Central Market KL

As mentioned before I met Victor C. P. Tan first in Penang. His shop in Chulia Road was called 'Pen Antique' and I first thought, it would be a pen shop. I collected fountain pens in that time and was happy to find quickly an appropriate shop. The P. in Victor's name means Pen, therefore 'Pen Antique'. 

Very soon I found out the real kind of the shop and very fast Victor and I became friends. I spent a lot of my leisure time in his shop and I learned a lot from him.

Victor's shop in Chulia Road, Penang. The photo is from March 2002 and the bicycle is mine, a Malaysian 'Rolex'.

Victor is a keen musician too.

Victor's new shop in the Central Market.

The Central Market, built in 1888 by the British, has got many expansions since that time and should have been demolished in the 1970s. The intervention of the Malaysian Heritage Society proved timely as they successfully petitioned against its deconstruction and the site was declared as a 'Heritage Site'. Now the two-storey Central Market is surrounded by many small shops and has since 2006 an Annexe, which houses art galleries, theatre and music performance spaces.  

Outside shops along the Central Market.

One of the many restaurants in the Central Market, great Baba Nonja food.

Further reading and sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Market,_Kuala_Lumpur

http://www.centralmarket.com.my/

Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 520/16

For a colleague with first name 'Franka' I provided a nice 'Franka Rolfix' folding camera from the 1950s and a fitting 120 roll-film. She wants to learn to use the old film foto technique. This reminded me that in my teen years I used for some time a 6x9 cm roll-film camera, most probably a Zeiss Ikon of the 1930s. The photos shot with that folding camera were from very good quality, at least in my memory. 

As folding cameras are well available in numbers and even in good condition not expensive, I thought about giving that old fashioned and quite reduced camera concept a try for me too. My only selection criteria were Zeiss Ikon and 6x6, because I like the square format more and more. 

Quickly I found a Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 520/16 with original leather cover and cable release in - as it seemed - perfect over-all condition. The 520/16 has been manufactured between 1937 and 1939 and was available with three different shutters and lenses. Mine is equipped with a Compur Rapid shutter and the famous and fast Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 1:3.5 f = 7.5 cm lens. This version was in 1937 the most expensive one. As my Tessar is still uncoated, I think my Ikonta is an early one.

The Ikonta 520 series were available as 520 (4.5x6 cm), 520/2 (6x9 cm), 520/14 (5x7.5 cm), 520/15 (6.5x11 cm), 520/16 (6x6 cm) and 520/18 (3x4 cm). That means my teen years version was most probably a 520/2. 

Roll-films are still available, I bought an inexpensive Fomapan 200 for a first test. Strange feeling to load a roll-film in such a camera after some fourty years. Seeking the film numbers through the little red window on the back of the camera - nostalgia! 

Handling of the little Ikonta is quite back to the routes. No range finder, the view finder on top is only for framing, focussing is done by estimate. Of course no light metering, but by some of my other cameras I am familiar to use a hand-held light meter.  

The quality of the first shots is surprisingly good. Most of the frames are sharp and well exposed. I used different exposure times, so I think the shutter is still in good condition. The visual perfect condition of the camera is not only on the surface, the mechanics work still perfectly too. The optical quality of the Tessar I never doubted.  

Advertising sheet for the Ikonta 520/16, dated 6.1937. 

 

All the testshots are uncropped and only slightly increased in contrast.

Further reading: http://www.pacificrimcamera.com/pp/zeiss/ikonta/ikonta.htm

World Cruise 1932

Found recently four photos showing Seoul scenes from a World Cruise with the 'Resolute' World Steamer in 1932. All photos are out of an album, remains of the album pages are still on their back. All are 128 mm in length and 102 mm in width (including frame), in good condition and shot by a young American Ms. Mary Smith. As they are considerable sharp, I assume they are taken with an at least medium format camera and a wide angle lens. I wonder which camera that could have been in 1932? The scans are not as sharp as the originals, although scanned with 600 dpi, the maximum resolution of my scanner here.

Some information about the 'Resolute' and the world cruise 1932, which I found on the internet:

"The Resolute was built by AG Weser, Bremen in 1914 for the Hamburg America Line. There was accommodation for 290 1st, 320 2nd, and 400 3rd class passengers. She was renamed Brabantia and from 1920 was used in the South American service. She was resold in 1922 to the United Americana line, renamed Resolute and in November of 1922 began sailing between Hamburg, Southampton, Cherbourg and New York. In 1926 she was sold to Hamburg America Line, and in 1931 began to carry 1st class and tourist class only. In 1933 she was used only for cruising, before being sold to the Italian government in 1935 ... and renamed the Lombardia. She became a troopship for the Abyssinian War and was bombed and sunk by allied planes in Naples in 1943. In 1947 she was scrapped at Spezia." 1)

Advertisment from 'Country Life' 1931, a British magazine, founded in 1897 and still existing

Miss Mary Smith "was born to a wealthy New York family, and the gift her father gave her was a cruise ticket to travel around the world." Most of her album with the photographs of her cruise is still preserved. 2)

When I see pictures of this mighty steamship, I doubt the 'yacht-like design', but probably the word yacht had a different meaning in this time.

In 1932 Korea was already 22 years under Japanese government, the Japanese had a strict policy to 'japanize' the country. Japanese language, writing, Japanese family names and state Shinto, the Japanese religion became mandatory. Korea suffered till 1945 under the severe Japanese control. 

Korea was established as the Kingdom of Chosen in the Japanese area, Seoul was named Keijo.

The South door, Namdaemun gate, under the Japanese named Nandaimon gate, one of the four main doors of Seoul, still existing

Street scene, all writings in Japanese

Amazing street scene in two levels, the shop is a tabaco store

Detail from above

Stairs to the Chosen jingu at the Nansam Hill

Detail from above

The Chosen jingu, Chosen shrine was erected in 1925 and was dedicated to the goddess of the sun and the world, Amaterasu and to the Japanese Emperor Meiji, who is thought to be her direct successor. The shrine was located at Hanyang park, the western ridge of the Nansam park. Under 1140 Shinto shrines (by 1945) in Korea it became the biggest and the most important. For the Korean people it became an abhorrent symbol of suppression.

"From 1925, school pupils were required to attend Shinto shrines, and in 1935 it became compulsory for university students and government employees to attend Shinto ceremonies." 3) On the many steps to the Chosen jingu the Seoul citizen had to bow to any of the small shrines on the long way, even Christian Korean were constrained to do so.

The Korean hatred toward this Shinto shrine was so strong, that after Korea became indipended, already in the first month after this Japanese sanctuary was destroyed completely. At the area of the main temple, a 'Patriot An Chung-gun Memorial Hall' was erected in 1970. An Chung-gun, a Korean independence-activist shot dead Ito Hirobumi in 1909. Ito Hirobumi was a Japanese statesman, general and the mastermind of the annexion of Korea.

On one of the coming weekends I want to explore that area, if there are any remains of the Chosen jingu. All my colleagues which I asked, did not even know the name of the shrine, this badge of shame is out of the heads of modern Korean people.

Undated Japanese postcard, the long stairway to the Chosen jingu

Undated Japanese postcard, on top of the stairs

1) http://cashonandcompany.blogspot.kr/2009/11/resolute.html

2) Thanks to the Rangefinder Forum finding this: http://www.chinasmack.com/2009/pictures/photos-1932-hong-kong-shanghai-beijing-asia.html

3) Wikipedia, keyword 'Chosen jingu'



Other sources:

http://blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=ohyh45&logNo=20104071527&categoryNo=101&viewDate=&currentPage=1&listtype=0

http://populargusts.blogspot.kr/2012/09/namsan-of-vanished-history-and.html

 

Seoul old railway station - art exhibition

Der alte Bahnhof neben der neuen modernen KTX Station wurde durch die Japaner errichtet und eröffnete im November 1925. Der erste Name des Bahnhofes war Keijo (Gyeongseong) Station. Im Jahre 1981 wurde er als historisches Gebäude definiert und im August 2011 als 'Culture Seoul Station 284' wiedereröffnet. Seitdem finden hier wechselnde Kunst-Ausstellungen und Events statt.

Eine solche Ausstellung konnte ich am Freitag endlich besuchen, die unglaubliche Lautsprecher-Front in der Eingangshalle war mir schon lange aufgefallen, aber arbeitsbedingt war es bisher kaum möglich. Mehrere Räume mit Licht- und Klangistallationen wechseln mit statischer Kunst ab, eine spannende Exhibition, die auch die teilweise recht prunkvoll gestalteten Räume des alten Bahnhofes erleben läßt.