Interview
Rocco Sung
Rocco Sung is an independent photographer. He first found his love for photography using a film camera in his childhood, with no understanding about how the camera works. As time went by, he moved to using a digital camera - this was the true start of his journey in photography, which he has been practising for almost 20 years now.
Rocco is a self-described addict to photography, because he spends almost every minute he can spare working on his photography.
With the mindset of nothing being perfect in the world, but the desire to keep chasing perfection nonetheless, he embraces chaos and illusion, to push him beyond his limits.
Hence, he has tried different types of photography, ranging from landscape, wild life, sports, documentary and a number of other forms. After years of photographing, he has developed his own style of post-processing and has moved to mostly black and white, and astral photo themes - a huge contrast, but that is his confusion and illusion style of art/life.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“I still remember my first touch of art, back in my childhood. I used to make pencil sketches based on comic books, not really copying, but somewhat changed to my own style from the sketch.
Apart from my Master Degree, I have studied a number of different subjects, including photography, painting, interior design, psychology. I am trying to find a way to tell something, an ideology, mainstream or non-mainstream, or a story about an event, or just a feeling. After all, I picked photography as my way of art. This could be, for example, because I am fascinated by the style of a rainy day neon light - it seems blurry, but this drives you to go beyond the three dimensional way of thinking.
After almost 20 years in photography, I do not let myself be molded in a specific type of photography; landscape, portrait, documentary, travelling, astrophotography and black & white - I like all of these and also keep trying many different new styles on top of these.
I am still exploring, maybe an improvement or something new yet to be discovered. As long as there is light and shadow, I will be there, I will be exploring.”
What inspires you most?
“Inspiration to me - Light and Shadow! I find it fascinating, as this is the basic element and all around us. And this allows me to move into a different way of thinking. How I can have this light and shadow to present in a different way, from a moment, to become a story.
Sometimes I see the reflection of the subject from the window outside a shop. This could be nothing to most people, but to me, except the reflection, I also look through the window to see the composition of the reflection and the things inside the window, to paint a picture in my mind.
Or, I should say, everything around me, every day that we live is a special occasion, hence, every tiny matter can inspire me.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“I do not have any specific themes that I go for, as it depends on the mood, situation and atmosphere. However, this is always in my mind, “A picture is worth a thousand words”. What I share from my photos, no matter if it's a scene or a moment, is always presenting the good or bad of that point in time, and I prefer to let the audiences interpret, regardless of whether this is a color or black & white photo.
This is also the same with my astrophotography - although we refer to this as Deep Sky Object (DSO) photography, it is the photons of light that travel millions light years to us which we end up capturing. This means the image is already possible millions of light-years ago, where no one is really seeing what it is at that particular or current moment. In the world of astrophotography, we are based on the chemical composition and physical rules to compose the image, so I am always saying astrophotography is both an art and science; it seems scientific but is full of artistic work, color and style.”
How would you describe your work?
“My work is always driving me to go beyond the limit of creativity, it does not matter if it is color or black & white, or astral photo image composition. I have high expectations for my photo work in every single photo. This is how the photo goes from capturing to post-processing and becoming the ultimate image, hence, I am always looking at my photo from different angles to figure out what this photo can tell.
This is not about perfection, but that is my way of working to make every photo I share shall have a story to tell where possible.
I have many unused photos from my storage, and I will revisit these after some time, once I get enough inspiration; I may find different stories to tell after taking time to reflect. I believe this is how to raise my standards and keep improving my art work.”
What artists influence you most?
“I do not have any specific artists that have strong influences on me. However, in terms of the way of photography, Robert Capa, his photojournalism, photographs could tell stories, that single images could get to the essence of the subjects they captured. This enlightened me to rectify my work after years of trial from different aspects.
Besides W. Eugene Smith, during one of his famous projects, Documenting Minamata, he was injured but still took the photos and shared them to Life magazine, and further to the world. His spirit to tell the truth from the photo, is really a very positive influence for why we are still taking photos year after year.
Both of them say that a photo is not only an image, or print in the paper, but also a message and story, by the summarization from the photographers in their way of presentation.”
What is your creative process like?
"My creative process can be compared to hide and seek. Once I have an idea, and based on that to work out the result, the result may or may not match, and it always takes some trials. It is just like hide and seek - not always finding the answer in the end.”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“As an artist, we have an important role to play. I have considered artists as representations for ideology from the present moment, despite what the social situation currently is. Our art work is usually inspired by society and life, the innovative, the stubborn, the open-mind or closed-mind, freedom or restricted, this is always reflected in the creation of arts. Although some of the art works will not be influenced by society, it is always still most of it no matter what. To myself, I am also letting feelings and the present situation, and the things around to be enclosed into the photos.
The evolving: there are two aspects from my point of view - the Artwork and the Platform. The Artwork, as I mentioned above, will evolve depending on the change in the society, type, style, presentation. Whereas the Platform, will get more digitized across different platforms, apart from a product presented physically. There are a number of digital arts started recently, for example, the NFT arts. I believe the way and process for creation are still the same, but the presented media can be changed from a physical product to be from the internet or virtual world. Of course, from a photography perspective, no matter which is film or digital photo, it can still print out or will become the image from the internet website or NFT.”
“On many occasions, an idea for the scenery or the style of the astrophoto image is just hiding. Sometimes I just walk out from my desk to have some fresh air, then go back, and redo the same thing. It could be a few days or weeks. Hence, creativity is just seeking for something already hidden, something interesting.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“I have joined a number of photo exhibitions:
• Group photo exhibition in Hong Kong Central Library in 2011 and 2016
• Group photo exhibition in the mall in 2016
• Group photo exhibition in YMCA in 2018 and 2021
• Personal photo exhibition in the mall in 2017I always have a dream to take pictures in front of my pictures. A dream came true at my 2016 photo exhibition. I composed hundreds of photos of faces into a single large picture on the wall, which anyone could take a picture of in front. Of course, I also have a picture in front of my pictures.
Moving to 2017, I had my personal photo exhibition in a mall. This is the summary of those years of works about different types of photography: landscape, partial, documentary, travelling, astrophotography, also the big faces picture was there - a milestone and an important 4 weeks of exhibition in my photography.
Further to 2020, I have revisited black and white photography, after all, I am addicted to black and white photography. Hence, my recent creation is mainly in black and white. This reflected in 2021’s group exhibition with all black and white photos to represent a moody series – ‘Searching’.”
Instagram: @sungcs
Other: Facebook (Photography & Production), Astrobin, Facebook (Personal)
