The tension between tradition and modernity has fueled Ken Hermann's approach since he began making images. In his environmental portraits, the Danish photographer documents the lives of ordinary people and how their rituals are disappearing in the face of new technology and ways of life. At its core, Hermann's work is about the relationship between people and their environment and how it constantly remains in flux. He tells Capture about building relationships, his love of cinematic lighting and why he's experimenting with NFTs.
Ken Hermann spent a decade travelling around South Asia in the early aughts. The Danish photographer ventured from Thailand to Indonesia and Nepal to Laos, fascinated by the relationship between people and their environment. At the time, photography was just a hobby. He trawled markets for old cameras and lenses, documenting the places he went and the people he met, but he never imagined it would manifest into a career. "I think I was trying to avoid looking into the future," says Hermann. "It was easier to travel." He found himself captivated by India, returning, again and again, feeling an "instant kinship" with the country and its culture. "The country holds great significance for me; as it was there, I finally decided to become a photographer."
The notion of tradition and ritual in the face of pressing modernity has shaped Hermann's work and his passion for environmental portraits. In many places he shoots, including India, Mongolia and China, the countries and cultures constantly shift, leaving communities in a state of limbo between a disappearing past and an unclear future. Hermann's projects attempt to understand and record these rituals and ways of life, treasuring long-standing traditions and how they continue to manifest in a changing context.
In his latest work, The Last Bang Bang Men, Hermann images the sunset porters of Chongqing, China. Chongqing is one of the world’s largest municipalities, built on several mountains with very steep roads and many staircases, with a population of 30 million people. The city is a booming metropolis with buildings rising as high as 72 stories and pedestrian bridges connecting apartment buildings 40 metres above the ground. It has a horizontal and vertical public transport system to enable people to move around the multilayered city. For thousands of years, the bang bang men have carried water and goods on their backs to navigate the narrow streets and complex infrastructure, but now their trade is vanishing.
