I have undertaken portrait assignments and done a lot of interior, architecture and product photography.
Living Cuba Band outside the Caravelle Hotel Saigon where they regularly perform
I have really enjoyed working with the vibrant and musical Cuban community who bring next level entertainment to Saigon’s bars, clubs and events.
Victoria Queen Singer/songwriter from Cuba
Music Videos
Victoria Queen is a wonderful collaborator and we continue to live and work together in a creative bubble.
A video we made of an original song about the birth of our son Mateo by Victoria Queen
A video we made of Drakes’s song “Hotline Bling” filmed on the streets of Saigon. Victoria Queen TV
One of my first and most enjoyable jobs here was to produce a catalogue for Memoria Art, Vintage Deco. They make beautiful home-wares using old maps and poster art from the French Colonial period in Indo-China.
Through Saigon Photo Walk I have been involved in organizing 2 photography exhibitions. This is a wonderful community of Street and Portrait photography enthusiasts. There is such a vibrant street life here in Vietnam and people are friendly and approachable.
Aerial photo of Starlight Bridge in District 7 of Ho Chi Minh City Exhibited at Saigon Photo Walk Exhibition in 2020Aerial photo of Thu Thiem Bridge and Ho Chi Minh City Skyline Exhibited at Saigon Photo Walk Exhibition in 2020
Corporate Videos
The higher end commercial work has given me the greatest opportunity to see how this manufacturing powerhouse that is Vietnam works.
Kerryn Haig of Saigon Equator has been a great support and is involved with design, marketing and large-scale manufacturing and export of beautiful furniture and home-wares.
In recent months I have been slowly discovering an area near my home that appears to be slightly disconnected from the rest of the inner districts around Ho Chi Minh City. I find myself as the only expat when I go walking around. It’s an island between 2 canals. I feel very conspicuous but people are friendly even if they do wonder what the hell I’m doing there in district 8.
I’m coming here when I need to clear my head and get back to real photography. Initially I came here to lead a photo walk late in 2020. What struck me was that the area seemed to be stuck in a time warp.
There is evidence that the area was once an important part of river trade and it sits opposite Cho Lon on the canal that leads to the Mekong Delta. Cho Lon (Chinatown) was and still is a vibrant district famous for it’s Binh Tay market, and classical Chinese architecture dating back to 1778.
District 8 has well preserved examples of French Colonial architecture, a very traditional central market and many interesting street markets. Partly a low lying area, it can easily flood with heavy rain or when the canal overflows.
Once a year in the 2 weeks before the lunar new year, there is a spectacular flower market along the canal in district 8. Boats come down from the Mekong Delta to sell their flowers. It is a favorite subject for local photographers.
There are large and small bridges along the waterways and areas where traditional wooden riverboats can unload their cargo or restock.
I am taken by this place and its people and will return so watch this space! To see more of my photography and video work please go to http://www.paulgreenphotovideoart.com
Havana is a great place for me to do things like writing blogs and working on the huge backlog of video editing I’ve created for myself. Having a Cuban girlfriend brings me close to Cuban people and I’m interested in their lives which are very different and difficult. The news that the U.S is discouraging tourism and is scaling down its embassy staff in Havana by 60% will have a huge impact on the ordinary Cuban who in most cases lives way below any poverty line we know of in the rest of the world.
Old American Car on the Malecon after Hurricane Irma
Despite this poverty imposed from above and outside Cubans remain proud, creative, resourceful and hopeful that things will improve. President Raul Castro stands down in February 2018. Next month there will be municipal elections to select candidates who will decide on the new President. Cubans are hopeful for positive change bringing modernisation, more efficiency and opportunity.
Children’s Art Class in Prado, Central Havana
I have avoided walking the streets with a camera on the last few visits to Cuba. I see many street photographers walking around with their Leicas and various other symbols of photo artistrty all trying to create cliches of cliches and I guess I’m guilty of it as well. It is hard to avoid cliches here.
Graffiti after President Obama’s visit to Cuba
My first visit to Cuba was shortly after Obama’s. There was a big improvement in the relationship which also trickled down to the average Cuban. Without giving it much thought Donald Trump has pledged to be a wrecking ball for any of the good things that came out of the Obama administration.
Graffiti of Donald Trump in Havana
The average salary for a Cuban is around U.S $30/month. One hotel worker I spoke to told me how he went twice to the U.S embassy to apply for a visa to visit family at a cost of U.S $160/application only to be refused in less than 5 minutes each time. That’s more than 10 months salary gone in 10 minutes.
Shop in a doorway in Central Havana
Now there is a fear campaign because of the Sonic attacks on U.S diplomatic staff both in the embassy in Havana and in a hotel run by the Cuban military. I don’t believe the Cubans are capable or responsible for this kind of attack nor would it be in their interests to deliberately damage their relationship with the U.S.
Old Street Musician
Havana has some beautiful old buildings and many are being restored. Others are crumbling around their inhabitants. There is money being made but the average person is poor. Supermarket shelves have very little to offer the customer and the basic diet is lacking in variety. Government controlled internet is of very low quality at an exorbitant price.
View over Central Havana and Vedado from Lincoln Hotel
A reflection on my first three days in Cuba 12th, 13th,14th September 2017
I was supposed to arrive in Havana on the 9th September at 8pm but so did Hurricane Irma. After 2 days in Zurich waiting for a flight I was transferred to Frankfurt where I waited to hear whether there would be a flight to Cuba that day but no.. the Cuban airports were closed. The biggest problem for the airlines was evacuating tourists from the resort area of Valadero which had been hit hard by Irma.
The near empty Condor flight from Frankfurt to Valadero and then Havana took off and a small group of Cuban and Italian passengers proceeded to get very very drunk, loud and boisterous, boasting and demonstrating their portable sound systems.
The deal with this flight was that we passengers would get off the in Valadero to allow evacuated passengers to get on in Valadero and Havana . We would have to travel by collective car or taxi about 120km.
Side elevation of Teatro Nacional from roof of Hotel Inglaterra
12th September
First problem: The luggage didn’t get taken off the flight in Valadero. We waited and waited and waited but due to inefficiencies by the airline and a very lazy and poor effort by airport staff it was explained to us that we could collect our luggage at terminal 3 in Havana the following day.
So passengers started congregating in the carpark of the Valadero airport trying to negotiate transport to Havana. By this time is was around 2am. A long queue for changing money also had to be waited out. There was no way any Cuban driver was going to accept Euros. Fares started to blow out from the normal amount of 80CUC to around 400CUC . Cuban taxi drivers are very good at assessment of supply and demand. Along with a European couple I negotiated a fare of 100CUC and the long dark night drive to Havana began.
Yailin (Centre Performing with her group “Vocal Renacer”)
My main reason (my only reason) for coming to Cuba was to visit my girlfriend Yailin. We hadn’t seen each other for 3 months and I wanted to see her after all the delays. I had booked a hotel room in Old Havana from the 9th September to 14th September but it had remained empty until my arrival at 6 am in 13th September. I wanted a place to stay in the event that I arrived before the hurricane but also a safe place for Yalin and her mother to stay if something happened to their house in the hurricane.
View from the roof of Hotel Raquel over Old Havana
Hotel Raquel in Old Havana is a beautiful old building and is a Jewish themed hotel. We stayed in the Abraham room number 101. There is a mezuzzah on each door and a small Judaica section in the lobby shop.
Jacob Room Hotel Raquel
13th September
Having paid for 4 nights in Hotel Raquel for 2 people without being there I asked the reception if I could have breakfast. I had checked in a 6am and they said because I had checked in early that breakfast wasn’t available and I would have to pay extra.
In disgust I left the hotel to do get a decent breakfast at my favorite café in Old Havana, El Café.
From Parque central I went into battle to find a Taxi to drive me to the airport to retrieve my luggage. Once again the dutch auction system began. Starting at 60CUC I found a driver who was prepared to do the 2 way trip for 30CUC.
I found the lost luggage department at terminal 3 and proceeded to wait, and wait, and wait, and wait. The one commodity that has no value in Cuba is a person’s time. It seems the electricity and computer system were not working but eventually after about 3 hours I was able to look for my luggage. I looked everywhere but couldn’t find it. I was taken to a woman inside the airport who told me the flight hadn’t come to terminal 3 it had come to terminal 2. So I went in my taxi to see if my luck would be better at terminal 2.
After a short time I found my luggage and returned to Raquel and to see Yailin for the first time in 3 months which was beautiful.
14th September
We arrived at our apartment in Central Havana. It’s a nice place in a street busy with human activity. There is an abattoir, many congregations of children playing, people of all ages sitting in the doorways passing that thing that has no value. I feel conspicuous when I walk around and even though I try to blend in Yailin tells me it is not possible. I am and will forever be a tourist in this place.
I was walking around the city trying to find AAA batteries. I went to Obispo, San Rafael and Galliano Streets but didn’t have any luck. Things we take for granted are impossible to find here. The Cubans are creative, intelligent and imaginative in the way they deal with everyday obstacles. While looking at for batteries I met an American tourist named Bernardo. He was visiting from Pennsylvania with his daughter and spoke Spanish fluently.
He offered to buy me a coffee and asked if I knew of a good place. I took him to another favorite, Café Archangel in Concordia St. It was after I had finished my coffee that I realised I had been separated from my wallet. Welcome to Fucking Cuba!
Hotel Racquel is a nice building but never stay there especially if you don’t like cold showers and appalling food. If you would like to hear Yailin’s songs please check out the links below and like her fb page:
European Photography by Paul Green. I started of in Budapest in the 3rd week of August to work on a family history project for a private client. Budapest is a city that I knew a bit about but always wanted a reason to visit. It’s a charming city with magnificent architecture. I enjoyed walking around in my spare time.
(Detail) Memorial For Jews shot by Nazis on the bank of the Danube
Formula One came to town and that was my cue to leave. I decided to have a look at some small towns in Poland and headed by bus to Katowice. I was interested in the Pre-war Jewish history and it’s always difficult to find any traces. I found the Jewish cemetery and a couple of monuments. There is still a very small community in the town.
From Katowice I went to Zakopane in the south of Poland. Here I was interested in the architecture and the mountains. I started doing some timelapse sequences and did a lot of walking.
Timelapse combining sequences from Zakopane and Radomsko
Radomsko was the home town of my father’s grandparents although they didn’t ever talk about the place much. It was a major Hassidic centre in Poland. When my great grandparents lived there it was part of Russia. There are still a few old buildings there so i was trying to look at things they also would have seen. Trying to share experiences with them.
My second job was in Zdunska Wola. This was a beautiful art project entitled “The missing mezzuzot of Zdunska Wola” by Estelle Rozinski. This was my 5th visit to Zdunska Wola and it was primarily a filming job. I took very few images for myself but I was struck by a stack of mazevot (Jewish Grave Stones) in the back yard of the museum. The Jewish cemetery in ZW is very beautiful partly due to the excellent stone masonery .
Stack of Jewish Tomb Stones Zdunska Wola
After filming the 73rd anniversary commemoration of the liquidation of the Lodz Ghetto I arrived in Warsaw.
I’ve never owned such a wide lens before but when I upgraded my Canon gear from the 5dmk3 to the 5dmk4 and 5ds my trusty L series17-40 f4 was suddenly no longer sharp enough for the results I needed for myself and my customers.
I have not bought anything other the canon L series lenses for many years now. Sometimes I’ve opted for the slower lenses due to weight as I travel extensively on Film and Photography assignments. Weight is a major factor for me and heavy fast lenses in my experience are back breakers.
So I weighed up the Sigma 12-24 f4 Art Lens (1151g ) against the Canon L series 11-24 f4 (1180g .) Both are very heavy!
There weren’t many informative comparisons online and I couldn’t gauge the performance of the Sigma especially on the 50mp 5ds but I’ve been hearing rave reviews of Sigma’s art series lenses. Many of my peers have been raving about them for a while. Mainly Dean Tirkot, Marco Bok and Derek Henderson.
I havn’t read a single bad review of the Canon L series 11-24 f4 but it’s really heavy, really big and really expensive. The front element is a very impressive piece of glass that reminds me of a Zeiss 40mm distagon front element from the Hasselblad days. Also $4000 is a bit pricey in the current economic climate for 1 piece of equipment in a world where you need many and varied pieces of equipment.
Yesterday, at half the price of the Canon I took delivery of my first Sigma Art series lens and today I took a few pics with it. I took my 5dmk4 which I prefer using to the 5ds. Lets have a look at the pics and see how the lens performed under different conditions and on different settings.
I won’t do any profile corrections in Lightroom. So here we go!
Photo paulegreen 8914.jpg
is of Australian artist Ken Unsworth’s sculpture “Stones against the Sky’ located between Darlinghurst and Kings Cross in Sydney. The picture was slightly backlit but there is plenty of detail in the shadows and highlights. The photo appears very sharp.
Settings were ISO 100 12mm f7.1 1/800 sec
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is The wall of the Darlinghurst Fire Station. It’s a good subject to test a wide angle lens. There is a very slight loss of sharpness but it was shot at f4.
Settings were ISO 250 12mm f4 1/80 sec
Photo paulegreen8927.jpg is on the escalator at Kings Cross Station. Again I shot wide open to test distortions on the edges of the lens. I’m happy with the way this image resolved even though there is a bit of blur due to slow shutter speed.
Settings were ISO 400 12mm f4 1/25 sec
Photo: paulegreen8930.jpg
This is another test like that of the fire station wall. Again I’m very happy with the corner sharpness and the barrel distortion is acceptable for such a wide lens. I have Canon L series lenses with significantly more barrel distortion than this. It is easily corrected. Also the shutter speed is very slow for a handheld photo.
Settings were ISO 500 12mm f4 1/13 sec
Photo:paulegreen 9836
is of a row of Victorian Houses in Darlighurst at night. It’s a seriously wide angle view that I would never have previously been able to achieve.
Settings ISO 5000 12mm f4 1/30 sec
Photo:paulegreen 8941.jpg
is a shadow of a tree against a painted wall illuminated by street lights. I can’t fault the lens sharpness in the corners.or the even coverage of light on the 5dmk4 sensor.
Settings were ISO 5000 17mm f4 1/30 sec
I did find a pretty good technical review after I finished writing this blog at https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sigma-12-24mm-f4-dg-hsm-art-lens-review/2
On first impressions the Sigma 12-24mm f4 Art lens is astounding. I’m really excited with the possibilities the this lens will add to my photography and film making.
Thomas Bernhard who was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet probably illustrated it best with his play “Heldenplatz (Heros’ Square). This play was commissioned by the then director of the Vienna Burgtheater, Claus Peymann for the 100th anniversary of the theater and it sparked a huge scandal when it was performed.
Certainly it started a very uncomfortable internal debate in Austria on the 50th anniversary of Hitler’s triumphal arrival in Vienna.
Many important actions and events took place here, most notably Adolf Hitler’s ceremonial announcement of the Austrian Anschluss to Nazi Germany on 15 March 1938 to the rapturous applause of 250,000 wildly cheering Viennese.
Please see my very personal view of Vienna in my small photo book
It’s springtime. I’m in a rural area of Silesia about 60km from Katowice. This is one place where English doesn’t work but people do try to speak to me in German once they realise I can’t speak Polish. You can see more of my work at www.paulgreenphotovideoart.com
I’m here making a documentary about a young couple who met and now live together in Sydney. Karina and Sachin are getting married on Saturday in Karina’s nearby home town called Kalety. The doco is about the joining of a Fijian, Indian, Hindu family and a Polish Catholic family.
The project was dreamed up and is being produced and directed by my friend Chris Cole who has an architecture practice in Fiji and who knows Sachin’s family.
Chris worked as a cameraman back in the pre digital days of film. It has been a great experience working with him and learning a different approach from someone who has ducked the digital revolution and hasn’t worked in the industry for many years.
This week has been very important for Polish people. Their beloved Pope, Karol Józef Wojtyła, or Pope John Paul II was canonized by the Vatican as a saint by Pope Francis.
Pope John Paul II is recognised as helping to end Communism in his native Poland and eventually all of Europe. John Paul II significantly improved the Catholic Church’s relations with Judaism, Islam, the Anglican community and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Another Polish saint who is celebrated in Lubliniec and who was canonized by Pope John Paul II is Edyta Stein. Also known as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Edyta Stein was a German Jewish philosopher who converted to the Roman Catholic Church and became a Discalced Carmelite nun. She is a martyr and saint of the Catholic Church and one of the six patron saints of Europe.
In 1938 she and her sister Rosa, were sent to a Carmelite monastery in the Netherlands for their safety. They were arrested by the Nazis on 2 August 1942 and sent to Auschwitz where they were gassed on 9 August 1942.
Although Edyta was born in Breslau (now Wroclaw) in 1891 she spent much of her childhood in Lubliniec as it was the hometown of her grandparents.
I visited the Lubliniec Jewish cemetery yesterday. Originally the cemetery was divided into three plots: for men, women, and children. In all, 1,117 people were buried there.
The Nazis devastated the cemetery during World War II and used the gravestones to pave the road from Lubliniec to Żuków. In 1958 the Polish national authorities took over the cemetery and opened a driver training centre on the site. Fragments of gravestones were piled up in a few heaps.
Among those buried in the cemetery are the grandparents of Edyta Stein: Adelajda Courant and Salomon Courant as well as Edyta’s elder brothers: Emst and Richard.
I’m not very good at maths so it took me a while to subtract 1989 from 2014. How things have changed in that time. My main camera through the 1990’s and turn of the century was the Sinar P. My kit consisted of 75mm Schneider Super Angulon, 90mm Schneider Angulon, 150mm Rodenstock, 240mm Rodenstock, and 480mm Apo Rodagon lenses, 6×9, 5×4 & 10×8 Backs. Price entry level for photography was a whole different ball game. There were long days and nights in the darkroom processing film and completing Black & White print orders as well as astronomical monthly lab bills. I always say that I bought Mr Kodak 3 houses but also 1 each for Messes Fuji, Agfa, Ilford and Polaroid. Back then my bread and butter was doing big jobs for Artists, Museums and private galleries. I still do this kind of work but the jobs and budgets have shrunk. Throughout the years I have never stopped doing my own photography. Some of my personal work can be seen on my website at www.paulgreenphotovideoart.com
I’ve been traveling and working in Europe for the last 15 months and recently returned to Sydney. During that time away I was concentrating on a number of commissioned jobs and exploring some personal themes. Initially I went to work with Australian Artist Mike Parr to document his large scale retrospective and new performance piece at the Kunsthalle in Vienna, Austria. I also completed a book of Art, Food, Culture, Agriculture and Archeology of the Roman region of Lunigiana in North West Italy. This will be my 3rd book about this part of Italy. The first 2 were “Soffritto” & “Lucio’s Ligurian Kitchen” of which both were very successful.
Most interesting for me was the work I completed in my European Ancestral home of Poland. This is where my Hassidic Polish great grand parents lived and I was fortunate to visit their home towns. I photographed extensively and produced some very interesting and contemplative photographs on my first visit during the Winter of 2012.
In the Summer of 2013 I returned to Poland to collaborate With Judy Menczel & Fay Sussman on a documentary film about contemporary Polish/Jewish relations, Klezmer Music, & Yiddish language. http://www.documentaryaustralia.com.au/films/details/1667/fays-journey. The film has full tax deductability status and we are looking for financial support for this very interesting and important doco.
Throughout the time in Europe my home was in Wien or Vienna. Vienna is a quiet and small city with a long and multi faceted history. I find it a wonderful canvas for street photography and I love certain aspects of the cultural life and food there. Mostly I am able to get work on large projects done there. I find it very easy to focus on a task and not be distracted. I am returning with some very interesting ideas for photography and a new body of work.
Since returning to Australia I have been working on editing the Poland film, documentation of a Kaldor Public Art Project with Slovenian artist Roman Ondak, and my continued involvement with Artists Mike Parr and Ken Unsworth.
The first thing I did on my return was to go to my storeroom and get out my Hasselblad camera. I’ve been using this camera almost exclusively for all my personal photography in Sydney over the past 3 years or so. I’ve been getting through roll after roll of 120 Black & White film. I’m looking forward to a big scanning session at Silverpixel studios. This camera and its Carl Zeiss lenses is the benchmark in German optics and will replace my canon 5dMk111 on my return to Europe.
I’ve been really fortunate to have done so much magazine work in Italy during 2013. I’ve teamed up with a wonderful journalista,Paola Ciana who has had many years of experience as fashion editor for big Italian women’s mags. She made the switch to writing and photographing beautiful houses. So far we’ve been published in magazines such as Velvet, Io Donna, La Repubblica, Marie Claire Maison and Elle Decor. This has been a wonderful learning experience and has given me access to some magnificent Italian homes and interesting people. Also it has had a slightly demystifying effect for me on the Women’s Magazine market.
So to my new business plan: I’ve set up my website as a resource library where interesting images can be uploaded and sold either in print form or as a digital download. I’m hoping to improve the SEO capabilities so I can make a significant number of sales through the site but hope that people will take a look if there’s a need for a gift or need to find images for magazine stories and books. I’m still available for freelance photography, film and writing work and will be living between Europe and Australia in the foreseeable future. Every blog or business advice I’ve read about the pursuit of a fulfilling and successful career in photography recommends that you follow your own interests and speak with your own voice. This I have always done and continue to do. Photography is a tough gig and there is no job like it when it comes to great rewards of time spent.
A reflection on my first three days in Cuba 12th, 13th,14th September 2017
