Strange it may seem, this is my first publishing here at DCDever after over a year of registration. I have also decided to use English as my preferred language to communicate because I've almost lost my ability to write smoothly in Chinese, though I have no problem in reading all the cool articles here.
So here I am. My name is Jimmy Cheng, a full bred HK born Chinese who lives in London, United Kingdom. By day I am a Leica M photographer and by night I am a father of twins.
My photographic journey has taken quite a tour over the past decade. Before I became a professional in 2005, I was simply taking photos of landscape during travels but soon I discovered that I wanted something with love and stories. I slowly turned my attention to people. I explored all types of portraitures, locations and studios but then again, I didn't think that was the best way to reflect a person nor their stories. They were nice but really lacking something. Soon I realised that the only way to get what I wanted was to take the portrait of people right on their living environment.
I never like setup or staged shots so I usually photograph my subjects right on the spot where I find them. This is also slowly translated to my weddings when I finally got paid for doing one a few years later. I must be one of the first wave of photographers who started this documentary style wedding photography (or reportage or snapshot as you named them in Hong Kong).
Rather than having a rigid post-up style, a documentary is free from restrictions or conformity. But this style will push the photographer to the edge of a cliff. Lighting, people and environment are all out of the photographer's control. The only way to get a nice shot, the photographer would have to be super sharp, spontaneous and creative. No messing about so to speak. There's no time to do settings on the fly. Hence I chose the simply of all cameras, a manual focus Leica to do all my jobs and projects.
But documenting weddings only satisfies my desire to an extend and now I am very fond of getting into couple's history and relationships. Instead of an pre-wedding or engagement shoot, I would ask them out for a day out. Some coffees, cakes then we would revisit some of their favourite locations. These are locations that usually signify some importance in their lives. Like first date, first kiss, engagement... etc. This has proven to be a popular concept and a rather liked and loved session by many couples. Of course, this isn't for everyone. There are many still prefer the popular landmark backdrop engagement/pre-wedding style but they would never satisfy my desire as a photographer.
There you go, a brief journey of me so far. From being a generalist to a detail-extracting-magnifying-analysing expert. I look for details of love now. This is truly fascinating. I simply can't wait to see what my next step will be.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/FotosByJ
Professional Page: http://www.jimmycheng.photography
Blog: http://talktog.wordpress.com
