Brian Q. Webb
One thing that I’ve discovered about Taiwan, especially outside of Taipei, is that people want you to know how they make things. Be it a food stall in a local night market, a piano factory in Taoyuan, or a bakery in the Sanxia district of New Taipei City (formerly Sanxia city).
This week’s Photojazz Five interviewee is one of the good guys. No, he doesn’t wear underwear outside of a brightly-colored unitard and sport a cape (although he should), but he does have a selfless heart. Through his administration at PhotoMalaysia and with 35 years of experience in his utility belt (next to thebatarangs), he mentors other photographers in his community, both through authoring articles and actual, physical tutoring. Along with another administrator at PhotoMalaysia, he conducts regular “Photosafari Experiences” (PMPE), which consist of a couple of in-classroom days followed by one-to-three weeks of hands-on shooting in exotic Asian locales.
Oh, and he’s a good street photographer, too.
By day, 35-year old Asli Gönen is a civil servant working for Anadolu University. By night (and during the day when she’s not serving in civic fashion) she’s talking candid photos in the country where East literally meets West, Turkey.
And she’s the subject of this week’s Photojazz Five interview.
Full-time architect José Calheiros uses the thoroughfares and passageways of Lisbon as fertile ground to indulge his street photography hobby. His output has netted him a number of shows locally as well as some images published in magazines. Besides street photography, he has done some advertising photos and works based on Luis Royo paintings and Enki Bilal comic books.
I grew up in a somewhat rural area near Los Angeles, California. As the area was relatively (relative to LA) undeveloped, certain wild plants such as milkweed were commonplace. California is also on the North American monarch butterfly migratory route. Add milkweed abundance to butterflies and I grew up surrounded with caterpillars. Caterpillars were my first-person cycle of life lesson.
Damien actually has his origins in Africa (don’t we all at some level), but a cruel war that claimed the life of many of the people he knew forced his family to immigrate to Portugal where he has lived for the majority of his life. Like me, he is an educator and has been perverting the minds of young children for over a decade.
Brian Q. Webb Books
Ratings
