Yours truly and Azlan, the photographer extraordinaire. It was a pleasure.20 photos. 5 minutes. Doing the maths, that would be 15 seconds per slide. And that can be intense especially if you were in the middle of your thoughts, and without a PA system, having to shout at the top of your voice against the drum beat of a nearby sound stage. Well, in a nutshell, that was what the 5 Minute Photo Express was all about. All together, we had 15 speakers, spread over 3 sessions who were brave enough to come forward. But I must say, it was a huge success. The only thing we could have done better would be to publicise the even on a bigger scale. Anyway, we made the most of what we had, and still people flocked in.
We had an experimental photographer in Azlan, who exclusively takes medium format slides. He explained the thinking and motivations behind his photographs, grabbing the attention of the listeners no end. Then we had a disabled photographer, taking photographs rolling around on his wheelchair, a travel photographers or two. Somebody who was at the Bersih event the weekend previously. We had Ripi talking about the beauty of blurred photographs, with his memorable quote of - a single frame is a mistake, a dozen frames is an experiment, and hundred frames would be a trend!
Shaz preparing the slides
@chimagination and his Million Happy Faces projectWe also had a lady from China, Loh Chi Meng talking about his Million Happy Faces project, Shaz - the host with photographs of blue sky, Prakash on his recent journey to Jakarta. A mixed bag, and that was the beauty of it. I wished that the event was held indoors, like it was in the last Urbsanscapes, with better projections, and without the need to shout at the top of your voice. We would also be able to interact better as well, as interaction was what it was all about …. I just wished that we had the session videoed. That would have been nice …
