Paul Phung
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- In: Interviews, Shuttercrack
Every now and then we get the feeling that we’re doing something right. We got an email in our inbox from Paul Phungwho told us that we rock and if we sell posters with our faces on it. Next to that he was willing to make a huge deposit to our bank account so that the crew could go on a well deserved holiday. Hmm not quite, we got an ever better message. Paul is a up and coming very talented photographer who asked if we could have a look at his portfolio. His work is an inspiration and very promising. So we had no other choice to find out who this soon to be golden child is.
Who’s the person behind the photos?
22 year old photography student who lives and studies in Leeds, U.K.
What got you into photography, and what makes you keep on doing it?
Honestly I’m not sure how I got into photography, I had some really bad college years where I didn’t know where I was going, I spent 2 years doing Graphic Design and I knew this was a bad decision because I hated everything I created and ended up just not turning up to class but I eventually did after a couple of weeks and was asked politely not to come back, which I like to say that I quit from! I don’t hate graphic design, it just didn’t agree with me. From this I had half a year just working and getting by and I think me and my friend Chris somehow decided to both take up a photography course, which ended up just me taking up this course but now 4 years later I’m about to enter my final year of my photography degree and it is the best decision I would say I’ve made in my life. I’ve come to realise that I’m actually quite addicted to the action of taking a photograph, apart from obviously loving photography this is something I want to do as a career and its one of the only things I’ve found I’m not that bad at!
If we’d like to trade something for a photo you made, what should the CFYE delivery man bring to your door?
Okay ill try limit what I say here…any of these would be amazing! A vintage Rolleiflex or Hasselblad, a first edition print from Jeff Wall actually maybe a Gursky so I can sell it when I’m really broke! A day with Rachel Evan Wood and Michael Pitt because I really want to do a really fucked up series of them two. I’m all about having new life experiences so a around the world ticket would be great, I’ll send you my address yeah?
What’s your favourite item to take on the road with you?
Apart from the obvious camera (which would be my 35mm film camera with my fixed 50mm lense) perhaps not a group of friends but just one good friend with me, I think I would need someone there to share the experience with me, well it depends on where we’re going…An ideal road trip would be to travel the width of America, I really don’t know what it is but everytime i go over there I never want to come back, maybe because it is still so new to me and being such a huge place I guess I’m just attracted to the vast open land it has to offer. I would love to go back and travel across China again, I regret not taking as many photos as I should of when I was there!
I do like my collection of shirts I have going…can’t really leave them behind.
Something really fun about me:
I hate questions like this! Ask my friends, actually don’t.
Best shooting location we should check out?
My old basement! 24 Grimthorpe Terrace, check it out! Don’t worry about who lives there now, there only students. I used to love going around shooting abandoned warehouses I’m not sure why I did that since looking back at them, there really bad! I like shooting urban landscapes, empty fields, dark alleys, car parks…I normally have a subject to photograph as-well in these settings. Recently started to just wander about and photograph them odd moments you see in the streets, I think you will be able to find a good location to shoot wherever you are this is so underrated and what’s overrated is going out shooting some place you’ve been told because its probably been done about million times.
Tell us about your work as a photographer, did you just picked up a camera and educate yourself?
Well this is now coming up to my 5th year studying photography, my style isn’t all there yet and I still love to experiment but I’m leaning towards a Muzi Quawson or Lise Sarfati’s concept of thinking and style. This year I’ve worked closely with narrative photography and being highly influenced by cinema.
I do actually shoot everything that I find interesting, unless it’s for a project for uni then a little bit more thought goes into each image. A lot of my ideas actually come to me when I’ve been extremely drunk I should really carry a notebook with me when I’m out drinking.
About being a self educated photographer, in some ways it can be better you won’t be paying the ridiculous amount of money I am to be studying for a degree and in reality it’s just a piece of paper saying congratulations your now in debt then I guess followed by your mark, but more importantly especially with flickr being such a massive social networking site for photographers, there will be millions of people more than willing to give you advice if your thinking of starting off, a lot of people worry too much about trying to be unique and having their own style too early, if you enjoy photography I would say just
shoot as much as you can, everything else will just follow naturally. Fuck the trends as-well, photograph what you like as long as your happy doing it.
What’s your camera setup?
Canon AE-1 and Nikon D80 mainly. I have some TLR’s and some Holga’s to play around with. I’m fortunate to be studying at a place where I can take out various cameras out for free, which range from digital slr’s to medium formats to large formats. Depending on what I’m shooting over 90% of the time I will use available lighting, not the biggest fan of using flash’s I rarely even use my tripod, I have quite a steady hand, I can normally shoot at 30th of a second and not have any camera shake. I remember watching this photography program and some guy said he could take a photograph at an 8th of a second without a tripod, that would be quite useful but I think he was lying!
How does your environment react on you taking your camera everywhere and shooting all the time?
Well I go to an art college, so most of my friends are artists themselves we’re all used to everyone taking photos all the time, from what I said about before being a self educated photographer, the one thing I love about being in education such as mine is that you get inspired by your peers and there a good source of ideas if you’re struggling, although I bet you could make a good network of photography friends on flickr.
What’s the strangest thing that ever happened to you when you were out shooting photos?
A couple of years ago, I remember I was out really late at night taking some photos and some kids came past on their bikes and said are you fucking gay or what? That was strange! Nothing really strange happens though when I’m out shooting, I’m quite discreet and also most of the time I just photograph my friends. Actually come to think of it, when I said before I used to go around photographing abandoned warehouse’s me and my friend came across a really dangerous place, this old mill which was huge and we went upstairs walking really gently over these wooden beams and you could hear it cracking beneath our feet..that was dangerous!
Who is your favourite movie/gaming/cartoon character?
Casper from Kids, Akuma from Street Fighter and Bebop and Rocksteady from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Which artist would you like to work with?
Larry Clark would be a good artist to work with although I reckon it would be really freaky watching him as he loves to focus on teenage boys. Technically I would love to not work but just be alongside Jeff Wall and watch how he works, it would be amazing to see him going through his contact sheets and selecting his images and just ask questions about his practice, I would need
some patience though if I was to ask about his concepts, non stop talking for a week at least on one image I bet! I would love to work with film director’s as-well, I’ve been thinking after I graduate to possibly take up a course in cinematography.
If you could fill a swimming pool with something, what would it be?
Well if you can have different sections in the pool, ill fill the sections up with various different alcoholic drinks and invite all my friends and have a sick party!
Favourite city, and coolest thing about it?
I absolutely love New York I hope to work there one day maybe not for long term but I’m a person that gets bored quite easily and I need something constantly to do, I love everything about the city the different cultures, the people, the gallery’s, the local sandwich shops, the high end shops to all the amazing small boutiques, the incredible bars and clubs I’ve been too, there’s too much to say but I like London for near enough the same reasons, this will be a completely different answer when I’m older though.
What can we expect from you in the future?
I’m about to start my final major project for uni so that will keep me busy for the next year, then hopefully graduate. After this I will be moving down to London assisting as many photographers as I can and making as many contacts as possible because in this industry you need them! I want to start collaborating with other photographers but also carry out some of my own personal work, hopefully travel as much as my money takes me and just hope one day my work gets noticed by the right person.
