INTERVIEW FOR PHOTOGRAPHY IS ART HONK KONG

1.Could you tell us about your background? How did you first get into photography and how long have you been doing it?

The creative team behind the OC Art Project pictures has diverse backgrounds from medical school to communications & marketing. Our passion for art and equal rights brought us together and we consider photography and video to be our weapons of expression.

2.How would you describe your photographic style? Why?

International press like Huffington Post has compared our photographic style to American photographer David LaChapelle and French artists Pierre & Gilles because of the bold colors and homoerotic undertones of our artwork. We use irony to treat serious social subjects like homophobia, equal rights, freedom of speech, acceptance, tolerance, love.

3.How do you come up with idea of the project” Orthodox Calendar”? Could you share with us the experience?

Since it’s creation early 2013, OC Art Project counteracts the negative, radical influences of the Orthodox Church. Our first series called « for freedom of speech » was created in reaction to the arrest of the Russian girl band PussyRiot for hosting a music concert inside a church. We wanted to disseminate our message as quickly and as wildly as possible, so we chose to feature our pictures in a wall calendar format with an important message that stays in view of the full household for 365 days. Over the past 5 years, we have been publishing and retailing from our online store www.orthodox-calendar.com and via our distributors in France, Spain, UK, Taiwan and Japan! I think it is a great communication strategy for advocacy such as ours.

4.What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to face when shooting the project “Orthodox Calendar”?

Because of the controversy around the subject, challenges seem to evolve each year. The first years we had issues finding locations to shoot and Orthodox believers to participate. Open-minded church members are hard to find — and the physically fit ones even more. Then when the project took off and people understood our messages were positive, our website www.Orthodox-Calendar.com came under attack by cyber hackers from Russia. (Our series featuring Putin marrying Patriarch Kiril of Russia did not help things, of course!) Most recently we have been victims of repetitive, groundless censures from users of Facebook, YouTube, Amazon and Google Ads for “violating their Community Standards”. Even though these sites feature millions of hard pornographic images and video clips that do not get removed, our artistic photos were targeted by far-right Orthodox hate groups. And once a complaint has been lodged, it is difficult to contact a human being at these companies in order to get the complaint dismissed.

5.“Orthodox Calendar” is a controversial project, how do you deal with others comments?

The international media has been highly attentive. Our work was mostly ignored in Romania until the Huffington Post covered us. The Orthodox Church at one point claimed in an interview that the calendar is produced by non-Orthodox in the Czech Republic! How communist to concoct such a groundless story! We had to chuckle when we read that article. On a daily basis we get haters — and I am not speaking only about homophobes — commenting on our social media but we have learned to deal with them. Frustrated people will always be trying to stop others from expressing themselves. At the end of the day, we are always happy when our many fans send a message thanking us for continuing this project each year, telling us how it changed the view an acquaintance had of their lifestyle.

6.Where do you find inspiration?

Our series often references religious icons and religious imagery. Most our topics come from the radical speech of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, Putin and those who hate in the name of religion. From a technical point of view, we admire Mapplethorpe, Erwin Olaf, James Bidgood, Nobuyoshi Araki, Cindy Sherman, Helmut Newton.

7.What has been the most complex setup for a photograph you took?

I am tempted to tell you that the simplest are often the most complex. Again, because of the controversy around the subject, we have a lots of unforeseen last-minute change of plans and we need to work around them pretty fast. The only advantage is that when it happens, our team has always redoubled their efforts in order to make it happen.

8.What Cameras, lenses, and equipment do you usually use? Why would you like to use this equipment?

At the beginning of the project, we used a Canon 5D mark II and we would also use various Canon prime lenses like the 24mm, 50mm and 85mm (our favorite, especially at f1.2). But as the project got more complex and we had to do certain shoots ”guerrilla” style, we invested in a 24–70mm zoom lens at f2.4 and we now use it with a Canon 5D mark III. However, for 2019 we considering switching to the Panasonic GH5 but sticking to Canon glass by using a metabones speedbooster adapter.

9.Could you share with us how much effort do you put on photo-taking and post-manipulating respectively?

We aim to put at least 80% of the effort in making sure that the picture looks good then and there as we are taking it. This means making sure the location and props are right and the lighting is doing what it should be doing. In this way, in post-manipulation, we just enhance existing elements rather than add or change them.

10.Do you have any special tips on taking portrait?

Work less with light and more with shadow. This is basically doing the same thing but…. rather than aim to have the lights hit the light spots, watch how the shadows sculpt the light. The mystery is always in the darker areas.

11.What is your favorite image, why, and how you created the it?

I generally see each picture from a series as a whole. But when we started to produce large format on aluminium Dibond for art galleries I discovered that in fact I add some favorites from each series. For 2018, I like January. Soft tones, natural lighting. I fell in love with the architecture of the monastery staircase we were shooting in that day so I added an extra picture to the list. We waited all day to get the right natural light coming through the window … and in 15 mins we were done.

12.Is there any photographic style that you would love to explore? Why?

There is so much that we want to do and explore. We can’t possibly list them. We do what we feel like in a moment (photographically). This may seem chaotic and all over the place and at the end of the day, not everything may turn out well, but we have a lot of fun and we learn a lot.

13.Do you have any advices for the photography beginner?

Be like a child again and let everything inspire you. And then…..SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT.

14.How do you feel about Hong Kong?

It’s a different world from the one I come from. Abundantly stimulating. A creative oasis. So many colours, textures, feelings, atmospheres. Everywhere you look is a perfect shot waiting to be captured.

15.What international art destination do you most want to visit?

We were recently approached by a gallery from Wong Chuck Hang district. So who knows — we may be coming to Art Basel Hon Kong faster that we thought.

16.Could you share with us your future plan?

2019 series is already in development. The world has slipped into a false sense of comfort forgetting that the main discrimination nowadays is gender inequality. This new artistic work aims to have people understand that gender equality is everyone’s issue.

Interview by Cammy Lee Editor @ www.photographyisart.com[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”17386″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” onclick=”zoom”][/vc_column][/vc_row]