I've been there so many times that I have always felt that Hong Kong is my second home. And the love I feel about HK sometimes makes me believe that I had lived there all my life before I was born.
Knowing this crazy obsession of mine, my friend showed me a picture shot in HK.
I was fascinated, by how such a picture, small as it is, strikes me almost like a blast of smell of the city and drastically surrounds me with its noise bustling and hustling. The busyness of the city is in front of my eyes.
HK is maybe too colorful to be described by any camera. The black and white color choice seems like a slowed time, playing every movement in slow motion, gracefully corresponding to the body posture of the model. She is in the center of the picture, stretching herself in a grotesque but elegant way, generously absorbing everyone's attention. She and her couture fit in the space quite oddly, but with unruly allure. Great contrast is created in the picture as it is so hard to define if it is new or old, just like the city itself.
It is taken by Baldovino Barani, a fashion photographer.
Barani has been taking photos for fashion magazines like Vogue. He enjoys playing with colors. His fashion work contains a lot of stunning visual contrast, refined composition, models with an attitude casual, natural and unrestrained. He is good at setting an environment that is magical, abundant, delicate and colorful. Of course, clothes is the important part. It always stand out in his pictures in bright colors, distinctive and unique.
But this Hong Kong series taken for Prive Asia magazine named "the Evangelist" is something richer than just a contrast of colors, a feast of vision, or simply anything like luxury. He is not satisfied with simply what viewers see, but how they feel. There is something transpired from within the composition, lighting, color, emotion of the model, and the stories told in the pictures that convey an unspoken attitude of the city Hong Kong: a place where the old meets the new, eastern collides with western, the couture goes on the street and the tattered proposes its glamor.
Barani really captures the essence of Hong Kong.
Other works done by Barani.
6 comments:
Hong Kong is one of my favorite cities. My parents are from there and every time I visit, I feel as if I am being transported into a completely different world that is parallel, yet completely separate from the world I know. I really enjoy Barani’s pictures. I agree that making the pictures black-and-white makes it seem almost as if time is standing still, which is exactly how I think of Hong Kong. Hong Kong, while it is advanced in many ways, seems to stand still, as well. Despite the many obstacles that it has endured, it still stands strong. And every time I go back, my breath is taken away by the beauty of it. While I am not a huge fan of the placement and posture of the model, the pictures capture the essence of Hong Kong’s surroundings beautifully.
Barani's photos SHOCKED me, because I grew up in Hong Kong all my life (oh and am very pleased that you are obessesed with Hong Kong - me too!), and these are the most awkward pictures of Hong Kong i've ever seen. I've grown up with these dirty streets and food in shabby cardboard boxes, etc, and grew a love for the unhygenic look of everything in Hong Kong, but to have these justapoxed next to stunning white, streamlined stoic figure just heightens the character of HK to a whole new level.
The point of fascination is, as you said, the contrast - the contrast between the asthetic of the crude looking wet markets of Hong Kong vs. the aesthetics of fashion. Fashion abstracts,distorts, and blends the form of the body into a singular extreme curve. The typical Hong Kong urban landscape, however boxes everything up into little repeditive compartments.
All this I've never noticed living there, until I saw those photographs. Well chosen ; ).
I really love the black and white pieces. Barani’s thematic translation of the beauty that’s found in the grotesque was well executed and surprising, did not look artificial. Generally when one portrays high fashion in “ugly”, urban areas, it tends to become overly purposeful, a self-consciousness that sometimes betrays itself. However, Barani’s models seem to interact with her surroundings (the images of her hugging and kissing everyday people look neither cliché nor staged). His style evokes an almost hyper-realistic essence, the subjective blending of form and content, of high beauty and underrated beauty found in urban areas such as Hong Kong. The hyper-realism is especially apparent in his later works (the fantastical colored photographs in your examples). Overall I think he’s great! What an inspiration!
these photos are beautiful i agree!! the one with the yellow material flowing is amazing!! "small as it is, strikes me almost like a blast of smell of the city and drastically surrounds me with its noise bustling and hustling" this line is so lyrical and very effective!
i wish after saying that his work contains visual vibrant colors that the black and white had color but i do agree that they have a special quality when they are in b and w .
Wow, these are really cool and inspirational. My favorite one of the series is the first black and white one of the girl getting on the bus. I also really like the color one with the orange dress and orange fabric blowing in the wind. The lines are fluid and motion has been captured. The model, the fashion, and the city (Hong Kong) all play equal parts in Barani’s photos. Have you done any fashion shoots yourself? Maybe we should collaborate on a project in the future if you’re interested?
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