Photoblog of Laurent

Seoul – Part 2

lchatain — Tue, 11 May 2010 14:37:40 +0000

So yeah as I was saying in my previous post, it was spring time in Korea

The streets were so nice with the cherry blossoms, it was in Sinchon I think.

In the cable car to Namsan tower . I did the climbing by walk aswell and it worths best going to to the top by foot. A buddhist temple near Coex. Was peaceful and nice

View from the tower, at once I wished I had a tri pod with me but whatever I still could make some shoots.

There was a lil show that night with some light effects.

We were just looking for a restaurant but they were closing

Korea – Seoul part 1

lchatain — Sun, 09 May 2010 18:46:28 +0000

It’s been a while since the last post I know, so what’s up ?

Well I’ve travelled to Korea last months, for a 3 weeks trip. Actually it was a damn good trip, the city ‘such a nice place (well might not be for a western point of view cause it’s sometimes dirty and the density of the population is that high). I really enjoyed being in a country I didn’t know, with no people I would know (except a mate I joined there) with a complete loss of landmarks. Besides, That trip was a kind of returning back home, though “home” was a place I didn’t know… Can’t really explain how I felt there and how I still feel, on the meantime I was really happy and there was that side of me who felt sad and alone. I was feeling good cause the people there were nice, however, it reminded that I could have been part of the korean culture and country if I hadn’t been abandoned. At once, I would have been at the right place but I can’t blame destiny for that, I mean, I now have a good life in a western country it’s kind of ok for me. I’m a foreigner in the both countries, whatever… Ain’t we all world citizens afterall?

Took some photos of course, but most of the photos I took are analogues cause most of the times, it pisses me off carrying the EOS with me with all the lenses and the stuff. So on with the photos

First days, I was hosted by Hyeyon and her falimy, she’s definitly so nice and so interesting girl to know.

Her dog, Hanee

The subway provides a good solution to go everywhere in Seoul and is really cheap but modern. When I was lazy enough I was just taking a cab, there are also cheap

There were those snacks everywhere in the city, where you can have a cheap dish while you’re shopping for example.

Et toi derrière quel ours te caches tu?ahahaha

Tibo, un pote de Dijon, que j’ai eu beaucoup de plaisir à retrouver sur place, ca faisait quelquechose comme 8 ans qu’on s’était pas vu. Et c’est toujours autant un crevard

Gyeongbokgung palace, It was such a nice place, very restful despite the hords of tourists and kids.

Was funny to see those traditional guards, cause just around the palace there are skycrappers in the backround.

My zodiac sign, one of the cutest with the rabbit

When I was visiting a museum nearby the palace, I stumbled across that group. I told you there were tons of kids yelling an running around, those ones were apparently punished by the teacher. nevertheless, five mins later they were still running and yelling like crazy lol.

Another traditionnal palace that I forgot the name (there are seven in Seoul and I tended to mix the names of them).

This was in ewha, where I was hosted. I really like those streets, next post I’ll upload some prints taken in Insadong which ‘s even more nice.

Best Korean barbecue in Sinchon, well there are so many restaurants that it’s hard to make a choice when you come out for dinner. That was one of the best thing I liked, the restaurants are really cheap. I only ate 2 times in 3 weeks in the apartment where I was, either my breakfast+ lunch+ dinner = OUTSIDE That’s said, when I got back to my place, I really had a hard time getting back to cooking meals and so lol. Apart from that, korean cooking is really healthy and spicy. I now miss the taste of some spicy Kimchi or a good plate of Bimbimbap (I’m not sure about the names), here in france it’s only (western) chinese food or sushis

Soju !!! At the S3, a bar where we would go to have a drink, the people threre are mostly french. Hélène is one of those lucky student who leave to study abroad

I had the chance of seeing the cherry blossoms opened while I was in Korea, I was scared to be there a bit too early and miss all the trees with flowers in the streets .

that’s it for today, took me some time to edit and upload those bunch of fotos, gotta eat for now .

Back from the deads

lchatain — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:47:26 +0000

Yeah been a while since the last update … Let’s say I’ve been more active on here

Here’s a kind of sum up of my recent/old shots, some are from Egypt others are mostly from where I live and eventually some are scans of B&W film.

Hope you enjoyed it, I might post another set with parties and so.

Cheers !

Flu, crisis & photography

lchatain — Sun, 03 May 2009 14:53:57 +0000

I sometime really wonder why the medias turned out so much shit, I mean, lately we are flooded by the bad news! Flu from Mexico , economic crisis before. Makes me really wonder if anythin good sometime happens hearing the medias. Why worrying so much people?

Makes me say they wanna us to be so worried and afraid to be fired or to catch the terrible flu so as no critics are possible.Divide and rule…

Well that ‘s my micro opinion in that ocean of blogs… I was in the street for the 1st may, it was the first time I ‘covered’ a protest. Pretty hard to find the right shoots, so far as I only took my 35mm lens with me so the point of view I had were mostly wrong. Not enough close to the people and not enough in the action… Next time I’ll do better

Like an idiot I chose setting 1 on my camera which sets +1 of saturation, so the red on the flag is not that natural but I didn’t enhance the saturation via PS

Singing some anti sarkozy ‘songs’ , a crop from a more general overview. Still didn’t care about saturation on my camera, shit.

In the end of the protest there were the young communists well the students. they really brought up some energy to the protest, it was nice to see them mobilisated cause most of the time the older think they ain’t able to do anythin.

As they were the more energic I just followed them hoping some black blocs would arrive to face with the police but it didn’t happen.

Starting to rush to the city hall place suddenly surrounded by them … As it happened quite fast, I had to postwork this shot cause took it bad

Something I’m proud of, there were many camera geeks like me during the protest and I was the first to shoot the students at the city hall , the other (even the press) arrived a bit later. At once I was at the right place at the right moment.

As I was coming back to the parking, met that kid with his funny trotinette. In fact, there were 3 kids trotinating like mad with a flag of labour union on each trotinette. Unfortunately I didn’t dare enough to take a photo cause the parents were around, didn’t want to be considered as a weirdo chasing after kids

Eventually finishing with some scans of my last prints, a shame my scanner is bad enough not to reproduce correctly the genuine tones of the photo… It looks like much better in the hands

That guy was sweeping around the sphinx, I suppose most of the tourists ignored him when taking photos, I got both (the sphinx and his protector from the sand)

Dunno what’s that trace in the sky, I think it happened when I processed the roll cause the negative has it too.

Cheers !

Cimetière du Crêt de Roch

lchatain — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:39:44 +0000

Good evening

Yeah this blog is not dead yet, it ‘s just I haven’t felt like filling new posts and even finishing the Egypt serie… Too lazy and too much digitals to upload :p

This post will feature the cemetary of the Cret de Roch in Saint-Etienne, I have to shoot some photos of that part of Saint Etienne for the club I belong to. Dunno if my shots ‘ll get exposed soon…

Let’s begin with the ‘humans being’ statues of the cemetary.

This one could have been great in color, cause the statue is in green but the sky was over exposed so I switched to B&W that fits more.

Though he looks like a praying dude statue, he’s an angel. His wings are out of the frame.

Lil angel

Bigger one

Next post will be about some serious portraiture or maybe again Saint Etienne. Sorry for that deadly boring entry.

sabah el kheir

lchatain — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 12:43:10 +0000

So as said in the the previous post I’ve been to Egypt, it was a good trip though it was tiring. Imagine, you’re on holidays and you have to wake up even earlier than a normal worked week. What a shame ! But I must admit it worthed doing it for most of the visits we did, we saw lots of beautiful things there (pyramids, raw poverty,rich hotels , camels etc) and met some awesome french people. First day, we were waiting for the departure in Lyon. First hours in the morning,I had slept 4 hours before and had a little hang over due to the beers we drank before I left my friends.

Flying over the Alps

Arrival at the hotel el Salam Concorde in the Cairo. Luxuous hotel with all the necessary for the tourists not to go out of the complex.

Few days before christmas

lchatain — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:04:08 +0000

Yeah I hate the few remaining days before christmas , they’re oftenly so boring and empty… Anyway it has snowed a lot in my area, so the landscape all turned to an immaculate and cold landscape. It was pretty cool, it somehow reminded me of my childhood (haven’t snowed that much for several years).

La place Jean Jaures recouverte de neige, une conversion en noir et blanc car faut pas croire que c’est aussi joli d’habitude

It looks so big with the wide angle… lol As I was shooting the christmas market, there were some drunk punks drinking some hot wine and yelling bullshits to everybody around. It was funny to see the social contrast on that place.

A mess I didn’t have my 35mm cause she seemed to be pleased to be photographed, people while seeing the wide angle just think it’s a portrait lens… Anyway, I think they’re pretty brave to stand all day in the cold to sell their artisan crafts.

a Go-mary -round? well a carroussel like we say in french, could have been neat with a tri-pod and some long aperture. But hey I was fucking freezing, tryin to take photos while holding bags full of gifts for christmas.

Empty places…

Ok that’s all for the photos, gotta prepare my wallet for Egypt and get the cameras ready. Next post will be surely brighter and sunshinny than this one

Stay fucking tuned.

Biennale du Design Saint-Etienne

lchatain — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:17:03 +0000

There was a design summit at Saint-Etienne lastly, as it happened to be a very quiet sunday I went there with PM for a quick photo session.

some random people

Some cool furniture

There was that giant donut made of recycled paper

I don’t exactly remember what they were watching but it dealt with pollution. Curious how european society got interested in alternative energies whereas they wouldn’t have cared few years ago.

This room was cool, only black and white ! and … a cushion

Citroën CaCtus, I guess it’s a ‘green’ car.

A funny fridge

For sure I wouldn’t respect those signs

It was plenty of families going to the summit to fullfill their empty sunday afternoon.Another part of the summit, dedicated to wood, plants and more general nature.

Amazing, some seat with hair ! I sometime think some designer must smoke a lot to imagine objects like that.

Anyway Thanks to waste time here . Bye