“I am an observer of Life, being there at the right moment

without influencing and disturbing the motion of Life, trying to

be invisible while capturing the fleeting moments, Nature

creates the images for me, I am just an observer of Life”

Light and Shadows play important roles in my photography.

Shadows of a big rock at the foot of the Himalayas to a

shadow of a dog projected onto a mudwall created by the

warm afternoon light, these images all show the 'beauty' of light

itself.

Light falling on a white wall, and casting shadows along the wall,

shows how beauty can be very simple........beauty in its purety

In the India, Varanasi series, I tried to express the

spirituality that I felt when I was there. Early misty winter

mornings were very quiet, and observing the people doing their

early exercises and some just watching life on the river Ganga go

by, inspired me to visualize it in my pictures. I really hope you

will at least get a glimpse of this inner feeling that I had……..

Composition plays a vital part in imaging in general, and the people

or sometimes birds play their role in the whole of the image as

one of the composition structures.

At the right moment, these structures will come together to form

a 'perfect' composition, with the photographer being an observer

only............

Shadowplay also points to my country of birth, Indonesia,

where the Indian art of storytelling with shadowpuppets still

play an important role

I started photography in 1978, when I was 14, my brother was

doing darkroom and I learnt everything from him. He even did

Cibachromes himself, but I didn’t got to learn that as I felt

more affinity towards black and white, and I remained using

this medium.

My first pictures were macro shots at a nearby swamp in 1979

and during the anti-nuclear missile demonstrations in 1980 in

Amsterdam. It was such a nice time, spending hours in the

small darkroom during the long winter nights, while listening to

music of The Police and UB40, remember this was the early

80’s. And my father, already happy that we didn’t go out to

parties and drinking and such, got me my first camera at that

time.

When I went to University in 1985 and then to work, photography was

put aside for many years, until I got into it again around 1998, with

occasional abstract work. It was my first trip to India in 2006 that

brought photography back into the main again, and subsequently the

2008 trip to Ladakh, in the Himalayas, made me hooked to that place.

Perhaps it is the light with long shadows, that reminded me of that

beautiful winter light in Europe.

If you have any questions regarding the images, please do not

hesitate to contact me at: hongsien@gmail.com