About The Evening Blue
Since 2003, I have gone on daily evening jogs. Every time I run, surrounded by the twilight zone, I find very special colours - the faint blue above the horizon and the yellow lamps that scatter the quiet streets. Between the shades of blue and yellow, cool and warm, I find relaxation and comfort from the stillness, calm and mystery.
While majoring in Photography at School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, I started to explore these unique moment through my lenses. The more I explored, the more I become entranced. This blue has become my therapy when facing life’s struggles, specifically the evening blue. - Frank Freeman
The Evening Blue
written by Gabriella So
If you ask me what the primary color of life is, I will ask you to look up to the blue sky, and lean against the blue sea, so that you can feel how it is being swept by “blueness”. As for the twilight day after day, needless to say, has always been blue. Pablo Picasso has his Blue Period at his early 20s. Painting monochromatically in shades of blue and blue-green, he seems to be singing the sorrowful blues for the old, the frail and the poor. Vincent Van Gogh emphasizes in his night paintings, especially Starry Night Over the Rhone, the importance of capturing the sparkling blue of the night sky to his heart’s content. Then in 19th century, Yves Klein famously invents his own shade of blue, which is now called “International Klein Blue”, for his own paintings and sculptures. Whether it is in the Western classical history of arts, or within the world’s current industry of photography, there have always been lovers of the blue. But still, blue is the warmest color when it is seen from home – it’s Frank Freeman’s “Evening Blue” that excites my heart after all. Frank says that the “Evening Blue” only lasts for fifteen minutes between sunset and night falls. Although short, it is enough to tone down the glaring street lamps and neon signs, romanticizing the whole concept of city lights. He used to jog daily under this light back in high school, thinking about life. Then after he received education from City University of Hong Kong in Photography and studied as an exchange student at China Central Academy of Fine Arts, he began to pass his every weekend by shooting his friends before sunset. To make us at ease, he loves to engage us in an introduction of what “Evening Blue” is and some conversations on life, on philosophy, on the beginning of every thing… And if you ask me how he manages to capture the serenity on the faces, I will tell you now that is how everything begins.
暮藍
文 : 編導演員, 蘇子情
如果你問我生命的基礎色調是什麼，我會叫你抬頭仰望藍天，憑欄遠晀藍海，親歷一下置身「藍」中的感受。再說，一日復一日的暮色，原本就是蔚藍。
畢加索年青時有過一段「藍色時期」，用藍調唱出殘弱、貧困者的哀怨，以悲天憫人；梵高在他星空系列裏的“Starry Night Over the Rhone”，著力於營造夜空的閃藍，以抒解鬱悶。至十九世紀，Yves Klein更研製出一種專屬自己的藍色，把它叫作“International Klein Blue”，並用以進行形形式式的藝術創作，如油畫，如雕塑。
無論是西方古典美術史上，還是全球當代攝影界裏，從來都不乏藍色的愛好者。但「暮是故鄉藍」，我對香港陳風的「暮藍」始終依依不捨。
陳風總對我說，「暮藍」雖短，僅僅出現於日落之後、天黑之前的十五分鐘，卻足以調和街燈、霓虹燈的紅紅黃黃綠綠，添加繁華都市的浪漫色彩。早在中學時期，他已養成在「暮藍」下緩跑、靜思的習慣。他隨後在香港城大主修攝影，兼到北京央美交流技藝；從那時起，他便喜用鏡頭去捕捉「暮藍」下朋友們的倩影，盡享每個週末的有限夕陽。為了鬆一鬆我們的心情，他總會在拍攝的過程中說一說「暮藍」是什麼，談笑間，話題游走到人生的領域、哲學的彊界……「暮藍」相片中主角的那份從容、那份醉意，都是因此而生。
