by KEVIN FOONG
Hi, my name is Kevin Foong, I'm a commercial photographer/filmmaker working mostly in the fashion and luxury sectors. In my fine art practice, I work predominantly in medium and large format film photography, my work has been exhibited at the Centre Pompidou, Cinémathèque Française, the Jewish History Museum of Moscow and the Institute of Contemporary Art Singapore. Most recently, I've dedicated myself to the hand making of black and white silver gelatin prints in lieu of giclée photo printing.
I've adopted an artisanal process that starts with shooting large format 4x5" sheet film, developing the film negatives myself, then hand printing in a darkroom to silver gelatin photographic paper to create images that are punchy, textured and cause me to think and feel something. This artisanal process limits the number of silver gelatin prints I can make earnestly. As a result, I release new prints about every month or so in limited editions of 10-25 for €200-500 each signed and numbered. This newsletter is my way of connecting with everyone who's interested in collecting my silver gelatin prints and hopefully develop some meaningful relationships along the way.
I'm typically nomadic and like to spend 3-6 months in one place. I spent most of 2019 in Tbilisi, the vivacious capital of the post-Soviet Republic of Georgia. This means that all my essential equipment and supplies have to travel with me. For those interested, I work with the beautiful but lightweight Intrepid 4x5 Camera and Enlarger, using the French-made Bergger Pancro 4x5" sheet film and Bergger Prestige Art 8x10" silver gelatin paper. To my eyes, nothing today beats the quality and feel of a silver gelatin print.
One reason why I wanted to work with an analog process in the first place is the overall experience, and it's certainly been personally rewarding slowing things down, being more thoughtful in my actions. With digital it's easy to shoot and erase or push a slider and undo. And the aesthetics of a handmade silver gelatin print while perhaps more primitive and variable in outcome suit me perfectly as an adherent to the Japanese philosophy known as "wabi sabi" ascribing value to imperfection and transience. The pristine perfection of a digitally manipulated, machine-made giclée print almost seems too easy, perhaps insufficiently human, eliminating the randomness of risk and chance. I like a little more risk and chance, often that's where the beautiful mistakes hide. And I think that's the attraction of film photography and printing for me, I'm not in total control the way I am in my commercial practice, sometimes I just feel like a passenger along for the ride, and that's dope. As a by product, each edition number of a final print is truly unique and irreproducible.
So please sign-up for my newsletter if you haven't already (button at the top of the page). You'll get a link in your email to the next newsletter and as always, feel free to drop me an email at email@yeahyeahkevin.com or on Instagram @yeahyeahkevin about anything, even if it's to say hi and introduce yourself, I'm always looking to connect, for feedback and inspiration, stories to hear, I'm quite spontaneous and really enjoy the contact since one of my goals is to make my relationships more meaningful.
Best,
Kevin
June 2020
PS. Some of what I say above may become more apparent as you read about the collections I'm working on, all of which are deeply personal and lend context to each image.
June 2020
PS. Some of what I say above may become more apparent as you read about the collections I'm working on, all of which are deeply personal and lend context to each image.
[First Image] Pankisi Valley, 2019. Climbing Mount Tbatana, I'm trying to look like I'm holding up well in the drizzle and fog but really my legs are smouldering from the burn, quads twitching uncontrollably, about to cramp from the grade of the climb, and my pack which includes a tent, supplies, a chunky Toyo 4x5 large format camera and film holders for only six shots.
Mount Tbatana, 2019
Intrepid in the field
Intrepid 4x5 Camera
Intrepid Enlarger
#16
#25
$30
#36
Signature blocks are stamped,titled, numbered and hand signed
PRINT COLLECTIONS
