after
5
magazine
the
HYPER REALISM ISSUE
issue 2
ISSUE 02
MARCH 2012
founder & Editor - in - chief christina engell andersen editor bukonola ngobi EDITORIAL CO-ORDINATOR fawzia jamal PHOTOGRAPHERS billie rihal, faraaz charania, gagan ubhi, karan khalsa, marius van graan, neil thomas, paria rajput, pooja shah, tatiana alexandra wanjiru karanja cover photographer: neil thomas location: turkana WEBSITE www.after5.co.ke
this online magazine features the work of submissions received by the after5 magazine team. after5’s contributors retain sole copyright to their featured work. If you would like to see your work featured in this publication, find out more on our website.
GAGAN UBHI student London Lights
ROY WACHIRA CEO Roy King Ltd
THE hyper realism ISSUE Photography has changed over the years due to technical innovations surrounding the camera. Digital cameras, cellphone cameras, computer cameras, there are many ways to take a photo. The evolution of photo-capturing technologies means that pictures and images can tell stories that previously could not be told and perhaps this changes the way we (the viewers) look at and engage with images. Do we take them in or do we take them for granted? Does a higher resolution create a blanket effect that airbrushes a ‘sameness’ across the images we see and dilutes the emotive impact of pictures? There was a romantic sensuality and a palimpsest of meanings in the grainy, textured pictures of the past. Now it seems that this epoch of photography has lacquered over the tactile aspects of images with a smoothness that has removed much of the mystery that perhaps surrounded photography in the past. Thanks to digital cameras and photoshop this art has become more accessible to many, but it also means that we can see the world more clearly, we can capture better than ever the fine details or we can take photos that are so photorealistic they start to depict the surreal.
MARIUS VAN GRAAN filmmaker / photographer Babloo talking about when he was young, Old town Mombasa
KARAN KHALSA, kd90 photographer / designer Beauty Sweat
POOJA SHAH photographer / advertiser / illustrator The Tall Amazonian Forest
TURK
NEIL THOMAS
KANA
NEIL THOMAS
INTERVIEW tell us a bit about neil thomas? i was born and raised in kenya and later studied in europe and south africa. i am absolutely passionate to the point of obsession with photography. i see the world in pictures, always have, and i am living out my dream working as a photographer.
Neil Thomas Q&A there have been many technological innovations that have changed and improved cameras, these innovations have had an effect on the quality and types of photographs that photographers can take. how has technology affected your work and photography in general?
i think the biggest leaps in technology that when did you first realise you wanted to have affected my work are the amount be a professional photographer? of megapixels that camera makers are when i realised that i wasn’t enjoying my squeezing into a sensor these days. principally i work with two camera systems, development job and that people were actually willing to pay me for doing what digital hasselblad medium format and i loved. canon 5d mark ii, both produce images that are a joy to look at (for both myself please tell us more about your turkana and my clients). photographs & what you wanted to capture? simply, i wanted to create a in terms of photography in general, i think new kind of image of people living in that the more higher end technologies northern kenya and the landscapes are becoming much cheaper and more that they live in. i was going for a more accessible to a larger market and therefore glamorous kind of context for the shots. there are many more photographers out incidentally i gave very little direction and there, which can only be a good thing. i think the way that they have come out is amazing and really brings out the what can we expect to see from you in the natural beauty of those people. near future? i am looking to expand my portfolio of how has your point of view evolved as people images, like the ones i made in you have developed as a photographer? turkana, and also produce an exhibition i think that my point of view is that will go on the road prior to the constantly evolving. after every shoot i next election. for more, please see discover a new way of seeing a subject kenyaforgivenessproject.org and how the play of light changes. if i could pinpoint one thing it would what advice can you give to readers probably be to say that i am an acute wanting to take photography observer of life and constantly noticing professionally? details. create great relationships with your clients, go the extra mile, don’t be afraid to try what or who has influenced your something unusual at the end of the shoot, photography? when you have the shots you need in the my french stepgrandmother gave bag. me a camera when i was 11 and i photographed everything. otherwise i one final question - what do you do “after like joey www.joeyl.com for people, tom 5” (after 5pm?) craig www.tomcraig.com, and steve hang out with friends, cook or catch a live bloom for his photography in africa band, are some of my favourite things to www.stevebloomphoto.com do after five pm.
FARAAZ CHARANIA photographer / web designer The Great Wall
Tatiana Alexandra Wanjiru Karanja student / photographer Network
PARIA RAJPUT student Olympus
Sebastian Wanzalla graphic designer / photographer
KARAN KHALSA, kd90 photographer / designer Split Edges
BILLIE RIHAL student / photographer Untitled
FARAAZ CHARANIA photographer / web designer A Hidden Classic
CONTRIBUTORS billie rihal student / photographer billie09@hotmail.se faraaz charania photographer / web designer faraazkarim@facebook.com GAGAN UBHI student gagan.ubhi@hotmail.com karan khalsa photographer http://www.facebook.com/CLICKD90 marius van graan filmmaker / photographer http://www.mariusvg.com neil thomas photographer http://www.neilthomas.com paria rajput student paria.06@hotmail.com pooja shah photographer / advertiser / illustrator http://www.facebook.com/sayuriphotography Tatiana Alexandra Wanjiru Karanja student / photographer http://www.tatianakaranjaphotography.com
ABOUT after5 is an online magazine for photographers, illustrators and graphic designers who reside in kenya. this publication focuses on giving space to creative people to share their point of view and promote their work. it features different artists with a diverse range of interests and perspectives within the visual arts. after5 hopes to create a space that inspires people to contribute their work and engage with others’ work. we live in a world plagued with troubles and challenges, a world where many are lost in the monotony of their nine-to-fives, this place in cyberspace is about escapism and reclamation. It’s about what you do when the day is over. it’s about the time you give to the passions you bury under a pile of chores and the dreams you are getting around to but never cross off your to-dolist. so the question is this; what is your after5 and do you want to share it with the rest of the world? the time is now and the space is here!
after
5
www.after5.co.ke
digital@ytpr.co.ke
magazine