'Leaves' - A photographic Project

One effect of the recent COVID-19 crisis has been an emphasis on a much closer observation of our actions and of what is happening around us. Despite previously thinking that I was fairly good at noticing interesting and unusual occurrences happening around me, I have found that during the last few months I have been noticing small details so much more. 

My previous post detailed a project I started that documented plants and trees that had shattered their pots and planters in their effort to expand and grow. In this post I would like to present another of these projects, initiated by the same circumstances.

This project I have named, simply, 'Leaves'. During my local walks I had observed many such leaves lying on the ground and as I felt that they had an intrinsic beauty that was being ignored I took it upon myself to archive them. Once I have located a particularly interesting leaf I do not touch it, adjust it or edit the surrounding scene in any way. I only photograph the leaf if I am completely happy about the setting. If something seems to be spoiling the frame of the shot, I abandon the exercise rather than 'cleaning up' the arrangement before me. It has to be a totally natural shot otherwise I continue walking and looking.

As with the 'Breakout' project, I will continue to collect and archive the photographs long after this post and my aim is to present many of the photographs later in an e-book. Once these e-books have been compiled I will present them on my website and provide a note and link here in a subsequent blog post.

Here are the first 8 of the leaf photographs:

BA (Hons) Fine Art 2016

At the end of June 2016 my 10 Fine Art students graduated with BA (Hons) Fine Art from the Hong Kong Design Institute. It was the culmination of an exciting year for the students, most of whom I had previously taught at Higher Diploma level. The Fine Art programme was run as a collaboration between SHAPE/VTC in Hong Kong, and Birmingham City University in the UK. The structure comprised 2 years working at Higher Diploma level followed by a third year on the collaborative programme.
I had spent two years on the preparation of the programme including validation with Birmingham City University and accreditation with the Hong Kong Education Department and a third year working with the students in the studio attempting to guide the 10 students towards a successful graduation.
It is my sincere hope that at least some of them will go on to make some waves in the art field.

As a group, their work was quite diverse and I would like to illustrate it here with a few images, created in their studios at Morrison Hill in Wanchai, Hong Kong. I would like to wish them every success in the future!

Ada, Leung Nga Ting

 

Sharon, Choi Shu Long

 

 

Karen, Ng Hei Tung

 

Marlena, Yik Ka Yan

 

 

Alan, Lau Cheuk Lun

 

 

Leo, Choi Lai Yin

 

 

Ruby, Pang Hiu Man

 

Maggie, Cheung Lok Yi

Wesley, Kwan Tsz Him

 

Roni, Cheng Weng I