hong-an tran

the half-past polaroids.

1 Apr 2013

matt 1

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I’m working on a project of sorts — the Half-Past Project, as it’s currently being called — and yesterday, inbetween folks sitting for me + the Hasselblad at Marshall Stack, we snapped some Polaroids using the close-up extension tube that you can add to the Hassie to turn your 80mm lens into something a bit more macro. Between the slowness of the color film (iso 100) and the creeping darkness of a grey, late afternoon when we used the 3200-speed instant film, the bar looks far murkier and shadowier than it actually was — there are grand windows to the right of everyone here, streaming in lovely light (even lovelier when it’s actually sunny out!).

The actual Half-Past photos should be up tomorrow or Wednesday; until then, I hope you enjoy these shots.

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Also: don’t try to pull out more than one Polaroid at a time. Polaroid gods will get very, very angry.

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folks (and food), recently.

28 Mar 2013

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I had the opportunity to hang out with such a wonderfully varied group of folks over the last week, some usual suspects (Hi Shannon and Mike!), another just visiting from out of town (Hi Stephanie!), one I haven’t seen in a while (Hi Chris!), one I don’t see nearly enough (Hi Brendan! Let’s have drinks some time soon!) and some of the regulars at my other local, very kindly posing for me as I barked orders (Hi Richie and Matt! Don’t look at me! Don’t smile!).

There was also an incredible meal at Mighty Quinn’s BBQ in the East Village. YOU MUST GO. ORDER THE PULLED PORK OH MY GOD. ALSO BRONTOSAURUS RIB YES YES. I photographed the pickled chile pepper prep guys while we stood in the cafeteria-style line and waited to order our food; later we stopped in at Il Laboratorio del Gelato to continue the decadence.

The next night, Chris, Mike, and I caught the last night of Planetarium at BAM — it’s the collaboration between Nico Muhly, Sufjan Stevens, and Bryce Dessler, along with a drummer, string quartet, and seven(!) trombones to boot. It was extraordinary, completely catching me off guard. We left in a daze, floored by the show. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since that night.

I love my friends, and sometimes I really do love New York.
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Oh, and this is what happens when you accidentally scan two negatives on top of each other. (New project, maybe?)
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gentlemen.

19 Mar 2013

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A crazy, nutty weekend involving cider, more cider, a Calvados interlude, sleep, more sleep, not enough sleep, and a lot of good folks throughout.
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I also discovered that B&H is selling 120 film loaded onto 620 film spools, which means that if you’ve got a thrift-shop-purchased Kodak Brownie Hawkeye or some such toy camera sitting on your bookshelf collecting dust, you could ostensibly take it out for a spin with this re-spooled film (at $13/roll, it’s not cheap!). I loaded my old Hawkeye with some slide film, which I had the lab cross-process in regular C-41 color negative developer. The results? Eh. But at least we had some fun with it. To wit — me and the Leica taking a photo of Illt and the Hawkeye taking a photo of me:
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digging in.

15 Mar 2013

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If you take a look through my food on film set on Flickr, you’ll see a lot — A LOT — of photos of food in which, in the background, there are arms and hands waiting very patiently for me to take the goddamn photo already Hurry up!. Then there are a handful of shots like these, the anomalies, where either my dining companion says f*ck it I am STARVING and they dig in, or the person in question looks at me quizzically, as if to say Seriously? You’re going to take a photo of me eating this? And I smile ~~awkwardly~~ charmingly and snap away.

This is as close to an action shot as I probably get. And thanks, everyone, for being half-patient with me.

Above:

Below:

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Or sometimes you just go for it, camera be damned: Asad | Nolita.
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double shot monday: pittsburgh + tokyo.

11 Mar 2013

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Normally a single shot Monday sort of post, but I thought I’d give you two: the first photo I took in Pittsburgh in January with the Hasselblad, and the last color photo I took with the same Hasselblad in Tokyo in mid-February. I went nearish and pretty farish, and feel like my sanity has finally been restored. It’s a pretty stellar feeling. And so much good company and sights and eats, too!, both nearish and pretty farish.

I wonder where I’ll go next. Can’t wait.
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here is a hot sandwich!

7 Mar 2013

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Ok, so I’m totally going to mangle this story, but: years ago, back in college, friends of mine had what I think we’ll call a collective crush on a fellow first year student. And one of my friends had studied Russian in high school, and somehow, unbeknownst to her, the collective crush object got the nickname вот горячий бутерброд: Here is a hot sandwich. No, I’m not joking (though I think maybe she also had a shorter, slightly more manageable nickname? Or maybe they just said вот горячий бутерброд! whenever she walked by. Again, possibly mangling the story). Anyhow, years later, that nickname-slash-declaration still makes me laugh.

This story has nothing to do directly with the photos here, except that here are some additional hot sandwiches, all photographed this past Sunday. (From the top: Kathryn, Justin, Chris, and Kathryn again.) And separately, yours truly, as photographed by K.
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saturday at the college bar.

6 Mar 2013

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Moral of the story: if you make plans to meet in front of 169 Bar*, chances are that you’ll end up inside 169 Bar. And if you’ve made plans to meet in front of 169 Bar in order to walk from there to parts unknown to take some photos, but instead you find yourself inside 169 Bar, chances are that all photos henceforth will be taken within a 20 foot radius of the front door of the bar.

[ * More than one person to whom I’d mentioned that I’d been at 169 Bar — a bar I had, prior to Saturday, been to only once, back in 2006; in fact, nearly everyone I know has been there only once, at some distant point back in the aughts — said to me, incredulously, You went to the college bar?! And there you have it: the title of this post.]
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Two hours later, it had basically devolved into this. (Note — the photo below is the only one, of some 10 or so shots, that is even remotely in focus, partly because I couldn’t stop laughing and partly because everyone else couldn’t stand still. College bar!)
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tokyo portfolio.

26 Feb 2013

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Just a bit of housekeeping: if you’d like to see a slideshow of my favorite Hasselblad shots from my week in Tokyo & Hakone, please do check out this link to my portfolio. There are a handful of shots (including the one above, of a canal running through Ebisu, Tokyo) that I didn’t get a chance to blog about here.

[FYI: Over in the portfolio, you can click on the photos in the slideshow to advance to the next pic; how handy!]
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tokyo, quietly.

25 Feb 2013

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Before I left for Japan, everyone had warned me that someone as crowd-averse as I am (yes, yes, despite living in NYC) might find Tokyo a bit …. much. And sure, there are spots where the hustle and bustle of commuters, tourists, and just general people-ness is indeed overwhelming. But by and large, like any other big city, Tokyo is full of quietness too, what with all the crazy little alleyways and charming little storefronts, and what appears to be a national obsession with potted plants. The Hasselblad was able to capture some of the epicness of the place; the Leica, on the other hand, was able to take in, a bit more discreetly, the smaller moments. Here are some of my favorites.
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Above: Potted plants! Below: One cabbie offered free candy. (And yes, all the cabs in Tokyo have doily seat covers. For reals.)

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Safety-helmetted children running through Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens:

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Also part of the quietness: when you’ve got jetlag, you become much more familiar with dawn. The combination of very faint blue tones, stillness, and silence are really quite something else.

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So many great little streets and alleyways to wander around (and almost inevitably get lost in).

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. . . . . . . . . .

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Lest anyone have the impression that I failed to eat on this trip, let me assure you: I have never eaten so well in my life. Not an overstatement, my friends. Maybe even somehow something of an understatement. Most of the meals weren’t documented on film — neither my Nikon FE or Pentax Spotmatic, with their food-closeup-capable 50mm lenses, made the trip — but I did manage to capture a few meals on the Leica.
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On Wednesday night, we went to Amoroso, a great (well, quite tiny) place run entirely by one guy, chef Maeda-san. Seriously, it’s an 11-seater counter space and he alone preps, plates, and presents all of his Japanese-inflected Italian dishes, with exceptional wine pairings (he started out as a sommelier). He’s amazing, and the food is spectacular.
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On my last full day in town, friends had recommended that I go to Butagumi, a tonkatsu place specializing only in pork tonkatsu. That’s right: all sorts of differently-raised pigs, from all over the world. Their menu details some 20-odd possible kinds of pork (like Mangalitsa, something I think called the Super Tokyo, and many, many others) , and in pencil someone checks off which of the types of pork are available on that day. Seeing as how it was my last day and all, I splurged (also not an understatement) and got the Iberico pork tonkatsu lunch. It was fantastic: rich, juicy, with a great crispy outer shell of deep fried panko crumbs. Ridiculously good.
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What with Tokyo being full of these narrow alleyways and often no street names to speak of, it’s often difficult to know for sure if you’re headed in the right direction. Butagumi has a great crescent-shaped window on the second floor, so as you approach the building and see the signature crescent moon, you know you’re where you ought to be. You might even luck out, as I did, and get the table by the window:

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So, yeah: Tokyo — full of people, and also full of little moments, all differently and fully savored. I loved every minute of it.
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hakone.

24 Feb 2013

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During my trip to Japan, Dom had hatched a plan to spend a day in Hakone, a region southwest of Tokyo where, via a series of trains, trams, and gondolas, we’d be able to get high up into the mountains and get a great view of Mt. Fuji. I’d read in guidebooks that spending a couple of days in the area was optimal; my friend Andy had recommended the three-day pass — you can’t’t miss the pirate ship!, he told me. Dom and I: we were going to do it in a day.

We didn’t.

By the time we got halfway up the mountain, we realized that we weren’t going to make it back in time to catch our train to Tokyo. So instead we wandered around the Hakone Open Air Musuem (which has some 20-odd Henry Moore sculptures in its collection, if you’re like Dom and you fancy Moore’s work) and had some nice soba for lunch. Later we putzed around Hakone proper, ran into a cat, split a beer in a wee cafe, and caught our train back to the city. Not exactly what we’d planned, but a great day all the same — it was nice to squeeze in some non-Tokyo time.

Oh, and on the train ride back, as the sun was setting, Mt. Fuji made an appearance after all, peeking through outside the window across the aisle from us, against a gloriously purple sky that I didn’t get a chance to capture on film, so perhaps we’ll just count it as a circuitously successful day in the end.
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