Shooting long-distance family portraits via Skype
A Singaporean visual artist based in New York uses projected Skype video and creative photography to virtually reunite families -- like his own -- who are separated by distance.
Thanks to some tech wizardry, N.Y. photographer John Clang is able to pose with his younger brother, Joe Ang, who lives in Singapore.
(Credit: John Clang)John Clang lives in New York, thousands of miles from his Singaporean family. But that hasn't stopped him from posing in family portraits. He hasn't even needed a plane ticket.
Using a Webcam, the photographer and visual artist made live recordings of his family, transmitted them via Skype, and projected them onto a wall of his New York apartment. He then jumped into the frame, and his wife, Elin Tew, photographed him next to his telepresent family for a modern take on the traditional family portrait.
After trying his new long-distance portraiture method on his own family, Clang traveled from New York to Paris, London, Hong Kong, and other locales to create long-distance portraits of similarly scattered families. "Being Together," the resulting series, "documents and examines our condition of new-wave diaspora -- Singaporean families of various races and ethnicities grappling with the same predicament of separation through time and space," Clang says in an artist's statement.
Clang -- a successful commercial photographer who has shot for clients including AT&T, Boost Mobile, IBM, eBay, and Nokia -- often focuses his personal work on family-related themes such as memory, identity, and the longing of a son living overseas. The complete "Being Together" series of 40 images will be exhibited at Clang's solo show at the National Museum of Singapore in early 2013.
