JENNY CHU : Featured Artist

YEABU'S HOMECOMING : A Documentary Report from Sierra Leone by Jenny Chu

Bio : Jenny Chu (half Malaysian) recently earned her master's degree from U.C. Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. After spending years as a still photographer, she recently shifted her focus to documentary film. For her photographic work, she has traveled extensively, documenting the ethnic minority groups of China, the massive changes overtaking Shanghai, and the struggles of those in war-torn and poverty-stricken African countries.

I met Jenny in 2001 when she exhibited her black and white photographs of interior China at the lightgallery. Jenny hails from California and has traveled extensively to China, documenting the vast landscapes and peoples from the minorities, and also the contrasts of modern Shanghai, where she has relatives. She comes across as a shy and unassuming person but tenaciously streetwise and intelligent. After all, traveling alone across Africa and China has made her knowledgeable and focused in her work, as a still photographer.


Watch her latest video (click the link above), following Yeabu's journey, a farmer from Sierra Leone, who suffers from obstetric fistula, a common problem in Third World countries, to Freetown to receive surgery from a team of doctors funded by Mercy Ships.

I found it highly informative and well put together.

Bravo, Jenny!

Letter from Leica

..otherwise known as "My priceless little Red Dot".

Once in a while you can spoil yourself rotten. Today, I received a letter bearing a Milton Keynes postmark on it, and yes, for those 'in the know', its where the headquarters of Leica UK is located. You see, a few weeks back, I picked up my 50mm Summicron lens from inside my camera bag and ..eh..I did not recognise this piece of lens, it was like a familiar friend had suddenly become unfamiliar, and for the life me, I just cannot see what has changed but change there was.

I couldn't put my finger on it! Literally speaking! Got it!

The little raised plastic red dot on the lens barrel was missing! Shock horrors! Its a Summicron first and a Leica M lens second, or was it the other way round. How can this be. The Red Dot is a signature piece, just like the flying lady in front of Rolls Royces, or the Three Pointed Star in a Merc. Its the the little halved lime you squeeze into a bowl of Sarawkian Laksa. Its the icing on the cake..ok enough, you get what I mean. Without it would mean, utter shame and a let down. A Leica lens would merely be 'another' branded lens.

I searched every crevice and fold deep in my bags, tipped everything out, (found other things unmentionable though) and basically had a clear out but nada. No little red dot. I was depressed for days. My lens was naked like a turtle without its shell.

Beware : Naked Summicron

Then I read in some online forum that if I wrote nicely to Leica AG, they would gladly send me a little red dot replacement. I took the chance of shooting an email off from their website a two days ago, telling them how much I missed my dot. promptly forgetting the whole episode once the send button struck. How silly I told myself. Grow up. A lens is a lens with or without the red dot.

Now those of you that use M or R lenses would understand. Its just not the about the plastic raised dot. Its about execution and finesse. Ah..these German designers long ago were clever engineers. You see, there is a purpose to the little plastic hump on the barrel, as any one who has changed lenses in near darkness or in candle light would testify. Leica's Ms are known for their compact dimensions, solid build, quiet stealth shutters with no mirror slap, and its brilliant fast lenses. All Leica lenses are designed to be shot wide open, as wide as F1.0 with maximum resolution and little flare.

My letter from Leica

The red pimple acts as a guide for your thumb to align the lens to the red release button on the body. (Before any Canon user would jump in now, yes, Canon EF lenses also have a tiny red dots on their lenses, but somehow, I never noticed it, maybe because its smaller, and the barrels are larger, and I have a zoom lens so I hardly change lenses. I can't vouch for Nikon and other makes, contributions please?)




Today, my red dot arrived and my lens is happy, and so am I.

No more nakedness

On the Leica M, all it takes is a one handed, slight (1 cm perhaps, 1/16th ) turn to secure the lens, unlike most makes which make take a 1/4 turn). In fast changing low light situations, this can be a God send in camera handling. Most cameras would require a separate finger to depress the release button and another hand to twist off, and a third hand to hold the camera body steady. I don't have three hands. With my left hand holding the body, my right hand thumb can depress the release button whilst grabbing and twisting the lens off in one swift action. Its really quick.

Keith Jarrett solo - Time on My Hands

Absolutely sublime.. at the Carnegie Hall, September 2005.

Final Destination

Last week, there were several aptly scenarios for a 'Final Destination' headline, what with the Wimbledon Championships also, going on a stones throw away at SW19. Over the warm and sunny weekend, I found time away from sipping Pimms No.1 on my tiny balcony watching the river activities before me, to clear my second bathroom. You see, this 6' x 7' box conveniently called a bathroom, with no window had been my perfect 'darkroom' for many years, from 1999 to around 2006. Since I have practically 'gave up the Ghost' on using film, I decided to re-visit the shelf where one normally stacks half-emptied shampoos and conditioners, and bubble-bath (yes, I do have my fetish..) bottles, to clear out the 'other' inhabitants there : Agfa chemicals.

I primarily used Agfa Rodinol, Sistan and Agefix on Fujifilm Neopan 400s when I was that way inclined. It seems they are all pass their shelf lifes by now. How sad. I still have several boxes of Ilford 12 x 16 paper and some fantastic artpaper from Eastern Europe to which I have forgotten the name of for now. My Axomat enlarger and baseboard (again, Eastern European) still occupies space in my wardrobe, amidst the other rubbish I have gathered over the years.

(PS>Anyone wants a brilliant Meopta Axomat enlarger with a Nikkor lens, please email me!)

I do not actually miss hand-processing film and printing. The setting up and prep were a real pain. Also, the amount of fresh water used in the washing process was insane and unjustifiable in my mind. I used to fill up the bath tub with cold icy water and used that as a dunking bath for the prints straight from the fixer tray which sits on a large MDF board over the bath tub. And then there's the clearing up and washing afterwards. Of course, not breathing the chemical fumes also add years to one's lifespan, they say.

Now where's the Pimms...?

Michael Jackson, Thank you!