From 27 October to 23 November 2017, I had my first solo photography exhibition, title “Haenyeo Singapore” at The Fullerton Hotel Singapore.

Haenyeo means ” Women of the sea ” in Korean and they are located in Jeju Island.

For a first exhibition, I received sponsor support from established companies like Epson.
I do not think I need to introduce Epson, we all know for years about the company and how good they are.

It was a dream for me that I had the opportunity to collaborate with Epson on my fine art work.
For my work, I gave my best to produce the best I can and this can be possible only by using the best equipment in the market so I’m in safe hands.

The Video Teaser of the Photography Exhibition:

This is my first time printing with Epson large format printer? No

No. This is not my first printing experience with Epson.

Back in November 2015, in native area, Rennes, France, I did 30 prints 30cm x 20cm in Ilford matte fine art paper using Epson Printer in a local photography shop (Concept Store Photo Rennes) with the help of my photographer friend Yann Langevin. He had a lot of experience and without him I will probably not have pushed the door at that time. Igot my first experience in printing your images in Fine Art. It turned out very well and I was totally amazed by the process and the output of the pictures. I even did a book to show 20 black and white images and 10 in colour of my prints.

Essentially, I had few more experiences in print in Europe and in Singapore with a local company, AVS Printing Pte Ltd.

For my documentary subject on the Haenyeo, I traveled three times in Jeju Island in May, October 2016 and back in May in 2017. I had a complete photography work and a large number of images about this amazing women which made it tough to make a selection of the images that I will print.

I only require 12 strong images to print and exhibit at at The Fullerton Hotel.
As you can guess that most of them are portraits which is my specialty.

 

Before my first test printing at Epson building, I had a lot of interrogations.

The questions that I was facing were:

• How big can I print my file images?

• What type of paper I can use? The brightness of the paper?

• What mounting options do I have?

• How to hang them?

• The light that will have a influence on the look of my print? How I will manage this?

My first test print was at Epson Singapore Building.

Before I start to print in various media (paper), my contact from Epson explained to me how the Epson large format printer will work and the quality of the print.

For those who doesn’t understand the word media in the print industry, media means the paper or other support-element that we use to print on it.

For more technical info about Epson large format printer: here and about Epson Media: here.

I brought with me more that 12 files because my final selection was still not made.

We printed with various type of media (paper + canvas) with different brightness and texture. We also printed in small size but also in large sizes. This time round, we use the printer Epson SureColor SC-P10070.

When I shared with my contact from Epson, I wanted to do large prints and I was not sure if that would be possible with the current size of my file.

All the pictures were taken with a FUJIFILM XT1 and FUJIFILM X100T, 16.3-megapixel mirror less camera. I wanted my prints to be on giant sizes however if my file size was too small to have a great quality, then I will print in a smaller size.

Lastly, I had a preference for bright white surface rather than natural white.

Finally, my two favourite papers were Epson Signature Worthy Hot Press Bright paper and Epson Velvet Fine Art paper with a option to do the three giant prints on Epson Exhibition Canvas Matte.

 

Canvas?

I am the kind of person who does not prefer canvas at all. In the world of media canvas, there is a lot of varieties and I never gave attention or perhaps I just did not know how fine art canvas can be totally different. My preconceived idea was canvas provides equal bad quality prints and bad looking. My contact from Epson did some sample print and I was utterly surprised with the output of the print. I made a option about the canvas because I was not entirely sure how the images will look like especially when printed on giant media canvas. In addition of that, it is not possible to mount that large size on Dibond display boards especially because the company I work with.

Here for the second part of the article:

From digital pictures to giant fine art prints with Epson Singapore! (part 2)