cityscape – Ming Thein

Photoessay: homogeneity

March 12, 2020 by Ming Thein 10 Comments

If most structures are designed to fit in with their surroundings, it stands to reason they’ll be a visual average of the buildings on either side, or a sort of mirror; factor in stylistic changes, function and the trends of the time of construction, and the mirror also includes dilution. Eventually, we have mirrors of mirrors. It even happens at a variety of scales, with similar distorted vignettes in every pane of glass. I actually struggled to find the right word for the title. What I’m trying to describe isn’t so much uniformity as an averaging towards the same; yet it’s not entropy because it’s an ordered state. And it’s not replication because the structures aren’t exactly the same; they can’t be since they were constructed individually and had to fit whatever their immediate surroundings of the time were. Perhaps the best description is starting with a collection of random objects, replacing one by one with a mirror; the mirrors are not symmetrically placed, and little of the original chaos remains – but just enough that there is a very diluted flavour left… MT

Shot with a variety of hardware in a number of cities over several years.

Photoessay: Cityscape Tokyo

February 12, 2019 by Ming Thein 36 Comments

The more you visit a city, the more your impressions change; that initial freshness and impact wears off into a sort of routine of the favourite places you like to visit while you’re there. Layered on top of this are the changes to the place itself, since no city is static – least of all somewhere like Tokyo. The latest instalment in the Cityscape series of retrospective curations has taken the longest to put together simply because I’ve got so many images from this place, from (at least) annual visits spanning the last 12 years. I realise that most of the early impressions no longer resonate with me as much as images shot in say the last four or five years, at most. This is the Tokyo I have in my mind now – one of density, activity, anonymity, details – but it won’t be the Tokyo I remember next year as I’m actually here at the moment with my family, and for the first time, our four year old – new memories are being made, new impressions formed, and it’s still too new to know what will stick. MT

Shot over a long, long period of time with a wide variety of equipment. Mostly processed with PS Workflow III.

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Filed Under: On Photography Tagged With: cityscape, japan, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, photoessay, photography, thein, tokyo

Photoessay: Cityscape Hong Kong

November 21, 2018 by Ming Thein 36 Comments

It turns out this one was a lot tougher than I expected – mainly because of the sheer volume of starting material. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been to Hong Kong during my photographic career; and inevitably you land up staying somewhere with a relatively interesting view or two even directly from the hotel room, let alone once you start wandering at street level. The sheer density and rate of change of the city means that these two elements themselves are constants in the overall impression left; only on top of that can you layer the other details. The interesting thing is the details become recursive at multiple scales, resulting in a very dense urban wimmelbild of texture; it was tough to decide where to draw the line between cityscape and street during the curation. It’s also equally easy to get lost in the concrete canyons and forget that there are actually a lot of open green areas around the islands, and of course water. Regardless – there’s a lot to see here, and I’m pretty sure there are no end of arguments as to exactly what constitutes a ‘comprehensive’ interpretation of Hong Kong…

Shot over a long, long period of time with a wide variety of equipment. Mostly processed with PS Workflow III.

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Filed Under: On Photography Tagged With: cityscape, hong kong, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, photoessay, photography, thein

Photoessay: Cityscape Chicago

November 15, 2018 by Ming Thein 22 Comments

Following on from the previous Cityscape Singapore post – I’ve decided to repeat the curation exercise with all of the other locations I visit frequently to see if my short and long term impressions remain constant. Today’s candidate is Chicago. My expectations prior to visiting were perhaps clouded (oddly) by the 1920s to 1950s period of neo-gothic architecture and pop culture elements; I wasn’t disappointed on arrival, but found the contrast between that and the very modern designs quite compelling. Somehow the city’s architects have managed to integrate both in a harmonious way; perhaps it’s because a lot of consideration is given to the surroundings of any single building before the plan is greenlit. It may well be the same case in other cities, but I can say there’s absolutely zero of this sensitivity in Kuala Lumpur – often plots are developed into their own mini-cities that do not play nicely with the neighbourhood at all, but rather force their way in. It is this preservation of continuity that I found rather intriguing as a visitor…MT

Shot over a long, long period of time with a wide variety of equipment. Mostly processed with PS Workflow III.

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Filed Under: On Photography Tagged With: chicago, cityscape, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, photoessay, photography, thein

Photoessay: Cityscape Singapore

November 9, 2018 by Ming Thein 13 Comments

Another photoessay today with the benefits of multiple visits and longer curation – perhaps the start of a mini-project for me to revisit the archives with the benefit of separation and objectivity for places I’ve paid multiple visits to. The purpose would be both to curate something of a set ‘representative’ of the personality of the place – as far as that’s possible with a dynamic entity like a living city (especially in the case of somewhere that rapidly develops such as Singapore or Tokyo), as well as to see how my own personal feelings and impressions have changed over time. To some degree we might also be seeing the effect of different approaches to photography – from more casual to more formal/structured/deliberate and back again; tripods and not; preference for 28 vs longer lenses etc – it may well turn into some interesting insights into one’s own observational preferences over time…MT

Shot over a long, long period of time with a wide variety of equipment. Mostly processed with PS Workflow III.

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Filed Under: On Photography Tagged With: cityscape, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, photoessay, photography, singapore, thein

Photoessay: Beyond human scale

July 28, 2017 by Ming Thein 17 Comments

I’ve always thought of Tokyo as a city of extremes: the insanely vast urban sprawl vs minuscule personal spaces; the pursuit of the ultimate food-art vs the ubiquitous convenience stores and vending machines; incredibly opulent wealth and luxury beyond imagination, and more homeless people than you might think. The futuristic abuts horrible 1970s square-concrete; indecipherable quipu of power lines knot the tops of poles, yet streets are laid so precisely that there’s material used in the middle of intersections for better grip. At larger distances, this devolves into something both more homogeneous and at the same time, distinctive – as neighbourhoods are somewhat cohesive. Even somewhere like Omotesando, where architects compete for the most unusual structure, it seems that such very competition creates a different kind of uniformity: what would be exceptional somewhere else isn’t when taken in multiples. It’s this very dichotomy I’ve tried to capture here – and with as few visual cues to scale as possible. MT

This series was shot with a Canon 100D, 24STM and 55-250STM lenses, an X1D-50c and 90mm, and a H6D-100c and 100mm. Post processing was completed using the techniques in the weekly workflow and PS Workflow III.

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Filed Under: On Photography Tagged With: cityscape, japan, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, photoessay, photography, thein, tokyo

Photoessay: Urbanscapes and details, Prague

March 12, 2017 by Ming Thein 16 Comments

Just a few urban vignettes from Prague for today’s post; for the most part, they have a warm, summery mood (albeit shot towards the end of autumn), though you may find a few exceptions. Despite having visited and shot here in every season, I personally find the city really only ever has two moods – gloomy, wintery and very Soviet-bloc Eastern Europe, or warm and bohemian, and dare I say it, just a little quirky and fun. Both have their charms. Of late there’s been this odd giant theme park feel about the place, probably not helped by the massive influx of visitors. I think that must have been kicking around in my subconscious when I shot the first two images – at least that’s the only explanation I have for the inclusion of slightly incongruous foreground and the great wall… MT

This series was shot with a Hasselblad H5D-50C and H6D-50C, various lenses and post processed with Photoshop and Lightroom Workflow III. You can also travel to Prague vicariously with T1: Travel Photography.

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Filed Under: hasselblad, On Photography Tagged With: cityscape, hasselblad, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, photoessay, photography, prague, thein

Photoessay: Nightfall, Prague

February 28, 2017 by Ming Thein 46 Comments

I don’t believe this city ever sleeps. When it gets dark, it’s simply a change of mood; in fact, some parts look better when you don’t see the less salubrious bits. When you get a good evening though, it feels as though you are walking in a fairy tale at American theme park sizes – really quite surreal. The challenge is of course how to not make another tourist cliche; I think I got too caught up by the obvious beauty at times and consequently failed abjectly with this set. Perhaps it will require another visit to rectify. MT

This series was shot with a Hasselblad H5D-50C and H6D-50C, various lenses and post processed with Photoshop and Lightroom Workflow III.

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Filed Under: hasselblad, On Photography Tagged With: cityscape, dusk, hasselblad, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, photoessay, photography, prague, thein

Photoessay: a different kind of KL cityscape

May 25, 2015 by Ming Thein 43 Comments

Ordered cubism

I personally find one of the most challenging things to do is make compelling and different images in a situation that is a familiar one: your home city, your usual equipment with nothing particularly special or capable of making a distinctive look (or another way of looking at it is a general purpose tool with a very versatile shooting envelope), challenging weather, and to top it off, conditions that are not ideally conducive for creativity*. These were shot during a private workshop as examples; I have to simultaneously apologise to and thank my student at the time: firstly, I felt I could have made better images with a bit more sleep, but the conditions pushed me to really look for something different. In the end, I think this set fit the bill: I am happy because these are images that I have not only not produced in some form or other before, but images that I never conceptualised because I was not looking in those places either – even though it wasn’t my first time there. Enjoy! MT

*Prolonged lack of sleep from a newborn and a small apartment full of relatives.

This series was shot with a Nikon D810 and 24-120/4 VR, which is probably about as flexible as you can get.

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Filed Under: On Photography Tagged With: cityscape, kl, kuala lumpur, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, photoessay, photography, thein, urban

Photoessay: Tokyo cityscapes

May 13, 2015 by Ming Thein 32 Comments

Skyline

We’re nearing the end of the images from the last trip to Tokyo. Today’s images are a continued evolution of the urban theme into something a bit more widespread; an attempt to capture the combined endless scale and whimsy of Tokyo. There are bits you might find surprising and challenging to your preconceptions of Japan – anything with space or trees or emptiness, for instance – but that’s the whole point, isn’t it? It is me giving in to my endless fascination for man-made light, texture and reflection in complementary colours. Enjoy! MT

This series was shot with a Nikon D810, D750, 24/3.5 PCE, 45/2.8P, Zeiss 1.4/85 Otus and Voigtlander 180/4 APO-Lanthar and processed with PS Workflow II; you can also travel vicariously to Japan with How To See Ep.2: Tokyo.

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