Honest. Advocate: James Haitchwai

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James Haitchwai

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James Haitchwai is a photographer, mixed-media artist, musician and writer. "Jack of all trades, master of none," as he likes to put it.

A product of Washington DC's punk scene, he approaches his photography with a do-it-yourself ethos. It is his firm belief that trial and error and a willingness to learn from one's mistakes are the best ways to develop as an artist.

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James uses manual film cameras exclusively. His favorites are a Pentax K1000 and a Nikon FM3A with a broken light meter.
Kodak Portra and Tmax and drugstore color Fujifilm are his go-to films.
James prefers the simplicity and immediacy of this format over digital. He finds that without the option of digitally tweaking pictures later on, he experiences a more direct connection with his subjects.

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These pictures were taken while aimlessly wandering around DC and Baltimore, MD 2013-2015. They are good examples of his spontaneous, instinctual approach to photography. 

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HONEST. Advocate: Soi Park

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SOI PARK - Where Are We Going?

2010 - Las Vegas, Nevada
4x5 large-format film camera

A native of Korea, Soi Park received a BA in Visual Information Design at Ewha Women's University in Seoul, Korea before earning her BFA at SUNY / Purchase College in New York.

She holds a MFA from the Yale School of Art where she was also awarded the Alice Kimball English Traveling Fellowship.

2009 - Mashantucket, Connecticut
4x5 large-format film camera

“I often find myself in transient places, waiting for people to share those moments of awe and wonder, or silence.
My persistence act of taking pictures might remains a fundamental question of human being and surrounding.

However, I believe that photographs itself surpasses of my intention.”
— Soi Park

2010 - Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
4x5 large-format film camera

Soi Park has been featured in Art Chicago NEXT 2011, New Insight by the Renaissance Society, and Spectra 2010 by Silvermine Art Center.

Since 2011, she has exhibited widely - Including a solo exhibition at the CUE foundation in 2013. This year she has been awarded an Engaging Artist Residency from the Mort Art, New York, NY.  

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HONEST. Advocate: Jakob Maul

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Jakob Maul

Budapest, Hungary 2013
Nikon F501, 50mm f/1.8 Tri-X 400

Jakob Maul is a 26 year old photographer from Vienna, Austria. He is no stranger to our HONEST. Tribe as he has filmed our videos and took our team photos! Here we want to show you the analogue side of his work. 
Jakob is mostly a portrait photographer, his favourite cameras are the Mamiya RZ 67 (with a 110mm f/2.8 lens) and the Yashica Electro 35 GSN.
 

Vienna, Austria 2013
Nikon F501, 50mm f/1.8 Tri-X 400

“People feel less intimidated when being photographed with an old camera.
I don’t know if they take you less seriously or if it’s just a moment of adoration for the beautiful camera, but I feel like people open up way quicker and more easily when they’re being photographed with an analogue camera.”
— Jakob Maul

Bratislava, Slovakia 2013
Nikon F501, 50mm f/1.8 Kodak Tri-X 400

Jakob grew up almost exclusively with digital and just began to explore analogue photography a couple of years ago. Analogue photography (despite being the older technique) is a new field for Jakob. A field he considers his playground, where he can experiment and explore more, because for him, a film camera is easier to handle.

Right now Jakob is working on a (digital) project about Burma. He was there for a month and really wants to go back to continue his project, probably taking his Yashica with him! 

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