It has been an amazing year with the Fujifilm family, one filled with friends, fun, and food, I dare say.
It began over a year ago at Photokina 2018 in Cologne, Germany. Fujifilm was having its largest presence yet at the European photographic fair. I had been invited to deliver talks about my solo-film-making journey, Forbidden Tattoos, using the X-H1. It is ‘traditional’ that Fujifilm invites their ambassadors from all over the world for large events, I was just happy to be given the opportunity to interact and meet other X-Photographers in person.
At a post-event dinner in a German restaurant, where Fujifilm had a brick-tavern all to ourselves, Kunio came and sat beside me, asking “Do you want to make movie?”
It would be about a photographer taking a trip around the world to meet other X-Photographers, he said. Palle would film it, and I’d be the photographer. Perhaps it was coincidence that the Danish cameraman and I were seated side-by-side, prompting such a spontaneous idea? Noisy chatter from the crowd all round drowned our conversation. We scratched out heads, unsure if those words were serious, or a sudden thought spurred by the activities of the week, or if we had somehow lost one another in translation.
That was September 2018.
Three months later, an email popped up in my inbox with a short and simple invitation to Tokyo for a meeting. Palle was also on his way. Quietly, the project has taken root.
How could I have ever imagined myself as Charlie in the Chocolate factory?
The kid with an all-access ticket inside the doors of Fujifilm, who could ask all the questions I ever wanted?
I couldn’t believe that a major camera company had entrusted me, a Singapore female photographer, with the power to call the shots.
My role for the movie was scriptwriter-narrator and in so doing, the researcher. I also photographed the still images. A lot of time was spent organising travel schedules, liaising with photographers, buying air tickets, figuring out which hotels and cars to book for our two-pax duo. Thankfully, Kunio and his teammates Yuto and Toshiya, handled the schedule in Japan.
Over the course of 9 months, filming and interviews took us to Dubai, Paris, Montreal, Singapore, Manila, Newman and Marble Bar in Western Australia, Aarhus and Copenhagen in Denmark, Malmesbury in the UK, and Tokyo and Osaka in Japan.
We accumulated a lot of carbon footprint but hopefully it will all be worth it.