Coffee with Clang

Had the privilege of being invited to coffee (ok, not exactly...we ended up ordering tea and orange freeze) with John Clang along with 9 others and hear him philosophize abt photography.

I walked away inspired and more determined than ever to accomplish what I want to achieve.

One of the guys brought up the point abt how many are not making the switch because they aren’t certain what to do and who to look for to establish themselves and get started. To which, John’s reply was simply this: That person is not ready then. Because when you’re ready, you’ll know.
He said that he has reached a stage where he has no doubt his images are good and that when he presents them, in his mind he already knows he’ll be hired for the job.
But that’s not to sound pompous ‘cos he was just really trying to say that if you aren’t even sure of your own work, you shdn’t bother showing it to others and hope they’ll somehow like it.

Aside from that, he talked abt sensibility – how it matters so much more than technicality (“you may know 10 things, but does that mean you have to use them all?”). And also abt passion. And he shared with us his struggle in the early years of his career.
Then of course there was also some portfolio reviewing, where he cued us in on the finer points of what makes a good image and what he looks for (the emotive aspect); what we shd avoid (drama – not sustainable) and what we shd work towards (connecting with your subjects; loving them; feeling them)

Well, the thing abt John I admired the most – he has taken the understanding of image making beyond the realm of what you see in a 2D picture. To him, it is a process and this is what is truly meaningful.