#RapShootr | Snapping From Taiwan To SA with Daniel Toro
Words By Phil Chard
#Rapshootr’s a series of interviews with photographers who engage different elements of hip hop culture throughout the African continent with their practice. Some already have their own platforms while others are igniting their own fire beneath the radar of an international gaze.
In this edition of #RapShootr we speak to the Taiwanese photographer Daniel Toro who has been collecting some pretty incredible shots of the South African music scene since relocating from the East Asian nation. All image captions by Daniel Toro.
How did you start in photography?
I love music so much! About 7 years ago I went to a music festival in Taiwan and I fell in love with a British rock & roll band that was touring around Taiwan and attended many of their performances in the clubs. It was at one of those clubs that I had searched for their photos and came across Danny Chu the resident photographer for that club. I eventually met him and he taught me my initial photographic skills, at present I still always learning via her photographic artwork. The rest is practice and learning all the time
What inspires you?
I get inspired by people. I get inspired by the 'moments' of people. For me it is to capture a specific moment or an emotion of a person/performer or a feeling that the person may be processing. Once people see the moments of them that are captured in the photograph it fuels my inspiration more to record more of these moments. That moment captured can be carried through with them their whole life. I remember I walked into a salon of someone I didn't know but I saw she had a developed a photos she found on a website of her and her fiance. I took that photograph. The fact that her fiance doesn't like taking photos yet they both love that photo and that was the photo she decided to put on her business wall inspires me to do more.
Milkee & Oriigenelle were performing at Hipnotik 2016. Milkee was posing a sexy dance and Oriigenelle was acting like “No No”, seems like matching to the song and especially the light on Oriigenelle face, and made this photo completed.
What equipment do you use?
Nikon D800 [with these lenses]
24-70 f2.8
70-200 f2.8
14-24 f2.8
Most of your shots are very vibrant with lots of colour and saturation.. What drew you to that style?
My photography is my artwork. Photography is just like a painting. For me, I like colourful stuff. So my artwork will be full of colour and will be deep with emotion. Mind you that I do take some black and white photos which will still be full of depth. Whilst I am photographing I take particular notice to atmospheric lighting, or my synthetic lighting. This lighting influences my work a lot. The job of a photographer is not just to press a button. A photographer has to immerse oneself into the environment, feel the frequency in order to channel the emotions into the photo.
Has social media helped you spread your work?
Social media definitely has helped my work locally even world widely. As I do like to work with people and those emotions, the people viewing my artwork will be the ones giving meaning to the photograph through my lens. But that means people do need to view those photos. But it is a lot of fun for the people to see their faces on my photos.
Riky Rick Makhado was performing at Waves JHB Edition, it’s not always happen in an event, especially in a music concert, when a artist jump into the crowd and sing and dance with them. Not easy to capture the moment due to too many people surrounding you even push you, but the result is amazing. It’s always worthy to try to capture from different angle, then you will know what you love and develop your own style.
What piece of advice (technical or philosophical) would you like to share with fellow photographers?
There is no shortcut. You have to practice all the time, it's a culmination of many experiences whether photographing or training your eye. Then practice your skill to emote that into a visual piece of artwork. Its not as easy as people think it is. Develop your style to be true to what your inner soul sees. Everyone has their own style and don’t let what others say influence or deter you. So that finding your own style is very important as a photographer and this is also my mentor Danny Chu Photography taught me.
#RapShootr | Photographing Ghana’s Yo-Yo Tinz
Words By Tseliso Monaheng
#Rapshootr’s a series of interviews with photographers who engage different elements of hip hop culture throughout the African continent with their practice. Some already have their own platforms while others are igniting their own fire beneath the radar of an international gaze. We spoke to founder Selorm Attikpo, who is a filmmaker, photographer and cultural promoter based in Accra, about documenting the Ghanaian hip hop scene.
HOW DID PHOTOGRAPHY FIND YOU?
I think I found photography. My initial interest was and still is film. I was introduced to a Canon 7d, if i remember correctly in 2011. I discovered I could have both photos and videos with just one camera and also the relief of not having to capture tapes. So just trying all the possibilities with a DSLR camera, I gradually developed an interest for photography.
WHAT WERE YOUR FIRST EXPERIMENTS WITH THE CAMERA?
My first experiments was to try how everything work in a manual setting. The shutter speed, aperture, the picture styles, iso -- everything just to understand exactly how they work. But the challenge was that I did not own a camera when I started so between when I get to practice and when I see a camera again, I would have forgotten some things already. But with time I just got it but sometimes a little rusty. Good thing is I managed to get a camera now and i have cameras around me most of the time.
WHAT INSPIRED THE CHOICE OF THE SET OF IMAGES YOU’VE SHARED WITH US?
The thing I like to capture the most is moments. I enjoy my subjects with attitudes or a lot of mannerisms. I want to show you your picture for you to question exactly when you did that move or to say, you got that?! Sometimes the subject is just dull and you would not exactly get some great moments and sometimes you will just love it !!
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SUBJECT TO SHOOT? HOW DID YOU STUMBLE UPON IT, AND WHY THE SUBJECT SPECIFICALLY?
I love shooting concert I think, mainly because I get to capture lots moments, so anyone on stage with the right moves is my guy. [It is awesome if] the lighting is great since i almost don't shoot with flash. Apart from getting all those moments, I love to shoot people with style.
DO YOU HAVE ANY PEOPLE WHO’VE INFLUENCED YOUR STYLE OF PHOTOGRAPHY?
No I don't have people that influence me but I really do appreciate a lot of photographers online. I wish I could get my pictures to look as good as theirs. I guess that's where I need to get back to practicing. I have recently been looking to find out what makes some photographers the big deal by looking at their photos. Who knows I might just stumble on one that will eventually influence my photo. otherwise I look for an interesting background, mostly outdoors ask the subjects to be the self then I click to shoot. I don't stress myself too much apart from getting my settings right. But then again I'm sure all these photos online influence me somehow, but I'm not aware of exactly how. Imagery is a big deal in terms of structuring one's ideals or perceptions
HAVE ON-LINE SOCIAL PORTALS HELPED IN YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY? HOW SO?
Yes it has. I get to see a lot of photos online that make me question my photos. It pushes me to find ways to make my photos look better . It also any easy way to show a potential client my works online which I have been bad at promoting especially in the filed of photography.
#RapShootr | Gettin’ Lost In The Music With Andiswa Mkosi
Words By Tseliso Monaheng
#Rapshootr's a series of interviews with photographers who engage different elements of hip hop culture throughout the African continent with their practice. Some already have their own platforms while others are igniting their own fire beneath the radar of an international gaze.
Andiswa Mkosi is one such and for our inaugural edition, the Cape Town-based cam handler told us about the first photograph she took as well as her thoughts about on-line mediums and the opportunities they present to artists such as herself.
How did photography find you?
I was supposed to study film but I landed up in a photography class and I just did not fight it.
What were your first experiments with the camera?
Pinhole photography. The first image I ever consciously made was with a pinhole camera we made with a box at Varsity as part of an assignment. I think I still have that picture somewhere at home.
What inspired the choice of the set of images you've shared with us?
I love photo graphing musicians while they are performing, generally because I am one myself so I am inspired to make images of them the way I would love to be photographed when I am performing.
What is your favourite subject to shoot? How did you stumble upon it, and why the subject specifically?
A number of them but at the moment, musicians/performers.
It strongly has to do with the fact that I love music a lot, so when photographing performances I get lost in the music and I focus on another level while making the images.
Why: There are special moments on stage, I live to anticipate these, finding the one thing an artist constantly does when performing and freezing that in a moment.
Do you have any people who've influenced your style of photography?
Various people but there is this guy called Nemesis. Ja neh. That guy, his photography, see for yourself.
Have on-line social portals helped you in your photography? How so?
Yes, a lot! Its easy nowadays to put together a body of work on Behance, share it a bit and the right people come across it with opportunity. I mean for me personally nothing major has happened yet but I mean in terms of places to host and present my work to the public a lot.