Timothy Hsieh

My interview this week is with Timothy Hsieh. Someone I have met a few times but we have a few things in common. Some you can guess others you may not.

Photo by: Timothy Hsieh

Photo by: Timothy Hsieh

Photo by: Timothy Hsieh

I met Tim (錦平) a few years back at Murphy’s Camera in Louisville. Tim worked there and I was in the market for a zoom lens for my Nikon camera. Tim was happy to help, showed me two different options, and suggested I take both for a spin. I brought along a memory card, and he attached both lenses (not at the same time) to the camera body similar to the one I owned. I wavered back and forth but ended up getting the cheaper of the two lenses.

As time progressed I gave up my Nikon for my first Fuji (XT-1), and again was in the market for an additional lens to complement my kit lens and 35mm lens. Again I called upon Murphy’s Camera and asked for Tim. He mentioned a few lenses but recommended the 16mm, which I did end up buying from him. From that encounter on, we began following each other’s work, and I discovered as you will see below Tim takes quite a bit of street and candid work. More particularly in monochrome. He also has shot a bit of film, but is currently trying to save money and shoots digital-only.

Photo by: Timothy Hsieh

Photo by: Timothy Hsieh

Tim has since moved on from Murphy’s Camera and in fact from Louisville. He currently lives in Taiwan and we correspond through messaging each other. Like other photographers, I have mentioned, Tim influences my daily learning of photography, and thus I reached out to him to get the answers below. I recommend you check out his work via the links below. When he returns to Louisville I hope to meet up and go out and shoot with him.

Website – https://www.timothyhsieh.com/

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/whitelinephotos/

Here is the interview:

Which is your favorite lens?

No matter how many reviews I read about what lens has the best bokeh, micro-contrast, or is sharpest I just can’t simply tell much of a difference. The lens I have enjoyed the most are attached to cameras that I have gotten the best photos out of composition-wise, so I guess to answer your question, I always enjoyed the photos that came out of my Ricoh GR1V, GRD IV, and GR-II. The brief stint where I shot with Olympus Micro Four-Thirds I enjoyed the Panasonic 20mm 1.7 and Olympus 15mm F8. I still have the Olympus lens and every now and then think about picking up a body for it.

What is your favorite style of shooting?

One of my favorite things to do is just sit somewhere and watch people go about their daily routine, just them interacting w the environment. Sometimes I feel people are able to move so gracefully from one interaction to the other. Other times they remind me of myself, always self-conscious trying to make sure I have a similar posture to others or my arms don’t swing too much. When I am not sitting I am walking and trying to capture these moments as a reminder of what being human is like.

Among the gadgets that you own, is there something that you wish you hadn’t bought?

I don’t believe so, I mean usually, it is more stuff that I wish I hadn’t sold haha. It gets stressful when you have a lot of gadgets to choose from, but after you sell it you then wish you could use it. I guess that’s with everything though. Maybe it would have been better if I bought less stuff, to begin with, and I wouldn’t feel golden handcuffed haha.

How do you educate yourself to take better pictures?

I like going to museums and galleries not of any specific usually, it’s just nice seeing art. I have photo books by photographers I admire and I’ll look through those, but currently, they are all housed at my mom’s house and that is much too far a distance to travel. So I look at sites like https://rangefinderforum.com/, http://www.americansuburbx.com/, https://in-public.com/

Whose work has influenced you most?

A lot of people, a couple would be Lee Friedlander and Daido Moriyama. I really like the self-portraits Lee Friedlander did, so creative and a nice way of remembering where you’ve been. Daido Moriyama just seems to have such a reckless style, so freeing. I remember watching an interview where he was mixing development chemicals with his bare hands, that was so charming.

What is the one thing you wish you knew when you started taking photos?

This question is weird, it makes me feel like I’m telling my past self to be cautious of something. I really haven’t experienced much disappointment from taking photos, it gives me something to do and something to think about all the time. It is such a nice escape from reality, I get to capture moments in time that don’t have any real sense of truth, you get to make up a lie and in that split second the scene is whatever you want it to be

As always I want to thank the photographers who take the time to answer my questions, in this case, Tim. His work is great, regardless of the medium he uses (film or digital). For me the more interviews I receive the more insight and knowledge I obtain to help me grow as a photographer. I hope this helps some of you as well.

Until next time,

Tim