Justin Lim Photography / The Official
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Sloika: Times Square!
It takes a bit to surprise me after two decades taking photographs but seeing my photography headlining in Times Square, NYC on Friday night takes some beating!
Thanks again to Sloika for their vision, graft and innovation. So glad to be a part of that community and grateful for the success we’ve had via my sold out collection, “Girl and Camera” - a landmark first for a Hong Kong NFT photographer on that platform.
To see how it all went down check it out on twitter here.
On "Retiring" and Moving On - 2022 Begins...
Happy New Year! A little personal news! In 2022, I will take the first steps in becoming a "photographer who has shot professionally" rather than a "professional photographer".
What this means is that I will be scaling back on large scale events such as full day weddings and corporate event shoots in Hong Kong. It does not mean that I have relinquished the photographic chain completely - I will still be available for interesting projects and editorial commissions, not to mention my continued love of family portraiture and the like.
For those who have already been in touch with me about their weddings prior to today, rest assured that existing and confirmed bookings for 2022 remain unaffected by this decision. I will also be taking a limited number of bridal reservations going forward. In many ways, I feel I am shooting as well as I ever have, but now is the right time to step away in terms of making a choice about my lifestyle. COVID presented interesting challenges for the business - strangely I am as busy as ever - but I think it is finally the time to find some time for my own projects, perhaps even refocusing my attention on the business side of the industry. Shooting large scale events in HK during the era of distancing and masking (yet with the same demands from luxury clients vis-a-vis high-level event work) was certainly a very unexpected and challenging experience, but one I'm pleased we met head on.
I know I have also been lucky that - as I have risen through the ranks - I have worked with a kinder, more generous calibre of wedding couple. Thank you so much to the graciousness of the couples, especially those in these last few year. It was evident that - finally - I was able to cross that final barrier, that where the wedding couple is not simply a client, but a friend.
It has been a tremendous ride. I first started with cameras in the late 90s and shot my first paid event in Hong Kong in 2006 - making this my 15th year as a professional shooter of some kind here. Every time I went out there to shoot as a “professional”, I thought how lucky I was to be able to tell your stories.
Suffice it to say a big thank you to the hundreds of clients, couples, families, brands and vendors I've worked with, especially those who went out of their way for me (many did). So many things I saw, so many places I went - if you had told me that when I started I would not have believed a word. A big thank you to Jane, Oliver and Cole as well, for every time they stepped up to the wedding plate with me.
Those moments! The first wedding in 2006. Opening my own studio The Kandid in 2013. Waking up at dawn to capture a sunrise at Yosemite on someone's wedding day. Wolfing down ramen with the directors of a world-famous diamond brand in Tokyo. Capturing first looks in the vineyards of Burgundy and Bordeaux. A wintry week in Copenhagen shooting Nordic café culture courtesy of RAINS. My first ever North American magazine cover for American Airlines. 8 days in Bali shooting hotels with the Lifestyle Resorts crew. 48 hours with Prada in Tai Kwun. 2 months in Singapore for my first ever solo exhibition. Shooting MR PORTER's first ever own-brand menswear campaign. Every single Instagrammer I met, broke bread with (even the nasty ones, the bad actors, who did more for my commitment to this industry than they will ever know). All the laughter, tears, joy and even the tequila shots at the afterparties of every single wedding I was hired to shoot (I still hate tequila).
Every single click added gloss to my entire photographic journey, gave an extra sheen to my life.
I recently passed a cumulative 100k followers on social media, which was a strange feeling of something that should have been a watershed moment but also felt a little hollow and underwhelming - like I had something more to give but perhaps not to that world, which if anything seems more distant than at any point in my online life. In the end, as much as I have loved so many things about this side of the photographic industry, I can't wait to embrace another side of it - it is all very exciting. COVID has changed the world and the way we see it - but I'm on tenterhooks waiting on what comes next, knowing I will always be a creator of some kind.
This is the end of this chapter, but not the end of the story. If you were there, thanks for being a part of it. There’s still so much to do…
Yours,
Justin
@hurtingbombz
Ho Ho Hong Kong - Justin Lim
I recently appeared on the Ho Ho Hong Kong comedy podcast, discussing my two decade long affair with photography, the future of weddings and more. A kind of sideways look at my career and how it has developed here.
To tune in, visit Ho Ho Hong Kong.
Sloika - "Girl and Camera" - Sold Out
I’m so delighted to have been asked to be the third ever photographer ever - and first from Asia - to mint a series on Sloika, the new global NFT Marketplace brought to you from the founders of 500px.
The series, a 20 1/1 photo set, is the first portraiture work ever to be sold on the platform, and I am delighted to be representing Asian photographers in this regard.
The works are now sold out, but if you are interested in acquiring them on the secondary market you may wish to view them here:
app.sloika.xyz/hurtingbombz.eth
In a sense I feel very humbled to be asked to create a series like this, inspired by Hong Kong’s neon hues, when so much of the local attention of NFTs from finance, galleries and auction houses has been focused on international trading with little or no relationship to the Hong Kong creator communities. Hopefully these works inspire others to take command of their own imaging assets as photography remains a relatively untapped source of NFT gold.
"Hong Kong Stories" by Justin Lim - NFTs
I’ve just released my first collection of NFTs, a collection of Hong Kong images minted after taking some advice from a very good friend of mine!
Having just made my first sale, I’m also excited by this Brave New World of photographic delivery.
Check out the full collection at OpenSea: opensea.io/collection/hongkongstories
On Vaccinations in the Hong Kong Event Industry
Recently, I’ve been asked several times on the low rate of vaccinations amongst vendors such as photographers, makeup artists and florists in the Hong Kong event industry.
At a recent wedding I worked at (not pictured), I was the only vaccinated vendor of close to a dozen vendors there.
Whilst this isn’t the space to pontificate or speculate as to why people involved the event industry here - who see more unmasked people than virtually anyone save the restaurant industry - still profess to not want to be vaccinated, clients of Justin Lim Photography have generally rested easy knowing that I was one of the first to put my hand up back in April when they became available.
That seemed to be the very least I could do, knowing the immense strains and pressures we have all been under working in high-end events in the last 18 months, with very little effective regulation or protection for external or third party vendors who do not work at the venue itself. Working 18-20 hour days in events totalling thousands of people, shooting dozens of Covid weddings from the early days of the virus onwards, has been one of the great challenges of my photographic career. However, in a sense the jab has at least provided a single plate of armour now.
10 Hong Kong Photographers to Follow Now - Instagram
Although I’ve been rather less engaging on Instagram the last year, thank you to Prestige HK for naming me one of “10 Hong Kong Photographers to Follow Now”. Wedding and child photography will always form the core of my services but I’m delighted that my social media continues to command accolades like this.
The full article can be found here.
CBRE Urban Photographer of the Year 2018
Justin Lim
Winner, Hourly Category, CBRE UPOTY 2018
Delighted to announce that my photo of the Stockholm subway system has been declared a winner in the "Hourly" category of CBRE UPOTY 2018.
To see the full list of winners, visit this link.
Hashtag Legend Interview
Posting about this somewhat belatedly, but here is an interview I did with Yi Li Dawson of Hashtag Legend late 2017.
A little insight into what's been happening recently.
Samantha
Although I rarely post my personal work on this site nowadays, I thought I would share this. Shooting this week with one of my favourite models, Samantha. We tend to thrive in that kind of chemistry that produces photos of real character. Here, some manual lens work at The Kandid Social, on a day that went from grey to sunny.
For more of my personal work, head on over to my IG @hurtingbombz or check out 500px.com/hurtingbombz
Justin Lim Photography - 500px IG Takeover
It is not a bad thing to be busy, although it sometimes means I'm spread a bit too thin. In between shoots for MR PORTER, Shanghai Tang, Mandarin Oriental HK and many more, I was asked to take over the IG page of 500px, the world's fastest growing photography site with 7m dedicated users. Tremendous honour and accolade, and something I'm always very proud to do as an ambassador for HK and wider Asia.
500px - Guest Editor for March 2016
Photography is a competitive business. There are a lot of photographers out there, which is why the rare accolades that come from your peers are all the more worthwhile. Thank you to 500px.com - the world's most dynamic and influential photography platform - for naming me their Guest Editor for the month of March 2016. I am delighted to be curating moments on their Editor's Choice gallery for them for the next few weeks.
To see some of my choices, check out the Editor's Choice page on 500px.com
21 photographers who will change your Instagram experience
Iceland, 2015
Thanks to the global creative hub creativebloq.com for naming me one of their "21 photographers who will change your Instagram experience".
The full list can be viewed here.
A little review of the Lomo LC-A Minitar Art Lens
LC-A Minitar Art Lens, on my Leica M-E, August 2015
Lomography has been established for a while in Hong Kong now, and has grown from a cult dalliance into quite a large, universal enterprise. You often see people in HK with little Holgas and Dianas strapped to their Fjallraven Kankens. It's great that the new generation has embraced toy cameras, as they were a part of my own photographic growth.
As an owner of the original LC-A, I was intrigued by this addition to the lomography.com lineup - a flat-nosed Russian optic, easy to fit on a digital M-Mount body. Having taken it for a spin, I was largely impressed by the ease of use and the playful vignetting. Of course, saturation needed a tweak to make those colours look Agfa-rich, but I'm happy with these.
The next step is probably to mount it on a Fujifilm-X and see how we go with that. Viva Minitar!
Save the Hong Kong trams!
Handsome London Feature
Thanks to Handsome London for inviting me to be the first contributor to their curated blog. Fantastic site! For more information visit handsomelondon.com
Lifestyle Asia: Hong Kong's 10 Instagrammers to Follow
Lifestyle Asia, July 2015
Many thanks to Lifestyle Asia for naming me one of Hong Kong's 10 Instagrammers to follow.
I confess to being quite slow to take up this new social media, but it's hard to deny the explosive effect it's had on my profile since I was featured by Instagram HQ last year.
Many professionals are somewhat sceptical of this new medium, especially the slightly older generation of HK pros who have their bread and butter work. Mostly, when talking to pros about IG, you get a few stock responses of sarcastic sniping and bitterness. But it can't be denied that social media is here to stay and we are foolish not to embrace its all-encompassing reach. I'm grateful for all the new friends and collaborators I have made in the last 12 months.