“Coffin Cubicles” – Photos by Benny Lam

Photo credit Benny Lam

It appears I’m a bit late to the party... perhaps the funeral. Benny Lam, a photographer in Hong Kong, explores what the United Nations has condemned as “an insulult to human dignity,” according the The Sun.

So fascinated, and appalled, by these disturbing photographs, I researched more about this unfortunate development in human living circumstances. Sadly, there is little more about “coffin cubicles” on the internet. All searches seemed to lead me back to Benny Lam and his documentary photography. 

Hong Kong is no doubt an incredible city with a rare mix of landscape in the background and urban sprawl affront. However, rent and disparity has become such a problem that some people simply can not afford anything more than these illegal “apartments” no bigger than a bathroom.

i highly recommend viewing some of these photographs in National Geographic’s article Life Inside Hong Kong’s ‘Coffin Cubicles’.

June — A Year in Photographs

Light, shadow, lines, structure.

Arch, Chicago, 6/11/2017

Chicago is one of the architectural capitols of the world. With not only a long history but also famous architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, Chicago has a rich landscape of buildings both old and new. 

Architecture is by far one of my favorite subjects to photograph. I love symmetry, geometry, patterns, and the interplay between different materials. There is no shortage of buildings in Chicago.

While May was a challenging month from the standpoint of executing on a daily basis, I chose this month to focus on a strength.

Commonly, architecture photography is about an interior or entire exterior of a building. While I certainly have many photographs of entire buildings, I am very drawn to the details of the building. So much so that sometimes one may never know what building I photographed even if famous. 

Arch, for example, is a building that people come from miles around to visit. It is a famous building as part of the worldwide brand. Using my technique for photographing Geometry Series, Arch is much more minimal but one favorite from this month. 

Uptown, Chicago, 6/30/2017

Much Architecture was captured using my Olympus E-M5 with a 45mm (90mm on 35) lens allowing for me to focus on the details of buildings. The Olympus 45mm f1.8 is a favorite lens of mine. While some use wide angle or perspective control lenses for architectural photography, I lean toward longer focal lengths. Wide angle lenses are a favorite of mine but in Chicago, wide angle lenses rarely only give a field of view for one building. Chances are two or three will show up in the image. But, as with all tools, using it the right way, one will achieve the desired results.

The month itself wasn't a challenge as many in the past but I enjoyed it immensely. A Year in Photographs launched as an endeavor into uncharted photographic territory but entering into the half-way mark, I wanted to included one of my favorite subjects. 

July is upon us and with that I starts a new subject. As focusing on building details, I will be focusing on urban and cultural details. Some things are so common and seen so frequently, they are effectively rendered invisible.

I once argued that photographers are those who define objects that otherwise would not exist because language or commonality ignores said objects. These things are that which are completely obvious but ironically are not seen. The Blue of the Universe shares my theory of how one can define the ordinary making it extraordinary. July surely will be an exercise in photography's supernatural abilities. 

Up next: July – Signs and Symbols

Architecture in June

One Photograph a Day is not Enough

Medium Carmine, Chicago, 6/8/2017

RGB 175, 64, 40
CMYK 0, 63, 77, 31
HSB 10, 77, 68
HEX #AF4028

A Year in Photographs has been an exciting, challenging, and occasionally frustrating project but I'm seriously enjoying it. To find a photograph every day for a year is a huge commitment. Though, it has become routine in the sense I no longer need to "think" about what I'm going to photography but the image more and more just jumps out at me.

In the beginning, I would spend hours sometimes wondering around until I found the photograph for the day. I ended up shooting hundreds of photos in a day. While quality is important in some circumstances, I simply do not want to store, manage, edit, organize, and keep all of them.

Part of my personal growth during this project has been reducing this time and volume. I have found I can imagine what I want to get for the day and go out and find it in sometimes only one photograph. While it is rare, several days over the past few months the first picture I captures ended up being the photo of the day.

That said, I have shot many more photographs than what one seeing in the daily sense. It has been hard to decide sometimes, too. And at the end of many months, People, for example, I wanted to continue that journey but a new month brought a new theme. But I have continued these themes as branches of my work and would like to share some that have not been seen.

Please continue to follow A Year in Photographs. I do enjoy sharing my work and hearing what people think of my photography.

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