About
 About the Photographer He was born in the city-state of Singapore and moved to sunny Belgium in the late 80’s. He currently resides in the city of Brussels that he now calls his home base. As a child he wanted to be an astronaut. His adventure into photography began when he permanently borrowed, a simple Kodak point and shoot camera from his mother when he was about eleven. During the nights, he would point it to space and photographed the stars. Obviously he was disappointed with the results of the images. They were underexposed. Later he would realise that the camera does not capture what the eye sees. Then on to discover that it could freeze a moment of 'a space or a gap in time'. And his first steps into realising that imagination could be captured with photography. Growing up within harsh realities, his dream of putting on a spacesuit faded but his passion for photography remained. While climbing up the corporate ladder, he felt burnt out and needed an outlet for his creativity. Then photography found him again. He took the plunge. Left his career and has been living his chosen life as an art photographer. “If my photography needs a category, in a general term it would be travel photography and the use of available light techniques. Not the usual ‘beautiful and bright images’ of exotic destinations. Instead, I focus on the social aspects of the destination and its people. Mixing documentary photography with abstract to create an image. For me, the challenge is to capture all my emotions and imagination, putting them onto a two-dimension piece of paper that could speak without speech. Although I work with digital nowadays, my favourite medium remains the traditional manual camera loaded with a roll of black and white film.” In between his art exhibitions, organising photography workshops in Brussels and taking on the photography assignments that come along, he travels searching out places and images that call out to him to be photographed. His other interests include music, writing, hanging out at pubs, scuba diving, karate and daydreaming. His commercial work can be viewed here : www.michaelchia.eu Photography workshops information can be viewed here : www.creatifimage.be p.s. Although he is Chinese, contrary to the misguided stereotyping of immigrants, he does not own or work in a Chinese restaurant ;-) He is a good cook though ! |
