MARCH 2024: CHRISTOPHER HERWIG
“A PHOTOGRAPH FEATURING THE OVERLOOKED”
Christopher Herwig is a Canadian photographer and filmmaker primarily known for his photographs of vernacular architecture, particularly the art of Soviet bus stops. This assignment was initially set in episode #422. This year for the monthly 2024 challenges, photographers appearing on the show will set a series of one-word assignments.
THE ASSIGNMENT BRIEF
From Christopher: “I’ve chosen the word, overlooked. I think there are so many times, as photographers, we go out looking for photographs with some sort of idea or preconceived notion/s of what we’re looking to photograph, and we may have done some homework or research as part of that process. There are things though, that we walk past and never photograph. They’re the things that become overlooked. To try and find value and meaning out of some of these objects or even people, for me, has been an incredible experience as a photographer. It not only challenges your creative ability in terms of making these overlooked items exciting but there’s equally a storytelling aspect to it. These overlooked things can become unsung heroes, underdogs, whether it’s a place, a person or an object.”
HOW TO ENTER. IMPORTANT NOTES ON FILE SIZE AND ENTRIES
Send your entries to stories@photowalk.show. Pictures should be 2,500 pixels wide, if possible, for online optimisation. Or send the full-resolution photo, which we will optimise. Feel free to provide text as well, if you think it will help explain the location, context etc.
Entries are shown below, and good luck!
Neale
CHRISTOPHER HERWIG
VICTORIA ROBB - FLASK WINNER FOR MARCH
RICK SMITH
MARILYN DAVIES
WALEED ALZUHAIR
PETER JEHLE
CASEY SISTERSON
MICHAEL MIXON
JOHN KENNY
KAMIL DANEELS
MARTIN PENDRY
TINA CAMPBELL
ASIM KHAN
MAURICE WEBSTER
KELVIN BROWN
FRED ASH
DAVID HORNE
PETER GORDON
EDMUND ZUBER
From mid-January this year, we spent five weeks in wonderful Malaysia. One of our intentions has been hunting for murals and street art, which is quite popular in Malaysia. After a couple of days we still were somehow overwhelmed and unable to cope with the beauty and the intensity of the impressions. We travelled to the Ipoh, a beautiful 650,000 inhabitants city with a great past as formerly being the tin capital of the world.
Ipoh, one of the most underrated places we ever visited, has a wonderful old town. Few tourists were browsing the narrow roads. One of those called the “mural arts street” has been a deserted and not really well-tended place until local artists painted wonderful, imaginative and story telling murals to the walls. We walked the street a couple of times, shot some images. One day we detected a man standing on an unfirm scaffold painting figures to a wall. Below stood a young lad, who introduced himself as the student of the painter.
“Aha, interesting”.
Watching the artist who behaved very humbly, I dared to approach him if he would allow to shoot some frames. The focussed artist agreed silently and continued his painting. We talked some words about his piece which will be a dragon. Facing the year of the dragon in a couple of days. “Aha”, we thanked him and moved on.
After some excursions to other places, now with more understanding and feeling of the city, we returned to the mural arts street and looked closer to the pieces we found. Nearly all of them have been painted by Eric Lai. Studying more about Eric Lai and the street art back in the hotel, I learned that this wonderful artist decided some years ago to enrich that street on his own, which has been fully accomplished. Returning another time to the street and looking at the new piece with the dragon, we found that it has been finished and signed – Eric Lai. I have overlooked a wonderful painter, artist and someone who takes care of his hometown during the first visit.