Michael Chia was born in the city-state
of Singapore and moved to sunny Belgium in the late 80’s. He currently
resides in the city of Brussels that he now calls his home base.
As
a child he wanted to be an astronaut. His adventure into photography began
when he permanently borrowed, a simple Kodak point and shoot camera from
his mother when he was about eleven. During the nights, he would point it
to space and photographed the stars. Obviously he was disappointed with
the results of the images. They were underexposed. Later he would realise
that the camera does not capture what the eye sees. Then on to discover
that it could freeze a moment of 'a space or a gap in time'. And his first
steps into realising that imagination could be captured with
photography.
Growing up within harsh realities, his dream of
putting on a spacesuit faded but his passion for photography remained.
While climbing up the corporate ladder, he felt burnt out and needed an
outlet for his creativity. Then photography found him again. He took the
plunge. Left his career and has been living his chosen life as an art
photographer.
“If my photography needs a
category, in a general term it would be travel photography and the use of
available light techniques. Not the usual ‘beautiful and bright images’ of
exotic destinations. Instead, I focus on the social aspects of the
destination and its people. Mixing documentary photography with abstract
to create an image. For me, the challenge is to capture all my emotions
and imagination, putting them onto a two-dimension piece of paper that
could speak without speech. Although I work with digital nowadays, my
favourite medium remains the traditional manual camera loaded with a roll
of black and white film.”
In between his art exhibitions,
organising photography workshops in Brussels and taking on the photography
assignments that come along, he travels searching out places and images
that call out to him to be photographed. His other interests include
music, writing, hanging out at pubs, scuba diving, karate and
daydreaming.
p.s.>>> Although he is
Chinese, contrary to the misguided stereotyping of immigrants, he does not
own or work in a Chinese restaurant :-)
He is
a good cook though..!
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