What are your memories with regards to photography? And what drives you today to photograph.
Ralph Steinegger (RS): Photography has been a constant companion since my late teens, gradually gaining in importance in my life. When I moved to Beijing in 2004, I bought a second hand film camera and a motorbike and started to drive around the city to document its transformation in the run-up to the Olympic Games. It was a tremendously exciting time to be in China, with the country opening up to the outside world, and prompted me to become more systematic and focused in my approach to photography. What interests me most as a subject matter are the fast growing mega cities in the developing world. The result of which can be seen on my website, where I recently published a number of new series, exploring the urban environment in Southeast Asia and elsewhere.
© Ralph Steinegger from the series 'Where the city ends and the sand starts', 2017
© Ralph Steinegger from the series 'The Islamic Republic', 2017
You are originally from Switzerland. Where have you grown up? Is there a place that you gladly remember?
RS: I grew up in a village near Zurich. As a boy, I started drawing maps of the world and of future travels to faraway places. Switzerland seemed so small and the world so full of adventures. This urge to discover never really left me and to a certain extent defines me, also in my approach to photography. But after many years of working and traveling on different continents, I still consider Zurich my home. It is where family and many of my friends are.
35 mm or medium format, you still prefer the analogue medium. Tell us about this choice and how it influences your photographic procedure.
RS: To be honest, it is quite simple. I started out shooting film and never really saw the need to change to digital. Film is what I am most comfortable with. I want my mind to entirely concentrate on my surroundings and not to be distracted by a screen or other digital features. I like this sense of wonder and excitement in the days or weeks before I decide to develop the rolls. Often before drifting into sleep, I revisit certain locations and imagine how the images will turn out.
© Ralph Steinegger from the series 'B-side of things', 2004 - ongoing
We initially met thanks to your Istanbul photographs. I remember being attracted by their rough immediacy but also by a particular lyric, made up of colours, small suggestive details, and a latent but always present humanity. Tell us about your impressions of then on this city?
RS: I always felt that Istanbul is a very dramatic city, in every sense. It is made up of hundreds of hills, imposing bridges, historic buildings, and most importantly the Bosporus strait, separating and uniting the city at the same time. It can feel vibrant, chic, alternative, leftist, and intellectual, but also conservative and run down in other areas. During the four years I called Istanbul home, the atmosphere could not have changed more. From optimism and hope, the atmosphere among the liberal-minded middle class slowly descended into anguish and apathy, for known reasons. What probably left the biggest impression on me, where the Gezi Park protests a few months after my arrival in Istanbul. Hundreds of thousands of young Turks celebrating a different vision of Turkey, with concerts and happenings on Taksim Square. It felt like a mix of 1968 and Woodstock. The movement did not prevail and left many activists disillusioned. I departed from Istanbul on the night before the military coup.
© Ralph Steinegger from the series 'The City With Many Names', 2012-2016
This series of yours has also become a book published by Urbanautica: 'The City With Many Names'. As if your project at the bottom shows another city, a city more hidden and destined to transform quickly. What does this city represent for you?
RS: Istanbul is a city with a rich and multi-layered history. It was the seat of many great empires, all leaving their traces. Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk speaks of an Istanbul where remains of a glorious past are everywhere visible. But after some time, I realized there is yet another Istanbul, invisible even to many Turks. One of make-shift neighbourhoods, where the waves of internal migrants from the Anatolian hinterland end up when looking for work in the city (Istanbul grew from 2.5 to 15 million in the last 40 years!). A rough place with cheap and hastily constructed housing, battered cars, dissident graffiti and uncollected garbage. It is as if another layer has been added to the city, one which will never be remembered, nor enter the collective history of the city. The contrast with the historic center is quite striking and the transitory nature of those neighbourhoods was of great fascination to me.
© Image of the book 'The City With Many Names' by Ralph Steinegger. Published by Urbanautica Institute, 2018
© Image of the book 'The City With Many Names' by Ralph Steinegger. Published by Urbanautica Institute, 2018
© Image of the book 'The City With Many Names' by Ralph Steinegger. Published by Urbanautica Institute, 2018
© Image of the book 'The City With Many Names' by Ralph Steinegger. Published by Urbanautica Institute, 2018
© Image of the book 'The City With Many Names' by Ralph Steinegger. Published by Urbanautica Institute, 2018
You now live in Singapore. A very unique reality. A sort of city state. Tell us about your impressions of this place. What strikes you most, both for good or for bad.
RS: Singapore is a tightly controlled society that has managed to reach an impressive standard of living since becoming independent. In many ways, the government is doing excellent long-term planning and looks out for the well-being of its citizens, which is a prized quality if we look at the state of many other countries. It is slowly moving towards more pluralism, but social control and a number or rules can make the atmosphere feel somewhat constricted, at least on certain issues. Singapore is a very comfortable but also predictable place to live in, which can be a good and a bad thing at the same time.
© Ralph Steinegger from the series 'The Air-Conditioned Nation', 2016 - ongoing
© Ralph Steinegger from the series 'The Air-Conditioned Nation', 2016 - ongoing
© Ralph Steinegger from the series 'The Air-Conditioned Nation', 2016 - ongoing
You have recently made a series of photographs depicting the introduction of bike sharing in Singapore. Were you able to document an anarchist escape in a city where everything seems to work wonders?
RS: Indeed, it was interesting to observe people's behaviour when dockless bike sharing was introduced in Singapore. Bikes were discarded in all sorts of places and every position imaginable. They could be seen on empty fields, in ditches beside major roads, or at the entrance of solitary jungle tracks. Over the course of a few months, Singapore took on aspects of anarchic abandonment. Massive public debates ensued and soon enough the government stepped in to regulate what was hitherto unregulated. The topic made me reflect on human nature and how people behave when there are no specific rules imposed by society, especially in one as tightly regulated as Singapore. It also made me wonder about the men and women who left their bike in a particular location; their passion, hopes, fears. I started to create stories and included them in the captions that come with the images.
© Ralph Steinegger from the series 'Aspect of Abandonment', 2018
© Ralph Steinegger from the series 'Aspect of Abandonment', 2018
© Ralph Steinegger from the series 'Aspect of Abandonment', 2018
Among your projects the series 'Dis-Orderly' is undoubtedly among the most complex and substantial. A journey through the aesthetic chaos of the Southeast Asia. A journey still in progress that crosses different cities. A document that offers different readings also from an urban sociology perspective. What strikes you and attracts you about the urban dimension in general?
RS: I continue to be amazed by our adaptability as a species and the environment we choose to inhabit. Most major cities Southeast Asia are not necessarily pleasant places to live in. But human beings have this capability of adapting to the most adverse conditions and creating a space where we feel comfortable. To look out for those small signs of humanity in midst the urban chaos, is something I enjoy. What I find also attractive about the urban dimension in Southeast Asia is the concentration of life, contradictions, the irresistible mix of growth and decay, fading colours, and things slightly out of place. I guess this has to do with me growing up in the relative blandness of Swiss suburbia, where everything is well maintained and usually in its proper place.
© Ralph Steinegger from the series '(Dis)Orderly / Southeast Asia', Jakarta, 2017
© Ralph Steinegger from the series '(Dis)Orderly / Southeast Asia', Phnom Penh, 2017
© Ralph Steinegger from the series '(Dis)Orderly / Southeast Asia', Kuala Lumpur, 2016
What is your photographic approach when you approach a city for the first time?
RS: I do quite a bit of online research about the locations I want to shoot. I look out for areas undergoing transformation, interesting architecture, or a neighbourhood that has seen better times. I would then create a map with points of interest. What is also important for me is to understand the background of a city and country I am visiting for the first time. I like to read books on fiction and history and then try to connect what I have read with my impressions on the ground and write them down. But my research serves more as a reference point. Most often, the interesting images are taken in unexpected places. I let myself be inspired by my surroundings and follow my intuition. Photography to me is very much connected to discovery. As already mentioned, I am interested in maps and at one time in my life almost became a cartographer. I like to think that maybe I am unconsciously trying to create a map of the world by photographic means.
You have recently featured a series of images focusing on your return to Sri Lanka. What were your impressions after more than 15 years?
RS: Sri Lanka changed quite a lot since the early 2000's. Back then, the country was in plain conflict with the Tamil Tigers. Its capital Colombo was a sleepy backwater and, frankly speaking, quite boring. Although politically divided, Sri Lanka in 2018 is a much revitalized place and is enjoying a peace dividend of some sorts. Colombo is bustling with new restaurants/bars and is undergoing a massive transformation due to the influx of Chinese and Indian money. On a more personal level, the journey back to Sri Lanka also made me realize how faulty and fragmented one's own memory can be, especially after a long period of time. Often I felt as If I am experiencing something completely new, when suddenly I realized that in fact I had been standing in front of that particular building or street corner years ago. I would remember small details, when everything else around was a blurry fog.
© Ralph Steinegger from the series 'Return to Sri Lanka', 2018
© Ralph Steinegger from the series 'Return to Sri Lanka', 2018
© Ralph Steinegger from the series 'Return to Sri Lanka', 2018
Generally speaking Ralph, your photographic work is a precious documentary on urban transformations, always permeated with a subtle irony and complacency. Nonetheless, it offers us an opportunity to reflect on the phenomenon of world urbanism, with a special focus on Southeast Asia. There has been a great debate for decades on sustainability, on the fact that megalopolis also drains human resources from the countryside, and devastates long-lasting environmental and social balances. What is your thinking on the merits. How to read in perspective the development of this region and of this giant urban reality.
RS: Clearly, the increasing rate of urbanization in Southeast Asia does create a huge challenge for the region. Metropolitan areas like Jakarta, Bangkok, or Manila, face many common problems such as a lack of public transport options, congestion, inequality, and serious environmental issues. In the past, urbanization went hand in hand with economic development. I wonder, however, if this pattern is continuing or if we enter a phase of urbanization without growth. It is obvious to me that urban planning has to improve and reactive policies are not enough to tackle the problems of population growth and climate change.
© Ralph Steinegger from the series '(Dis)Orderly / Southeast Asia', Manila, 2017
© Ralph Steinegger from the series '(Dis)Orderly / Southeast Asia', Manila, 2017
© Ralph Steinegger from the series '(Dis)Orderly / Southeast Asia', Manila, 2017
Finally, do you have any reading to suggest?
RS: I am an enthusiastic reader and collector of photo books, so I am glad you ask. In recent months, I particularly enjoyed "South of the Ten" by Mike Murphy, who is documenting the streets of LA with an iPhone attached to the window of his car. "Minor Collisions" by David Wilson, who shows us another side of London, one that always seems to happen somewhere else. "Provisional Arrangement" by Martin Kollar, who captures the disintegration of the permanent towards the temporary and provisional. "Atlas of Forms" by Eric Tabuchi, who presents us a book on the built environment, in which all forms, whether trivial or sacred, humble or noble, coexist on equal term.
---
share this page