C.O.A.C - fourteen

Although I am no longer living and working in Hong Kong, I will continue to post images over the next couple of weeks. My last post notified what happened to me in Hong Kong while walking home. For those that did not hear, I was attacked by a group of immigrants at a Circle K store. I have since moved to New York, to seek further medical treatment, and to start a new chapter in my life. I've gone through so many chapters; my life's novel seems a bit ridiculous whenever I look back at my past. I can only keep my eyes focused on each day. Not the past, nor the future. Today is a new chapter in my life, and I hope and pray the events rolling in will be adventurous, fun, and pain free! I look forward to sharing my future experiences here on my blog, and to continue documenting my life and what I see. More to come...

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

-Matthew 6:34

Savages

Tuesday night at 11:30pm I was jumped by a group of immigrants near to my home. I was beaten pretty badly, causing enough damage that I needed Oral Maxillofacial Surgery. Why they would do this is beyond me, it was just plain evil. I'm sore, but alive and thankful for all of those that have supported me through this traumatic experience. I'm truly grateful for everyone that offered me up in prayers, and for those that contacted the US Embassy. I really hope that the attackers will be caught!

For now, I'm down and out. Healing, resting and hopefully I will be back to normal soon. My phone was stolen as well, so I have a new number posted on my 'about' section. I'm using my old phone, so it shuts on and off randomly. So my apologies if I miss any calls! Again, I cant say THANK YOU enough to everyone who responded. Your amazing and carrying folks, my true friends. Blessings...

Hong Kong Rising

My archive of commercial and editorial images are now being syndicated through Aurora Photos. A bunch of images (mainly commercial) are still in the process of being posted online and distributed through their partnered agencies, but soon most of my archive will be online.

Aurora did a feature on some of my images from Hong Kong. The feature story "Hong Kong Rising" can be seen here. I'm excited to be partnered with Aurora, and I hope to produce many more of these sets in the future. More to come...

C.O.A.C - thirteen

As the days pass and the starting of my next internship gets closer, I continue to find new places, people and things to photograph in Hong Kong. Honestly, I question if I will ever get to all the places in HK I would like to see and document. So far, it has been a really fantastic country to photograph, and I try to really give the places justice of how I see it - with a twist of course.

Lately, I have been so tired because of the weather. Everyday is incredibly hot and humid. Obviously the two worst combinations for any soul! To top it off, it has been cloudy and very rainy with few sunny days. It's hard to leave my air-conditioned apartment to roam the streets, let alone to travel East towards the boarder of China. Now that is pushing it my friends. This past weekend I went to Lau Fau Shan (close to China) again, and oh boy, I was so sweaty even my jeans were dripping. It was disgusting! Nevertheless, as a photographer, 'you have to do what you have to do' in order to get the images. Right?! I just hope my body will soon adjust. More to come...

P.S.
An early birthday wish - Olympus E-P1 kit with the 17mm lens and optical viewfinder. Or the Canon 5D Mark II of course. :)

Tiananmen Vigil

June 4th, 2009 marked the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmnen square massacre. As Chinese officials cracked down on social networking sites and closed the square in Beijing, Hong Kong had a record turn out of people that lit candles and honored those that died. Today, Hong Kong is the only legal place in China to hold such an event, and it's estimated over 150,000 people participated at the event held at Victoria Park.

C.O.A.C - twelve

I'm back in the city where East meets West. A cultural blend of Chinese and British influences, all stirred together in one pot. In this case, a big shiny city. There is always something quirky happening, a new site to see everywhere you look, as well as construction happening 24/7. No matter where you go or where you look, there is some type of construction or building repair happening. Even the building across from me is doing outside touch up work to their windows. The noises can be horribly exhausting sometimes!

As I sit in limbo, waiting for my training visa to be approved so I can start my next internship at SCMP, I continue to explore new areas of the country I have never seen before. Eventually, I would like to visit and cover each town, city, beach and island in Hong Kong. Just so I can make my C.O.A.C project truly complete. Below are some little features since I got back. More to come...

"If your are out there shooting, things will happen for you. If you're not out there, you'll only hear about it."

- Jay Maisel

PDN Photo Annual 2009

Sweet!

This year's PDN Photo Annual 2009 recently named the winners. Congratulations to all the winners, and I would like to give a special shout out to Ed Ou and Matt Eich. To see the images, check it out in print or online here.

C.O.A.C - eleven

What is C.O.A.C? This is one of my personal projects that I continuously work on whenever I go to other countries. C.O.A.C stands for Characteristics of a Country. I try to capture the way I see the city/country/people/culture in hopes that I can represent what the country is about. Currently I am documenting Hong Kong. I have been living in Hong Kong for a little over 4 months. As I write this, I am back in the US making a big move to re-locate to Hong Kong to continue working on this personal project and to start a new adventure with the South China Morning Post. I finished my AMAZING picture editing internship at TIME Asia, and I decided to try to see what other opportunities exist in Hong Kong. This time I will be an intern photographer for the Post. I'm very excited to start shooting daily assignments again, and I look forward to getting involved with the local community as much as possible and hopefully I can squeeze out some nice stories for the paper.

I hope I am not alone when saying I think everyday about the bad timing it was to graduate in a recession! The journalism industry has been on a decline even before the recession, or at least in a period of adapting to the internet and multimedia/video. Now to top it off, the recession has caused media giants to do some restructuring, i.e. layoffs. Graduates are lucky to be getting internships these days! Budgets have been slashed even for those, and how many college students or graduates like me can afford to do an unpaid internship? Internships are a MUST for college students and for those that are trying to gain more experience in different areas of journalism, like me. The lack of internships available today makes for incredibly stiff competition. You have to be good, real good. So for this up-coming summer of internships, I say to all those that have secured one, congratulations! Soak it up, and see you on the flip side.

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still."

-Dorothea Lang

C.O.A.C - ten

Interning at TIME Asia has given me great insight as to how the journalism industry operates. Seeing thousands of photos a day can be a daunting task, just in search of that one, or two, or three images that will tell the story the best. After awhile, you start learn what makes a good photo and why. Challenges like this are a daily occurrence at the office, all of which I really enjoy. There is a creative part to picture editing as well. Taking the photograph is only the beginning. As a photographer, I have been most thankful to witness and be part of the picture editing process, so that I can hopefully one day, take my own photography up a notch. I just don't want it to end....

Speaking of photographers, my co-worker and intern in crime, Sheila Zhao is also a photographer that is learning the ropes of picture editing. To see her work, check out her website which is listed on my 'friends & mentor' list.

The images below are from daily walks throughout the city and countryside. My next challenge is to see what the mountains are like. Mountains, in Hong Kong? Hmm.....

"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary."

- Cecil Beaton

C.O.A.C - nine

With 3 weeks left at Time, preparations for the big move to New York have already been underway. From apartment hunting to seeking out jobs/freelance gigs, it has only added to the never-ending list of 'things to do'.

Lately, I’ve been tied down with work and captioning/keywording images for stock submission. So finding any time to venture out into the streets has been very limited. I hope to find some time to do at least another picture story before I leave. I have a few ideas, but again, it’s finding that precious ‘time’. More to come…

"To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them."

-Elliott Erwitt

C.O.A.C - eight

It has been so great working at TIME. I've learned so much, and I feel there's still so much to learn. Photo editing was never something I envisioned doing for an internship, let alone as part of my career, but it has become a rewarding one that I have grown to love! After the internship is over, It's good bye Hong Kong and hello New York.

Update: I've recently teamed with Aurora Photos and Select. My images will finally find a new home for stock. Working with Select will be great as well, since it will be an additional source of inspiration to complete old and current projects as well as find new ones. I'm exited to see what lies ahead with this never ending adventure...

To take photographs means to recognize - simultaneously and within a fraction of a second - both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting one's head, one's eye and one's heart on the same axis.

- Henri Cartier-Bresson

Via Dolorosa

As a former Portuguese colony, Macau has retained many of the old Catholic traditions and festivals including the Procession of the Passion of Our Lord. The solemn procession is part and parcel of the cultural fabric of Macau. It is the celebration of long standing influence by the missionaries in and around Macau. Japanese and Vietnamese Christians who came to Macau to escape prosecutions by religious fanatics in their country started the Procession. The deposits of sacred mortal remains of many missionaries in Macau add to the solemnity of the festival. Today, there are some 10 million Catholics in China, divided between an “underground” church and the state-approved church that rejects effective papal control.

On the festive day, a figure of Christ carrying the Cross is taken in a formal procession from St. Augustine’s Church to the Macau Cathedral for an overnight vigil. The next day, several devotees dressed in magenta-robes escort the image through the city along the procession route and pause for the stations of the cross, designating the tragic events which took place from the condemnation of Christ to the placing of the body in the tomb after his death on the Cross.

“Via Dolorosa”