“One night, a beam of moonlight suddenly hit the tent, and I was so surprised that I quickly went out to check,” recounts photographer Thomas Chu to the Phoblographer about one of the most dream nights of his photography career. “After the storm, the clouds cleared and the distant giant peaks and rock walls were all covered in white snow, shining brightly under the moonlight, as if the gods had descended upon humanity…At this moment, an even more explosive scene appeared; the aurora began to dance and erupt in the sky.” So he hurried to get himself together to photograph the moment.
All images by Thomas Chu. Used with permission. For more, please check out his website and Instagram page @thomaschuphoto. Thomas is one of the newest Hasselblad Masters.
Weiman “Thomas” Chu was first bedazzled by the glimmering pearl that is photography when studying computer science at University in Singapore. He joined the photography club and thoroughly enjoyed how they all went outdoors to shoot images. But he soon found his routine life pretty dull — and in 2015 he started to find a way to develop photography as a side job. Two years later, he leaped into his photography career face-first.
Since then, photography has become his daily praxis. “Recently, I started to use Hasselblad X2D 100 medium format camera and 25V lens in my project,” he tells the Phoblographer.” However, he lives a polycamorous and uses the Sony a7r IV along with a 16-35mm f2.8 and 24-70mm f2.8 G Master.
I always believe that to take good photos, it’s not about the equipment or techniques, but about maintaining an open and curious mind, constantly exploring the larger world, constantly trying different lives, constantly thinking and observing the people around us . When I constantly explore and discover, and use photography as a way of expression, it is natural for me to maintain endless enthusiasm.
Weiman “Thomas” Chu
Part of Weiman’s award for being a Hasselblad Master in the Landscape category is his project about viewing the world from trains. Previously, he was all about photographing scenery as is. But because of the challenges that AI provides in easily making these images, he started to add human elements to the salad bowl. “If a photo is related to humans, connected to the times, and has the opportunity to become a part of history, then it will be difficult for AI to replace it,” he reasons. To that end, he does very little post-production.
However, he admits that the majority of the images he made for this series are photo composites — but are still truthful to being on the same train line. He states that it was because of how difficult it was to do the series. “To simultaneously record both the inside and outside of the window, the huge light contrast poses a huge challenge to the camera,” he states. “From the interior within half a meter of the window to the distant scenery more than ten kilometers outside, it also poses a huge challenge to the depth of field of the lens. The thorny issue of train window reflection and how to predict the next scene outside the window (making the scenes inside and outside the train having visual or meaningful connections) are also very challenging.” Because of this, he made the images into composites — which he hopes people enjoy even 1,000 years from now.
Authenticity Statement about Thomas Chu
As part of the Content Authenticity Initiative, The Phoblographer works with human photographers to verify that they’ve actually created their work through shoots. These are done by providing us assets such as BTS captures, screenshots of post-production, extra photos from the shoot, etc. We do this to help our readers realize that this is authentically human work. Here’s what this photographer provided for us.
