PING PONG
Dialectic Street Vision
by Miguel Marina
Blue Lotus Gallery is pleased to launch the fresh and fun photobook, PING PONG, by Miguel Marina also known as Miguelitor. Don’t miss the opportunity to get your copy signed or purchase an original Limited Edition print.
The book is titled Ping Pong because this is a project of photographic dyptichs, directing the gaze of the viewer in a dance from left to right as in a ping pong match. In the style of 80s Black and White street photography, all of the shots are candid and spontaneous.
These are moments captured by the photographer on his journeys in the Phillipines, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Spain and Portugal, however 90% were shot in Hong Kong here he is based. The collection is full of decisive moments, emotions, humor, geometry, symmetry, slow shutter speed and different Street Photography techniques.
Its refleshing to find a body of work that makes you laugh whilst encouraging ponder deeper into the ways humans live and behave.
“Street photography is experiencing a Golden Age in which a multitude of photographers go out every day, ready to rapidly capture life’s pulse in images that with almost no rest, start to roam around social media, only to disappear like a summer storm. Even when it’s not easy for some to endure more than the few hours of glory that social media grants, sometimes we find ourselves with works that emerge from that sea of images determined to survive. This is the case with Ping Pong, the project that Spanish photographer Miguel Marina has been working on over the past few years and through which he offers his peculiar view of daily life happening in different cities around the world, with a special focus on Hong Kong, where he lives. His photographs create a dialogue between each other through visual pairing, composing witty and clever diptychs that are the best testimony to Miguel’s progress and commitment as a photographer.”
《這是壹個街頭攝影的黃金時代，每天都有眾多攝影師走上街頭，用手裏的相機捕捉生命 的脈搏。有些照片壹經拍攝便迅速地在社交網絡上傳播，之後又如夏季的暴風雨般消失 匿跡。在這個信息爆炸的年代，社交網絡只能賦予大多數的照片極其短暫的榮光。然 而，有時我們卻會發現壹些作品，從如潮般的億萬照片中脫穎而出，持續地在人們的視 野裏發光發熱。這就是 “乒 · 乓”的魅力。“乒 · 乓” 是米格爾·馬裏那過去幾年攝影的成果 集，他以充滿創造性的獨特藝術視角表現了世界各地不同人群的日常生活，其中許多來 自他所居住且深愛的香港。米格爾的攝影作品在視覺的對照中互相對話，構成了獨具匠 心的雙聯畫。這是他作為壹個專業攝影師在藝術和審美上獨壹無二的造詣。》
-Alfredo Oliva Delgado
“I dream of taking photos in which humour, geometry and that one split moment combine into a perfect composition, and I always have my camera with me, because I believe that the best photo is the one I will be making today.”
Miguelitor is a Hong Kong-based Spanish photographer who specialises in black and white street photography.
Personal Statement
It all started with that Werlissa Color 2000 that my mother kept in a draw and that my brothers and I were not allowed to touch. We had such a bad track record of destroying everything in our hands that our mother knew what could happen to her beloved camera. I, however, ignored that rule and it was there that I learned how to become invisible, indispensable in my photography. I used to sneak into her bedroom to grab the camera and to look down the lens at my brothers whilst they were being mischievous. I regret not being able to preserve the photos that I took with my mind without film.
Ever since I was little I loved to be on the street; walking, researching, observing, listening and smelling. I have always seen the street as a stage and us, the passersby, as the actors on that stage.
It was my a childhood friend, who got me into photography in the late nineties. He always carried an old Russian analogue camera and it was he who taught me that the camera is not important but the eye and how to see things differently
For work reasons, it wasn’t until a few years after arriving in Hong Kong that I started to develop my vision. In 2013 I married my wife and we went to Phillipines and carried a camera, it was my first time taking street photos and portraits, my wife wanted us to be in the photo but what got my attention was capturing the life there (first photo I took in my honey moon is the first photo in Ping Pong), Back to Hong Kong was when a Swiss friend, introduced me to street photography. That kind of candid photography that throws preparation out of the window and shows the purity of life’s moments through image. I was addicted.
I got my first camera and started to capture everything that I could glean, see, hear and smell in the streets of Hong Kong. I photographed moments and I wanted to make them beautiful. I started to photograph daily life, to give my opinion through images, to tell stories in the most universal language, photography. Many years have passed since then and what started as a game has become my work and passion. Not a day goes by that I don’t dream of photographing a moment full of contrasts and stories that would form the perfect composition.
