Diaspora Diaries: Jeff Hahn

Don't be fooled by the baby face. Photographer Jeff Hahn is building a reputation in London, writes P.Ramakrishnan.

Photographer Jeff Hahn's impressive CV belies his youth. At 21, Hahn sometimes finds it hard to be taken seriously as a photographer, especially in a city such as London, which is teeming with talent. Recently, when turning in a shoot of a chief executive for a magazine, the managing editor mistook him for the delivery boy. But Hahn's work has appeared in leading luxury and lifestyle magazines in Asia, including The Peninsula magazine, Maison Mode, Kee, Esquire and WestEast, and he's been hired for corporate photoshoots.

In the past two years he's been published in Britain and had an exhibition on London's fashionable Brick Lane. He's being profiled by cult magazines Idol and i-D, and is preparing for upcoming exhibitions in New York, London and Hong Kong.

"I got into photography when I was about 13," he says. "My brother had one of those amazing and, in retrospect, awful, two-megapixel chunky digital cameras and I used to play around with it. Shortly after that I discovered Lomography which, aside from being a company with ingenious ideas for new cameras, was also more of a concept and a way of photographing. It's all about capturing the moment and not thinking technically."

Hahn's signature look - his eye for finding the aesthetic in the mundane, often saturating images with a 1970s-style hue - was formed as much by default as by deliberation.

"I explored light leaks, blurry pictures and photographing the banal," he says. "It was probably the most liberating entry into such a massive world. I think when I took my first picture, my eyes opened for the first time and, instead of looking, I was finally seeing."

Born in Switzerland to a Swiss father and Chinese mother, Hahn was raised in Taiwan, New Zealand and Hong Kong, but he now lives and works in London. As much as he likes the challenges of working in the British capital, he still has a taste for Hong Kong.

Hahn started his career interning at magazines on the well-beaten paths of Sheung Wan. He was 16 and didn't get paid, but was glad for the opportunity.

"I found working in Hong Kong much easier than in London, probably because it's a smaller city and the media community is so tight-knit," he says. "Everyone's supportive and they all love to work with new people. It's a completely different story in London.

"Life isn't always great [in London]," he says. "You don't often feel safe; sometimes it makes you want to give up but it's real and I love it for that. The amount that I've grown and the things I've learned, I probably would never have experienced had I stayed in Hong Kong."

Hahn has a multitude of cameras, ranging from "my faithful Canon 30D, to the medium-format beast that is the Mamiya RB67, to disposable cameras. I think my collection amounts to about 20 that I use.

"My first show in London was called Boy BANG Boy. Curated by artists Stuart Sandford and Sichi, it aimed to celebrate the image of the boy. I was one of eight artists and I did a series of self-portraits based along the lines of narcissism and voyeurism. The feedback was great, more than 2,000 people showed up and i-D published a piece on its website featuring my work."

His star appears to be rising: this year, his work will be displayed in some prestigious London galleries. Hahn's next body of work will involve "challenging the way society views you, with regards to how you present yourself", he says. "It's still in the early stages so no details yet but it's moving in almost a complete opposite direction to the previous show.

"I see myself staying in London for another couple of years," he says. "But I want to give something back to Hong Kong and be part of a bigger movement to push the creative scene."





Post script:

Jeff's talent annoys me. How dare he be so young and gifted. The hard knocks of life have not hit him... yet. muahahahha.