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agenda > Hobbies
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Too many business consultants’ sites seem to tell us about their
professional qualifications. This is the 21st century and people can’t
be so one-dimensional any more. Chill. Have fun! Most importantly, be
you.
Typeface design
I started in business as a proofreader and calligrapher, branching on
to typeface design. You can see more of my work at JY&A
Fonts, the leading type brand in the southern hemisphere. The graphical
fonts at this site are from the same company: they include ones I worked
on with Slovenian designer Jure Stojan.
Singing
I don’t mean karaoke (which I’ve never tried) but I had
the good fortune to have performed once with Jazz Dive during Wellington
restaurant Bouquet Garni’s celebration of its building’s centenary, with the Gabor Trio at a friend’s wedding in Nelson, and with the U Turn boys at the Dao, in downtown Papeete.
Sorry, no sound samples.
Automobiles
Anyone who knows me knows my love of automobiles, from the museums I visit
in Europe to the cars I drive. Though I had an inauspicious start to motoring,
in a HC Vauxhall Viva on rural roads. The first car I got behind the wheel
of was a four-door Mk I Civic when I was around two (the car ignition
was off and the car was stationary). But since then I’ve tackled
everything from a new Mustang to a Peugeot 106 GTI, on three continents.
I imagine if I didn’t have this job, which I love,
I would be a motoring journalist. There probably isn’t a current
model I don’t know something about, and you can count the Subaru-based
Yunque out of Red China and the South African Volkswagen Polo Playa. Thankfully,
I wear clothes a lot better than Jeremy Clarkson, and my hair is better
than Jeff Daniels’. Of published car nuts, probably only L. J. K.
Setright had more degrees.
So in 2004 I had to have my own motoring column in Lucire’s
print edition—I am the boss, after all …
Whanau
When I say related links, I mean related: Martin
Yan, the chef, is a very distant relative. Leslie Charteris, born
Leslie Bowyer-Yin, author of the Saint
books, claims imperial heritage, as I do, though my genealogy suggests
we’re pre-dynastical “royalty”. And I can cook and write,
so there must be something in it.
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Photography
I use a 47-year-old Voigtländer Bessamatic Color-Skopar 35 mm for
my photographic work, some of which has been published. Most of this work
is outdoor, naturally lit—usually my preference—but I have done
very occasional studio work. Voigtländer is a respected brand dating
from 1756 but disappeared in 1972, before a 1997 revival by Ringfoto GmbH
and today, by the Japanese firm Cosina. I haven’t found a camera
that does a better job, which goes to show newer doesn’t necessarily
mean better. Scans, apart from the photographs of Ann Fryer and Jennifer
Springgay below, are done on a Microtek ScanMaker 5700, which I bought
to replace a faithful E3 from the same company that was rendered obsolete
by a computer upgrade. Normally, I shoot on Kodak film, though occasionally
I’ve strayed to Fuji. You can see some of my work in Lucire
and in the top right-hand corners of the pages on this site. There’s
no newfangled digital photography here.
Christmas comes early to Galeries
Lafayette in Paris, November 11, 2006, as Brigid and I walked
around the Grands Boulevards. Kodak 200, f5·6, 1/30 sec, using
available light. |
This café caught Brigid’s eye in
Reims, and we returned there the following day. The Café
du Palais has been in the capital of Champagne since 1930, and
we ate there on November 15, 2006, before some anti-war demonstrators
protesters took position across the road the following day. A scenic
café in a city we grew to love. |
Amber Peebles, Miss World New Zealand 2003–4.
Amber is one of the easiest models I have ever worked with: spiritually
aware, smart and beautiful. It’s no wonder our shoot in Auckland
on November 16, 2003 came out so well—see Lucire to check out more pics. |
The leaper mascot on the 1965 Jaguar S-type
at the premises of Classic Jaguar Limousines, Dunedin, New Zealand,
March 3, 2003. Shot without a flash, indoors, at f8, 1/60 sec, on
Kodak Gold 400 film. |
Popped on the ferry from Trelleborg, Sweden
to Berlin, Germany, July 2002. At the fruit markets near Bayreuthstraße.
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Inside the Duomo Arcade, Milano, Italy, July 2002. |
Rutherford Cross Road, Napa Valley, Calif.,
September 2000. See ‘It Will Be Forever’ in Lucire
here.
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My Jack Yan & Associates colleague Jennifer
Springgay—or as I now say, ‘This is Mrs H. She’s gorgeous.
She’s one lady who knows how to take care of herself.’ Photographed
September 28, 2002, at Lyall Bay, Wellington, New Zealand and commissioned
by Jennifer. Less than two months later, I MCed her wedding. Used
with permission. Scanned on a Microtek ScanMaker E3. |
My ’hood in Montmartre, Paris 9e. |
No flash on this: just a very steady hand inside
Tsirco, the jazz restaurant in Montréal, Québec. Victoria
Doyon performs ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ during one show in
September 2003. |
| Ann Fryer, associate publisher of Lucire
in New York, wearing items from Megan Tuffery’s winter 2002 range,
and menswear designer Ehud Joseph, modelling for Lucire in
a shoot at Makara Beach, New Zealand, in March 2002. Click
here for the published shoot. Styled by Sally-ann Moffat. Scanned
and developed by Fuji Image Plaza. |
I don’t know these folks. In fact, I was
photographing something else altogether, in Stockholm, September 7,
2003, a few days before the Anna Lindh assassination not far from
this location. This couple happened to be in shot and it does look
like they’re posing. Some of the best photographs are the unplanned
ones. |
Contrasts in Seoul, Korea, July 2001.
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