吳漢霖 NG HON LAM

I was admitted to the Diploma in Design program at Swire School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic in 1985. One hundred and twenty year one students were housed in six different classrooms at the white painted Saint Johannes studios. The remoteness of these one story studios from the central high rise architectural hubs freed us to enjoy a special learning experience. Nick named as 'little white house', Saint Johannes studios represented an exclusive existence among the signature red bricked campus buildings. Hong Kong was then a British colony; tertiary education customarily duplicated with the United Kingdom academic structure and welcomed teachers with a foreign degree. Graduated from Manchester Polytechnic, Mr. Ng Hon-lam was our visiting lecturer and introduced photogram and pinhole photography to the first year’s craft-based diploma program.

Photogram is a form of camera-less photography which combines direct contact of objects or subjects on light sensitive paper. Memories of enigmatic forms will appear after single or multiple exposures from artificial light sources available in the darkroom like enlarger projection and controlled torch light. The range of photographic monotones depends on the density of the objects: translucent materials offer gradation of grays and non-transparent ones will result a white silhouette. Mr. Ng allowed us to realize the experimental potential of this craft in which unpredictable relationship between light, objects, time and chemistry often results exciting imageries. Photograms to him are photogenic drawings and serve as a subjective canvas not to make facsimiles of reality, but rather an indexical truth or even an abstract form of depiction. The process is traces of the photographer’s hand and reiterates reality through fixing shadows and performing light magic on photo paper surface (pic. 1).

photogram

(pic. 1) Photo by Blues Wong

Pinhole photography requires a light tight box with a hole in one side which faces a well-lit scene and light sensitive materials on the other side to capture the converged image. The projected image at the opposite side of the pinhole is upside down and inverted left to right; the exposure time varies from seconds to months. As a camera without glass lenses, it works under the scientific theory of camera obscura (Latin word meaning dark chamber) which was an optical device for classic painters since 17th century to trace life like three dimensional objects on two dimensional canvases.

Mr. Ng educated us pinhole photography extends our faculty of sight and imagination through unorthodox trials on both hole and box design. He encouraged students to use numerous slit punctures instead of single circular hole, this together with a hexagonal or round shaped box interior will result an exposed panoramic photograph with several expressive angles of the same spot. Mr. Ng's emphasis on the above mentioned alternative photographic techniques as elementary pedagogic exercises is vital to understand the binary relation of aperture and exposure time. From his Euro-centric standpoint, such primordial photographic forms are pictorial ingredients for modern artists and fuel for thought about contemporary visual culture.

In 1986 Mr. Ng conducted a photo session at the Saint Johannes studio courtyard, the purpose was to promote a Chinese folk art exhibition and to record the artifacts. From the exhibition poster one could see a glowing totem pole was captured at the middle of the frame, it is arranged in front of a slender tree trunk amid the dimmed twilight environment. A milieu of mysterious mood was achieved and the image opened up a point of entry (or exit) to a strange dimension unknown to any daytime student. Mr. Ng left our department afterwards and continued his teaching career at the Hong Kong Baptist College.

(pic. 2) Top: Catalogue Cover / Down: List of Exhibits Reproduced for Catalogue

Pinhole

(pic. 3) Photo by Ardis Tang

Pinhole

(pic. 4) Photo by Joyce Fok

Pinhole

(pic. 5) Top: Photo by Soming / Down: Photo by Theresa Chiu

Mr. Ng organized the 'Vignetted Images: An Exhibition of Pinhole Photographs' event at the Hong Kong Institute for Promotion of Chinese Culture in 1987. The venue displayed over forty student portfolios from both Hong Kong Polytechnic and Hong Kong Baptist College (pic. 2). I still remember the sunny weekend when my mentor invited me to be the guest editor of the exhibition catalog. Without the advent of electronic desktop publishing, we cut and pasted Xerox copies of selected exhibits to arrange the picture flow across the pagination. He appreciated the experimental spirit of the student works which brought eccentric visual interpretations on the mundane designs of campus buildings (pic. 3, 4). For the ending page we agreed to pair up a fish eye shaped image with the dramatic circular lens flare photograph (pic. 5); this finale echoed with the fundamental idea of photography: sight and light. This exhibition was revolutionary as the general public at that time acknowledged merely the documentary characteristic of straight photographs. The eeriness, expressive and infinite possibilities of pinhole photographs which were made possible with unique pinhole shapes or camera obscura designs challenged our notions of reality. In short, Mr. Ng's teachings in both institutes redefined the concerns and range of local photography education and his faith in the intrinsic power of alternative photography bred a creative new generation.

—— Blues Wong

Pic. 1~5 provided by Blues Wong

相關資料 Relevance

1987   《暈映》針孔照像及另類攝影工作坊   VIGNETTED IMAGES (Pin-hole photographs)
1987   〈沒有鏡片的照像機〉文．吳漢霖
1987   Camera Without Lens   by Ng Hon Lam
1987   《針孔照相機的製造與應用》 The Making and The Use of Pin-hole Camera   講者．吳漢霖
2024   自製針孔照像機（1987）...   捐贈針孔照像機作參考資料．危轉娣
2025   An education of alternative photography: Ng Hon-lam's teachings at the Swire School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic (1985/6)   by Blues Wong
2025   〈另類攝影教育：吳漢霖在香港理工太古設計學院的教學 (1985-86)〉—— 黃啟裕（翻譯．黃小燕）