years since I've left SSGC. Sometimes, I do think about the wonderful times in high school ... the teachers who really care about students, their humourous moments, the chats with classmates. It is youth that is most beautiful and innocent!
I am actually very disappointed by the way that learning is conducted in Hong Kong from kindergarten right to university. Perhaps, we should learn how Finland succeeded in teaching their youngsters (there's a recent book on its education system written in Chinese on how students' abilities are discovered and empowered). The Government lacks the conviction to transform the roots of the education system, I simply do not understand how it can enhance Hong Kong's competitiveness in its full potential if it is still reluctant to change. No one is bold enough to walk an extra mile. The Government just ensures themselves from being scolded.
Leaning is not restrictive, you can acquire knowledge whenever and wherever you want in solitude
With my hope that all people on earth can become lovers of books and scholars
With my wishes and encouragement for Form 7 graduates
Mr. Leung Ching"
It's an English translation of what Mr. Leung wrote to us in 2003 for the graduation booklet. I've dug it out from my files of papers that I have kept for so many years since I've left SSGC. Sometimes, I do think about the wonderful times in high school ... the teachers who really care about students, their humourous moments, the chats with classmates. It is youth that is most beautiful and innocent!
I am actually very disappointed by the way that learning is conducted in Hong Kong from kindergarten right to university. Perhaps, we should learn how Finland succeeded in teaching their youngsters (there's a recent book on its education system written in Chinese on how students' abilities are discovered and empowered). The Government lacks the conviction to transform the roots of the education system, I simply do not understand how it can enhance Hong Kong's competitiveness in its full potential if it is still reluctant to change. No one is bold enough to walk an extra mile. The Government just ensures themselves from being scolded.
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