OPIUM for Manual Magazine

These black-and-white portraits of Vivien Tan were created for an editorial for Manual Magazine, styled by Kym DeGuzman, and written by Eric Florentino. The concept of the shoot itself was inspired by the ‘East-Meets-West’ Opium Trade, and this posting is in more ways than one a celebration of the past – an ‘Anniversary’ of sorts.

The particular lens I used was a Sigma 15-30mm f/3.5 – 4.5. This year marks the 10th year that I’ve owned this lens, and also happens to be the Sigma Corporation’s 50th Year Anniversary. I bought this lens in 2001, because even then, true to Sigma’s philosophy of creating unique lenses, it was not only the best, but also the only wide angle zoom option to use with my 1.3 crop Kodak DCS 760, which was used to take these images. I have since then used that lens to shoot many magazine covers, advertising campaigns, and fashion spreads. Also, having acquired the Kodak DCS 760 in 2001, this year (2011) also marks 10 years in my using digital capture.

Of the many reasons why I switched to digital, probably the most compelling (and strangest!) is because I wanted my photographic process to be as close, at least in spirit, to the pioneers of black-and-white ‘Art’ photography such as the f/64 Group. Put simply, they shot their own film, developed, and printed their photographs themselves. It was an approach that epitomized the virtue of purist, or ‘straight’ photography, meaning that it emphasized the unique qualities of photography as a medium of expression, but at the same time remained artistic and interpretative through the visualization process and the control of black-and-white tonality in the final ‘art’ print.

I wanted a level of control of my work, from shooting to post-processing, that just was not possible or practical without a dedicated high quality darkroom. Most of my work up until that time was shot with 120 format slide film, and thus had to be sent for processing and printing at a professional custom lab. The precise control of black-and-white tonality, as outlined in Ansel Adam’s Zone System, is quite difficult to achieve if the film development and printing is handled by a third party lab. Even with a good custom lab, the process required test prints and good communication.

Today, despite using the most modern digital equipment and lenses, I still value many of the virtues of the purist or ‘straight’ approach. I consider creating beautiful black-and-white conversions from color digital capture, just like it was when shooting black-and-white film, an art in itself.