Lomography Partners: YatGyun of Sai Wan, Hong Kong

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Come one, come all. Lomography has partners all over the world to help serve your analogue needs. If you're from Hong Kong then it's your lucky day! We're featuring our Sai Wan-based Celia and Richin of YatGyun in today's installment of Lomography Partners.

© YatGyun

Can you introduce yourself to the Lomography community?

Richin: We are a film photography community-based shop in Sai Wan, Hong Kong. We develop film, sell film cameras, and sometimes organize workshops.

What does analogue mean to you?

Richin: It is a raw experience of photography—from loading films to developing them. There's a sense of connection with each of the 36 exposure.

© YatGyun

What does the future of analogue photography look like to you? How will this impact your store in the next ten years?

Richin: The future is such a mystery. I believe analogue photography will live on, but then we need to find a more sustainable way to carry on analogue photography, recycling or upcycling the by-products of film development, such as the used film canisters and the plastic containers.

What is your favorite Lomography product and why?

Richin: The Lomo Color Negative 800 is a perfect all-around film stock for all conditions.

Are you doing any creative projects right now in the store or personally?

Richin: We're considering relaunching our photowalks, photo sharing, and maybe a Black and White development workshop in the future.

Celia, do you think there are any specific advantages or disadvantages to being a female business owner?

Celia: One of the most indispensable advantages to being a female business owner has to be being more proficient in employing a vast range of communicative strategies that facilitate team and business growth. Compared with male counterparts, I believe women are comparatively more communicative in the sense that we are more emotion-oriented. I take pride in my ability to cater to people’s needs and emotions, and provide corresponding solutions for them.

This trait is key to providing customers with the best services possible through tailoring services or products, as well as patiently digesting their concerns and answering them. Meanwhile, when operating a company, understanding and sympathy within the team will help to foster closer relationships and thus achieve synergy.

© YatGyun

Do you have a favorite memory from running your business over the years?

Celia: Whilst founding my company, setting up everything from scratch painstakingly will forever remain something memorable and fascinating to me. I remember reading the quote: “All you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery.” My partners and I decided to start our current business in quite a rush, to be frank.

Doing business research night after night, looking for suitable shops, doing renovations on our own and procuring suitable products, and devising relevant promotional strategies to ensure a unique market position was what we did at that time. Looking back, I do admit that we might have been reckless, but it was that recklessness that pushed us to our limits and to do our best.

© YatGyun

Who inspires you?

Celia: I have gained inspiration from various people. The most notable one is Vera Lui, the founder of Sally’s Toy. While my business is completely unrelated to hers, I appreciate and admire her so much for her devotion to her work, and what is more inspiring is that she aims to bring continuous positive impacts to society through her business, which is raising their awareness of self-love, gender equality and so on.

As for me, I aspire to be an impactful entrepreneur who can enable my customers to discover the unique meanings of photography themselves instead of merely taking random snapshots and posting them on social media.

© YatGyun

What advice would you give to anyone (particularly other women) who wants to start their own creative business as you have done?

Celia: If I were to give a piece of advice, it would be that integrity and devotion are the keys to success. Treating customers, counterparts, partners, and staff with integrity and respect can allow us to develop a good rapport with them, which is essential for business stability. As for devotion, it is my belief that only with full commitment and passion can one continuously strive for excellence and aim at perfection. That is what I believe to be the contributing factor to sustaining the business and building goodwill for the business that will attract more customers and achieve longevity.

© YatGyun

Quick Questions

What's the most annoying thing about running an analogue lab?

The process of cutting films into bags.

What's your favorite memory from the lab so far?

Developing memories for customers and enjoy chatting with customers.

© YatGyun

What's the weirdest thing you have received when developing films?

A phone call from an impatient customer asking why he hasn't received his scans yet. He dropped off his film like literally ten minutes ago.

Vital Information

Official Name: YatGyun
Began Accepting Film for Developing: 2020
Address: Sik On House, Shop 2A, 66 Hill Rd, Shek Tong Tsui, Hong Kong
Services offered: 35 mm, 120, C-41, b&w, hand developing
Film lab staff: 3


Want to see your favorite store featured in our magazine? Please send us an email at wholesaleinquiries@lomography.com and we will check them out!

written by cheeo on 2023-04-14 #people #places #partners #hong-kong #film-lab #stockists #lomography-partners #yatgyun

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2 Comments

  1. papa-attila
    papa-attila ·

    *****

  2. tattso
    tattso ·

    "What's the most annoying thing about running an analogue lab?

    The process of cutting films into bags."

    Very true!

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