The International Photographic Adventures of Kwei Shunyu
1. Tell us a bit about yourself
Thanks for having me on this blog. I am Kwei. I was born in 1999, in Chongqing, China.
I moved to Budapest, Hungary in 2019 for my undergraduate degree in Sociology. I’m
currently living in Cape Town and doing my Master’s in Documentary filmmaking at
UCT. I take pictures.
2. How would you describe your photographic style?
There are two types of photography, one in the studio, and one outside of it. My work
primarily but not exclusively focuses on discovering street life through photography. My
work is mainly concerned with details, prediction (the capacity to guess what will happen
in the next second) and narrative. I attempt to create non-fiction narratives and present
them for viewers to interpret. I want to call people to observe and question the things
around us.
3. What pushed you to pushed you to shoot street photography?
When I was about 12, one of my uncles, my mothers younger brother, would come visit us once or twice a year and gift us with new stuffs. He was the only educated uncle, attended a prestigious university, and worked for a Chinese tech company in Dubai. He would return to China and visit us with new technology, like the camera. Since then, just enjoyed this tool. While I was in Budapest alone, a fresh foreigner, I had nothing except a camera, so I’d simply go out a lot, taking walks, exploring things around, and gazing at the architecture, which was very different from what I had seen growing up in China. I was the curious young man who happened to have a camera. For me, picture-taking is deeply linked to openness, curiosity, and discovery.
4. How do you stay motivated to keep shooting and perfecting your style?
I discovered a documentary series called CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHIE IN THE USA, It made me ponder more about the process and possibilities of street photography, each move they made and every direction they glanced in. I became more and more curious.
I grew up in a modern and noisy environment, with tall buildings covered in glass, car horns and exhaust fumes all around, street hustlers could be heard from my bedroom, white-collar workers on the street walking faster and faster, kids running through the
streets on roller skates, etc. These are the types of settings I’ve been exposed to, so if I got bored at home, I walk outside to hear the familiar noises and enjoy the chaos. Photography is a calling. With my camera I am called to engage the world.
5. Have you had any negative experiences shooting street photography?
Nothing much in Budapest, Berlin, or Chongqing, where I shot for some time. But now that I am in Cape Town, it different; instead of people confronting me, they attempting to mug me, which has happened a few times. And it is different of how people react to me personally here, they would always greet me with a smile and nod, and call
me Jackie…
6. Who is your inspiration when it comes to photography?
I’m influenced by photographers such as Joel Meyerowitz, Garry Winogrand, Alex Webb, Diane Arbus, Mark Cohen, and Martin Parr, as well as sociologist Erving Goffman, who had a significant impact on my perspective on life in general. I recommend one of his works, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.
7. Where is your favorite place to shoot?
I don’t have a favorite, although I always hang around Cape Town CBD, Cape Station, Long Street, and Plein Street.
8. Do you shoot on other formats?
I was shooting on film from 2021 until a few weeks ago, I had to sell my film camera to cover my tuition, and got a micro 4/3 digital camera, Lumix GX85. Though, I do have a couple additional early 2000s digicams to play with.
9. What is your go to camera?
A few years back, I got the Olympus C-4000 ZOOM for 2 euros since the owner believed it was broken, but it just needed batteries, then my friend Duncan gave me the Olympus C-220 ZOOM few weeks ago. They simple to operate and take up little space. I mostly using these two to photograph my friends; I adore how the colours turn out, and I thoroughly like the point & shoot experience, much like when my uncle got me my first camera.
10. What kind of photos do you hope to capture/ what kind of photography do you
want to be known for?
I strive to see the unseen, and to confront ways of seeing. I strive to make controversial pictures which challenge conventional notions of what is considered beautiful. Perhaps I’m in search of the beauty of imperfection in the digital world where so often we only find good-looking self-presentation.
11. Do you have any future projects you’re potentially working on?
My dearest friend Emily Freedman is writing an essay about my street photography, which we hope to finish and see where it takes us. I also just bought a tiny printer with the money I received from selling my film camera, with the intention of printing some images and displaying them on a wall to see if I could make sense of all the messes I’d made.
Thank you!