The only time I spoke about Halftone here in Measuring Light was in May 2021 when it was about to be launched. Don’t ask me why it took me so long to write about this photo association, which is actually being presided by my own self now. Yes, I was nominated President of the Board of Directors in December last year and effectively started my 2-year term in January 1st, 2023.
So what is Halftone?
In short, we are a Macau based non-profit photography association. We welcome members who are passionate about photography. We aim to promote contemporary photography with a number of initiatives: book launches, exhibitions and seminars where we invite people to present photo books or just talk about photography.
On a regular basis, we publish a magazine every 4 months, showcasing photos from our members.
Above are the covers of past editions that I picked randomly. Our Halftone #07 is about to come out mid-December, by the way. And below, this is how it may look like inside. Quality stuff.
Our magazine launches are an event in itself. The photographers featured in the magazine are invited to present their work in a short, 5-minute talk. It’s always interesting to know what’s behind each project.
There’s wine and a good audience. The atmosphere is relaxed and friendly, most people are familiar with each other so there’s a lot of small talk here and there. It’s cool.
Gaining traction
Halftone is gaining traction and currently we have around 50 members. Some are locals, some live abroad. Some are professionals, others are enthusiasts like me. We are inclusive: our members hold different nationalities and cultural backgrounds.
Each member is invited to join a chat group and we discuss our initiatives openly. Members are pretty active, which is excellent. Care to know more, you can visit our website at www.halftone.photo.
Halftone Annual Exhibition ’23
Oh yes, this is what triggered me writing this post. We are committed to organize an exhibition every year. Members who are willing to join the initiative are given the opportunity to showcase 1 printed photo to be featured in the exhibition.
Our exhibition opened today (December 4th) and it was quite a success. We had several VIPs attending the opening ceremony, which brought prestige to the event.
There was also a surprising visit by the great Candida Höefer, who is incidentally in town for her own solo exhibition at the Macau Museum of Art. I guess we all felt honored that she showed up to our event!
Media coverage was secured as well so we had good exposure…
We showcased a total of 30 photos from same number of members. There was a solid crowd, there was wine and snacks. We all had a great time.
We took the opportunity to showcase our Halftone magazines as well.
And by the way, this was my photo: “120 seconds of quietness”:
This photo was taken in 2022 in Qingyuan, China. I was enjoying this short trip with my girlfriend and we stayed in this place, a surprisingly stylish Mies van der Rohe / Phillip Johnson inspired minimalistic villa, with some regional amateurish touches…, overseeing this beautiful lake.
As indicated by the name, my photo is a 120 second long exposure at sunset. It is actually straight out of camera, no digital manipulations applied. Taken with my medium format Fujifilm GFX 50R coupled to a Laowa 17mm f/4 GFX Zero-D that I reviewed here before. Good stuff.
I had no ND filter so I closed the aperture and let the light paint the image. It was pretty dark, hence 120 seconds exposure was still possible without burning the highlights. I have other shots taken right before this one when the scene was brighter, but that one is my favorite. I like the darkness in it.
Halftone ’24
I still have one year ahead to complete my 2-year term. I’m a busy person, but life can’t be about work and duties only. Unless you want to be boring person, which is fine as long as you are happy. But not me, and currently I have cycling and photography to cover the fun part of my life.
So for 2024 we will keep the same agenda, which is to publish another 3 editions of our magazine (#08, #09 and #10), organize our annual exhibition, plus a number of other initiatives in art events and seminars along the year.
I will keep you posted!