Mikko Takkunen's Unique Perspective on Hong Kong
Welcome to this edition of [book spotlight]. Today, we uncover the layers of 'Hong Kong,' by Mikko Takkunen (published by Kehrer Verlag). We'd love to read your comments below about these insights and ideas behind the artist's work.
As the world convulsed with political unrest and a raging pandemic, one man turned his lens towards a city in the throes of uncertainty: Hong Kong. The New York Times’ photo editor, Mikko Takkunen, took it upon himself to document one of the world’s greatest metropolises in all its stark realities and hidden beauties. Both an onlooker and an explorer at heart, Takkunen delved into the streets of Hong Kong, unperturbed by the turmoil around him, and, instead, focused on capturing the city in ways unseen and unexplored. Like a seasoned storyteller, his photographs weave a narrative that is both engaging and stunning, leading us off the beaten path and into the heart of the city. Each image is a doorway, inviting us to step in and experience the city from an entirely new perspective.
In this featured interview, we will delve into Takkunen's inspirations, his approach to photography, the role of color in his work, the historical and cultural contexts he navigates, the influence of his profession, and the impact of his departure from the city. Laced with poignant moments and insightful responses, this conversation promises to illuminate the thoughts and experiences of a visionary photographer who seeks to inspire a different way of seeing the world.
With a masterful eye and an authentic sense of curiosity, Mikko Takkunen, renowned photo journalist and editor for The New York Times, presents a striking new photobook entitled 'Hong Kong'. Captured during a time of unprecedented political tumult and global health crisis, Takkunen's breathtaking photography defames the stereotypical narrative of Hong Kong and instead introduces a captivating journey through the heart of this vibrant metropolis. Takkunen's work shines in its ability to seamlessly fuse documentary-style storytelling with a more subjective, personal observation of the world, resulting in a rich exploration of the city's unseen corners and undiscovered narratives.
Inspirational Roots: How did the masters of the New York School influence your approach to capturing Hong Kong, especially during such a tumultuous period?
I had fallen hard on mid-century New York street photography during my time in Hong Kong (there's a great book by Jane Livingston, called The New York School: Photographs, 1936-1963, which I recommend everyone to hunt down.). It felt like a lot of those photographers, like Louis Faurer, Louis Stettner, and Saul Leiter were trying see things 'anew', which I found incredibly insprising, and took as my own aim. Many of them, like the two Louis', obviously shot mostly in black and white, so photographers who made work in color, like Leiter, ended up having bigger influence. I was also looking at a lot of Ernst Haas, especially his photographs published in Life magazine under the title 'Images of a Magic City.' I often thought of Hong Kong as my own magic city. Beyond New York, photographers like William Eggleston and Luigi Ghirri were big influences as well, for their use of color, but also for their particular ways of seeing, Eggleston for his ability in finding something extraordinary in the mundane, and Ghirri for certain surrealism that I found in many pictures in his celebrated ‘Kodakchrome’. I enjoy photography that is not completely straightforward, and perhaps leaves the viewer a bit puzzled. I think the fact that Hong Kong was going through all these changes due to the political climate and the pandemic, and my personal circumstances of knowing I would be leaving, lent itself spiritually for this different way of seeing. Of course, wouldn’t want to be seen as any kind of tribute act and I hope that I have managed to build something of my own from all those influences. Whether I’ve succeeded, is obviously for others to judge.
Documentary vs. Subjective: Your work is described as both documentary and subjective. Can you discuss how you navigate these two aspects in your photography?
I am not trying to make any kind of political or sociological statements with my work, but it's important for me to capture the world as it is. I don't manipulate my photographs. Nothing is staged. I don't have people pose for me or use actors or anything like that. So, the work is documentary in that respect. All photography is subjective in a sense, of course, because it depends on what a photographer decides to make a photograph of, how they frame it and so on, but how I see the word in the context of my own work, it refers to the above mentioned aim for a very particular way of seeing, the idea seeing things ‘anew’ – which can sometimes be just identifying beauty in the ordinary or unexpected, or more actively using different framing devices to add certain visual complexity to an otherwise everyday scene, to draw one’s attention. It is this active effort for different way of seeing that makes the work particularly subjective. The pictures are very much my impressions of Hong Kong. They do not not necessarily have much documentary value in the traditional sense.
The Essence of Color: Geoff Dyer's essay delves into the origins and significance of color in your work. Can you elaborate on your use of color to convey the mood and atmosphere of Hong Kong?
When I first became serious about photography, I very much preferred black and white photography over color, but nowadays it is completely the opposite. I am interested in the real world and I have come to think that to photograph it in black and white, removes too much from the ‘real’, and in order to fully appreciate and do justice to what you encounter in the world, you have to capture it in color.
This feels particularly important in a place like Hong Kong, which is so full of color. I like what John Szarkowski wrote about Ernst Haas’s color work and how Haas was “making the color sensation itself a subject matter of his work.” My ‘Hong Kong’ has some of that type of pictures too, or certainly ones in which color or colors really carry a huge weight of the picture.
One color that I particularly often found myself drawn to, was red, which in the context of the changing political climate seemed to take certain symbolic value.
Historical and Cultural Layers: In photographing Hong Kong amidst political unrest and a pandemic, how did you aim to capture the complex layers of the city's history and culture?
I wasn’t trying to make any kind of photo essay of Hong Kong or as mentioned, make any kind of political or sociological statement with my work, so I didn’t really worry about whether my photographs represented Hong Kong, or its history and culture. The pictures are my impressions of Hong Kong, and if I was making any kind of statement with the pictures, it was a creative one of trying to see this place I loved, in a unique way. I was also a very much an outsider, so I’m not even sure I would have been able to do justice to the city’s history or culture, had I tried.
The Role of a Photo Editor: As a photo editor for The New York Times, how does your professional experience influence your personal projects, particularly this one?
The kind of work I edit in the office, and the type of photography I like to make myself, are very different, and while there’s certainly elements that apply in both in terms of what makes a makes a strong photograph (light, composition, etc.), I don’t necessarily think there’s a great deal of cross pollination going on between the photojournalism work that I edit and the pictures I make. Where my ‘day job’ really comes in handy, is the editing.
A lot of photographers aren’t great editors of their own work, and I did wonder, if I was able to edit my own work. Ultimately, I felt that I had a certain vision for the project, and I just had to do the editing myself.
My work experience was incredibly helpful: I’m regularly taking on large bodies of work of hundreds of images and then narrowing them down to just dozen or two, and then sequencing the selects to give the work certain form. In the case of my Hong Kong pictures, I started narrowing down from several thousand pictures that I had taken over a period of 18 months, until landing in the final 68, and then sequencing those to the order I wanted. I wouldn’t have been able to do to that without my professional experience.
The Impact of Leaving: You continued this project until you left Hong Kong in 2021. How has the process of leaving the city impacted your perspective on the work you created there?
I didn’t start going through all the work until well over a year after leaving Hong Kong. I think that period of separation gave me a bit of added perspective to the pictures, which enabled me to edit myself without being too hung up on certain pictures or the circumstances during which they might have been made. I put a tremendous amount of time, effort, and thought on the final selection of pictures and the overall sequence, in which each picture is some way connected to the photo that comes before or after it, even if some pictures are laid out as singles or made into pairs with another. Ultimately, the pictures in the book are not meant to be the best 68 photos I took in Hong Kong, but the 68 that make ‘a whole’ which I wanted to achieve.
More spiritually, the act of going through all my Hong Kong photographs, made me reflect of my time there and how special it was, which probably added an extra layer of melancholy of not just the process but the book itself.
Future Projects: Having captured Hong Kong in such a unique light, are there any other cities or themes you are interested in exploring through your photography?
I grew up in a small town in Eastern Finland, in a bedroom, literally facing a forest and I was always dreaming about the outside world, especially big cities. I had the good fortune of living in cities like London and New York before moving to Asia, but in some way I have felt that Hong Kong was really the ultimate metropolis, a real attack on one’s senses: the density of the crowds, the sheer number and scale of skyscrapers, and its shining neon and LED.
What fascinates me about great metropolises is the ever-flowing streams of people and transport, and the urban theatre created by their interplay in a completely constructed environment. It is this daily, ever-changing spectacle that I want to chronicle.
I have been working on a New York series since we moved back here in the fall of 2021 and I’m hoping to make my next book about the Big Apple. The work is largely in the same vein as the Hong Kong work, except there’s perhaps even less people in the photographs, and I’ve also found myself exploring more details. As things currently stands, the New York work is perhaps a bit less Saul Leiter, and more Franco Fontana. I have less time for personal work in New York than I had in Hong Kong, so I still need time to create more work, before I’m ready to start seriously editing it.
I kind of like the idea of ultimately doing a city trilogy. Los Angeles has always seemed to me a bit of mythical place for me, so perhaps The City of Angels would be the one I would tackle after New York. What comes after that, I have no idea.
To discover more about this intriguing body of work and how you can acquire your own copy, you can find and purchase the book here. (Amazon, Kehrer Verlag)
Mikko Takkunen (Website, Instagram) is an acclaimed Finnish photographer renowned for his distinctive style that blends documentary realism with personal subjectivity. He works as a photo editor at The New York Times. Originating from a small town in Eastern Finland, Mikko's creative journey brought him to magnificent metropolises like London, New York, and most recently, Hong Kong. Intrigued by the complexity and dynamism of urban landscapes, Mikko has a knack for capturing the magic in everyday life. His immersive, atmospheric photographs are not simply depictions of what he sees but rather explorations of his impressions and emotions.
Adding a dash of more than just color to his pictures, Mikko intertwines a world-class understanding of light, composition, and mood into his work, producing images that tell a tale to viewers far more profound and fascinating than words can convey. Equally inspired by the masters of the New York School and his own wide-ranging experiences, Mikko brings cities to life through the lens of his camera, skilfully painting a picture of bustling metropolises teeming with energy and excitement.
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