{"id":146542,"date":"2021-08-27T08:00:59","date_gmt":"2021-08-27T00:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thehoneycombers.com\/hongkong\/?p=146542"},"modified":"2024-11-20T19:36:48","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T11:36:48","slug":"michael-kistler-street-photographer-hong-kong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehoneycombers.com\/hong-kong\/michael-kistler-street-photographer-hong-kong\/","title":{"rendered":"We talk to street photographer Michael Kistler about the road to becoming an artist in Hong Kong"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hong Kong has a buzzing creative scene if you know where to look. From great underground live music venues<\/a>\u00a0to arthouse movie theatres\u00a0<\/a>and the best Hong Kong\u00a0bookstores<\/a>, the diverse mix of cultures here in the city mean that there\u2019s always something for everyone. Originally from Minneapolis in the United States, Michael Kistler moved from banking to teaching before making the jump to becoming a street photographer. We sat down with the Hong Kong-based artist to find out more about life as a creative in the 852.<\/p>\n

An interview with Michael Kistler<\/h2>\n

Hi, Michael. Great to sit down with you. Tell us how you got into photography.<\/h3>\n

I had been shooting fairly consistently from the end of high school; a bunch of analog stuff. I got a Ricoh from my parents when I graduated high school, and took that on my first trip to Europe. They were horrible photos, but it was a new world, new environment, new people, new culture \u2013 all of it. It was the travel that sparked off my interest in photography, and I began to see things that I hadn\u2019t seen before.<\/p>\n

You were in Japan before coming to Hong Kong. Had you gone there as a photographer?<\/h3>\n

Not at all. I went to Japan just on a lark. I was teaching there, as it was one of the only things you could do there at the time without a lot of experience. That was kind of during the English teaching boom; I was in Tokyo and I loved it.<\/p>\n

I returned to the US and got my M.A. before going back to Japan to properly teach at universities. After a few years though, I became somewhat disillusioned with the system there, and I found myself doing more and more photography, thanks to the long holidays that came with the job \u2013 until it became time to make the leap into photography full-time.<\/p>\n

How did you end up in Hong Kong then?<\/h3>\n

When I decided to make the transition to being a full-time photographer, my wife and I decided to come to Hong Kong, as she was offered a job here. We\u2019d been talking about moving for a while, and Hong Kong was not on our radar at all, even though I\u2019d been a few times to visit. So it just came up and we made a pretty quick decision to do it.<\/p>\n

Is there a photography scene in Hong Kong and, if so, what was it like to break into that scene?<\/h3>\n
\"michael
The city of Hong Kong plays a vital role in the majority of Michael Kistler’s images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I think there\u2019s a scene. Even though, some days, I feel as though I\u2019m still trying to break into it. It can be hard because sometimes you wake up feeling really good about what you\u2019re doing, yet other days you wake up feeling the exact opposite.<\/p>\n

When I came here, I guess I thought I would be working more on the fine art side, and I do actively do that. But what I\u2019ve realised is that to make a living doing that is next to impossible. I\u2019ve been doing a lot more teaching and workshops than I thought I would, but it doesn\u2019t surprise me in terms of where photography is going in terms of mobile and everybody running around snapping away. For me, the teaching part dovetails really nicely with my background, and I have a captive audience; people on the courses really want to be there, you know.<\/p>\n

Which photographers or street photographers do you love?<\/h3>\n

I\u2019m more influenced by older photographers than contemporary ones. Daido Moriyama, for example, works exclusively in black and white, and he influenced me a lot when I was shooting in Tokyo. You can see that in the work I was doing during those Tokyo years.<\/p>\n

Another would be an American photographer called Saul Leiter who worked primarily in colour. He did a lot of stuff with abstraction, shooting through wet windows, unconventional angles, odd points of view, and just kind of messy stuff, but really, really beautiful.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m really drawn to the imperfect.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk more about imperfections, especially in regards to social media where you are very active.<\/h3>\n

Yeah, well it\u2019s what we\u2019re seeing in places like Instagram, where everybody is talking about \u2018clean\u2019 photography. Straight lines, perfect placement, those cookie cutter carbon copy images, and I think that\u2019s really boring.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s influenced me though. It\u2019s made me want to mess things up. I love the buildings and the colours and the fa\u00e7ades and the crazy height of everything here, but how many times have we seen that image? It is striking, but when people are copying people who are copying who are copying people, and you keep seeing it on Instagram, it just becomes a little too generic.<\/p>\n

On the subject of Instagram, what are your thoughts on people sharing your works? Are you ok with that?<\/h3>\n
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A post shared by Michael Kistler Photography (@mdkistler)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n