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The Foldable Time Capsule

Connecting Visionaries: Interview with Martin Cheung

「攝影是秘密中的秘密。」-莎拉·莫恩

星期天下午,與Studio TM的Martin Cheung約在上環某間咖啡店,一起聊秘密。說是秘密,免不了要觸碰那些幽微和深遠的話題,以致他在話裡行間,總被諸多的躊躇間開;偶爾無語時,他會安靜地切開面前的小蛋糕、呷一口咖啡,才緩緩吐出想法。而趁著他還在猶豫,我們不如先複習一次他的簡歷。

2001年畢業於澳洲維多利亞藝術學院,榮譽學士畢業,主修純藝術攝影系。回流香港後與太太Topaz Leung組成Studio TM,專注於商業攝影,同時間也在設計、製作針孔相機,最有名的作品是2001年在墨爾本做的〈duckcam melbourne〉——用一隻燒鴨改裝、開洞,塞入黑白感光相紙,造成一部燒鴨型的針孔相機;其後成為美國「針孔資源中心」的收藏品。

十幾年來,他對針孔攝影的熱情不停休。近幾年更主持工作坊,教授如何用一張黑紙摺成針孔相機,他說道:「做任何創作的時候,我都會先考慮可不可以用針孔相機。」

“Photography is the secret within a secret.” – Sarah Moon

On a Sunday afternoon, I sat down with Studio TM’s Martin Cheung at a coffee shop somewhere in Sheung Wan to talk about secrets. Since we were talking about secrets, it was inevitable to touch on obscure details and deep topics. In between his words, there were always apparent hesitancies, and when the occasional silence occurred, he would quietly cut the piece of cake in front of him or take a sip of coffee out of his cup. Only after then would he continue to proceed with his thoughts. Since he seemed like he was still pondering, let us go through his CV together.

Graduating from the Art Institute of Victoria, Australia with honors, he majored in fine art photography and established Studio TM with his wife Topaz Leung after he came back to Hong Kong. Focusing on commercial photography, he also designs and makes pinhole cameras. His famous work is the “duckcam melbourne” that he made in 2001. Modifying a roasted duck with holes and stuffed black and white photographic paper in it, this pinhole camera became a collectible at the “Pinhole Resource Centre” in the US.

For the past decade, his passion for pinhole photography never ceased. Actively hosting workshops in recent years, he has been teaching people how to create pinhole cameras by just folding a black piece of paper. He said, “When I do any sort of creations, I would first consider if a pinhole camera can be used.”

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聊攝影,Martin可以不經思索地蹦出許多看法。我們最先聊到的是——照片,如何作為一種時間的容器。

「每張照片都是包含了1/125秒、1/1000秒…….等等。如果普通一張照片,我們可能會認為它是反映真實,但那遠遠不是真實的全部。」他補充道:「當我們了解到這個事實,照片作為一樣容器,那麼我會覺得這個容器,收集得愈多的時間,它的真實性就更強。」

想到他最愛的針孔相機,沒有鏡頭、取景器,曝光時間往往強差人意,隨便都要待個兩三分鐘,而且成像也容易模糊掉;然而依照Martin的理解,彷彿這種攝影方法,卻更貼近他對照片趨近真實的方法。「儘管照片會朦朧,然而人類的記憶也是朦朧,那不是更貼近人的思想?」

我於是想起,他曾經用針孔相機拍下的一幀照片,畫面中二人坐在駕駛前座,上頭有略過的雲彩;彷彿是用一幀照片,盛載著二人驅車奔馳的旅途記憶。聽著我的描述,他緩緩反應道:「那張照片表達了甚麼呢?客觀地描述的話,就只是兩個看起來是人頭的東西,然後上頭有一堆顏色往消失點出發。如果不是人類的話,不會有那種認知能力,去理解一張照片。任何一張照片都是人類賦予其意思。」

失去人類的認知能力,人類對時間、空間的先驗知識,照片就只能是一面靜默的鏡子,無能反映事物本質。

Martin has expressed a lot of opinions when we talked about photography, one of which was the discussion on photographs and how it can be a capsule for time.

“Every photo contains a moment of 1/125, 1/1000 second, et cetera. We might think that a normal photo reflects the reality, but it can never reflect the whole of a truth.” Martin continued, “If we were to understand this sense of truth, then the idea of photographs as a capsule for time would only be valid if it recorded a lot of times.”

His favorite camera, the pinhole camera, is a primitive tool that does not even have a lens nor a viewfinder and is really difficult to predict for its exposure time, with each image-taking up to two to three minutes to shoot, with the result still being prone to blurriness. But in accordance to Martin’s understanding, this sort of photography is the closest resemblance to reality. “Even though the photos are blurred, human’s imaginations are also blurred; so does that not make it closer to the thoughts of a human being?”

I then remembered a photo which he took with a pinhole camera. In the image, two people are sitting in the car’s front seat, with some clouds above them – a single image that fully represents the memories the two have had in their journey on the car. After he heard my description, he slowly replied, “What did that photo express? If we were to talk about it objectively, it just looks like two heads with a bunch of colors vanishing to a point at the top. If the viewer is not a human being, he/she would not have this kind of cognitive ability to understand the photograph. Any photograph is only given meaning to by a human being.”

The loss of human cognitive ability or the pre-notions we have of time and space could result photographs in being just a silent mirror, incompetent of reflecting the actual quality of anything.

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回過頭來,Martin最初在大學參與針孔相機工作坊時,其實很抗拒這種攝影方法,認為它無濟於事,是後來對攝影理論愈加深入,才真正投入針孔相機。講到製作相機的源起,得由他小時候的集體玩意說起。

「每個在香港成長的男孩子,都經歷過迷戀模型的時期,那時候就有訓練到手作能力。到中學四、五年級時,看到很多有趣的相機,我就會想買下來,回家把它們卸裝研究。後來發現到相機的原理都很簡單,就開始試著自己製作相機。一直做下來,物料從複雜變得簡單,慢慢就變成了現在的一紙相機。」

在稍早的拍攝時間,Martin就有示範過,他如何用黑紙摺成一部針孔相機。整組動作一氣呵成,前後時間不到一分鐘。據他表示,他平常都會帶備筆記本,紀錄好每部相機的製作細明。

「我很喜歡把東西轉化、變簡單。我平常在工作坊,就會想跟學員講,一張紙透過創意和思考,其真是可以變成一部相機的。把東西從A轉換成B,創意就在其中起作用。」他又補充:「針孔相機,你很多時候能參與製作的部份,而不同於一般數位相機用家,已經有完整設備在市面上,我們只擔當『使用者』的角色。」

在更早之前,他就用過一個巧克力鐵盒,改裝成一部6“ x 17″的相機;手作之事,Martin完全樂在其中。

When Martin first joined the pinhole camera workshop in university, he was very resistant to this photographic method and thought it did not help anything. It wasn’t until later when he understood more about the theories of photography did he really become interested in the pinhole camera. If we were to talk about his beginning of creating cameras, we need to trace back to his childhood.

“Every single boy who grew up in Hong Kong must have had a period of time when they were fascinated with model building. That was the time when I trained myself with hands-on skills. When I reached fourth and fifth grade of high school, I saw a lot of interesting cameras and I would buy them to take them apart at home. Then I learnt that the principle behind a camera was really simple, so I started making cameras myself. Since then it has never stopped, but I have reduced the complex materials into something simple, and slowly it became the paper camera now.”

During our morning shooting session, Martin demonstrated how to fold a piece of black paper into a pinhole camera. The whole process happened in a single go and took less than a minute. According to him, he usually carries a notebook to record each detail in production for different cameras.

“I like to transform things and make them simple. During my workshops, I always told my students that with creativity and thinking, a piece of paper can become a camera. Transforming things from A to B happens with creativity.” Martin continued and said, “With pinhole cameras you can take part in its production. Different from other digital cameras, which are already produced and made available in the market, we can only play the role of a user.”

Even earlier on, he has made a 6” x 17” camera with a chocolate tin at home. The idea of hand-making things is something that Martin finds pleasure in.

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能讓攝影師參與製作,是針孔相機的美好特質,然而講到真正吸引Martin的地方,卻是針孔相機引來的「被動性」。

大學時期,一如其他攝影系學生,他最初接受的教育是如何操作單眼,學習如何把一隻咖啡杯拍得好看的廣告攝影技巧,他說道:「那時候被攝影在模擬現實的能力所震撼,覺得生命中終於出現一樣東西能把現實變更漂亮,學會了很多如何擺佈照片的技巧。然而直至我接觸針孔相機,我發現原來相機不用太繁複,開始被它的『被動性』吸引。當你不用再瘋狂按快門,時間就會花在思考,例如說 —— 拍一張照片的目的是甚麼?」

他再三強調,針孔相機不過攝影中的一種,不需要浪漫化。的確,針孔相機較之於主流數位相機,曝光時間長、成像容易模糊,然而這些缺點置於現在,卻又被賦予為一種特質。「拍一張針孔相機的照片,與一張數位相機的照片,你一定要了解其中的差別,而不是光滿足於那種特質、獨特性。」

「我覺得一份好作品,無論是畫畫也好、音樂也好,它應該是能引發思考、問題,同時也給予一些答案。」Martin說到,他很喜歡John Baldessari這位藝術家,其在作品《Throwing Three Balls in the Air to Get a Straight Line (Best of Thirty-Six Attempts) 》 (1931)中,把三至四顆球拋出半空,拍下一卷三十六張底片,從中抽出一幀球體散佈位置最接近直線的畫面。「當四個球被拋上半空,剛拉成一條直線的可能性有多高?我們常說攝影是捕捉時刻,其實『那一刻』到底存在與否?還是說你只是個幸運的人,剛巧捕捉到那一刻?」

The beautiful thing about the pinhole camera is allowing photographers to take part in its actual production, but what that has truly attracted Martin is the “passiveness” that the pinhole camera can induce.

Like any other photography students in university, he was first educated about the operation of an SLR, learning how to shoot a nice image of a coffee cup for advertisement usage. He said, “I was captivated by the way photography can manipulate reality, and thought finally there is something to make things prettier in life. I also learnt a lot of manipulative skills with photography then. But as I started working with the pinhole camera, I realized that camera needs not to be so complex, and I was attracted by its ‘passiveness’. When you no longer press the shutter button continuously, you end up spending more time to think about things, like what is the purpose of taking a photo?”

He repeatedly emphasized that the pinhole camera is just another way of photography, and does not need to be romanticized. Indeed the pinhole camera in comparison to the mainstream digital camera requires much longer exposure times and the images were often blurry. But these shortcomings in the modern era have been awarded as a unique quality. “Taking a photograph with the pinhole camera and taking a photograph with the digital camera is different and that needs to be understood; one should not be satisfied by just its quality or uniqueness.”

“When it comes to a great piece of work, whether it is a drawing or a piece of music, I believe it should provoke people to think, to question and that it is able to give back some sort of answers at the same time.” Martin said. He really like the artist John Baldessari and his work “Throwing Three Balls in the Air to Get a Straight Line (Best of Thirty-Six Attempts)” (1931). The picture is the closet one chosen out of the roll of 36 negatives he has used when he tried to photograph three to four balls being thrown up in the air to form a straight line. “When the four balls were thrown up in the air, what was the probability of them actually forming a straight line? We always say that photography is the capturing of a moment, but does that “moment” even exist? Or should we just say you were lucky in being able to capture that moment? This idea has impacted me heavily.”

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如果我們把人生的時間,化約為三十六張底片,那麼Martin可能有三分之一的底片,都熔燒在針孔相機裡。所以當我說針孔相機,會不會是Martin的簽名式時,他也沒有異議。

「我跟針孔相機建立了多年感情。做任何創作的時候,我都會先考慮可不可以用針孔相機。那是當你熟悉一套技術時,自然就會往那個方向去想像。我至今仍自稱是攝影師,而不是藝術家,是因為大部分藝術家,會先想像執行的內容,之後才會想適用的媒介;然而我大多數時候,就會直接想到用針孔相機,終於還是個攝影想法深重的人。」

沒有用相機捕捉下來,然而當Martin說著這番話時,表情停留在一種含蓄、羞赧的笑臉。如果你無法想像,可以看他那雙白皙的鞋頭上——那一道藍色孤線,一抹淺淺的微笑。這道微笑,其實自上世紀三十年代,就已經是Jack Purcell的簽名式設計,而直至今日,這雙經典鞋款就仍烙刻在大眾的腦海裡。我想,也惟有是如斯恆久、精緻的形象,才能夠抵過無數年月,最終造就他人心目中的經典之作。

而其實在訪問中途,Martin有嚷著想有更多新的嘗試、新的可能,而不想只被定義在針孔相機上。然而,簽名式的意思,就是個人汲汲營營之事,用年月換來的一份印象,指涉著光線最清晰的部份。

一幀長期曝光的照片,最終攫在相紙上的,往往是停留最恆久之物;攝影如是,簽名式亦然。

If we were to take our lifetime and dissect it into 36 negatives, then Martin would have used a third of his films on pinhole cameras. That is why when I asked him if he would regard the pinhole camera as his signature style, he had no objections.

“The pinhole camera and I have established years of relationship. When I do any sort of creations, I would first consider if a pinhole camera can be used. It’s a natural way of thinking when you are so used to a set of techniques. I still call myself a photographer now, not an artist, and that is because most artists will think about the content first before choosing which medium to use; but I go straight for the pinhole camera. This way of thinking is deeply rooted within a photographer.”

What we were unable to capture under our lens is this kind of subtle and shy smile that Martin had when he was talking to us. If you cannot imagine such an expression, look at that blue line on the front of his shoe; a sort of a shallow, light smile. This smile is the signature design by Jack Purcell, a classic model ever since the 30’s. It has remained until this day, with its classic outlook embossed in the minds of the public. I suppose that the notion of a signature style must be the detail which has experienced through time and still remains to be the clearest image in people’s minds.

During the interview he did exclaim how he wanted to try out more possibilities and did not want to be defined only by the pinhole camera. However, when we talked about the notion of a signature style, it was inevitable to realize that it was an impression exchanged through time and experiences, the part that has been the most focused on which delivers the most clarity.

A long exposed image on a photographic paper is often what that remains the longest, same with photography and same with a signature style.

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Born in HK 1978, graduated in Fine Arts Photography, works with Camera Obscura, loves Cantonese Barbecue. Graduated in Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honors) at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne Australia in 2001. Cheung’s best known work is Duck Cam – Melbourne (2001), a conceptual photographic work which he converted a Roast Duck into a Pinhole camera, photographing Melbourne’s Chinatown. The work is collected by Pinhole Resource.

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