Eddie Cheng did a series of Polaroids in New York City, and then the gang (consisting of Eddie Cheng and Edward Lui and I) were thinking if we could do the same closer to home.
As we discussed it more, the basic idea was conceived. To visit a totally foreign city (to us) and spend only a single day shooting Polaroids of whatever took our fancy. All of us could shoot as many Polaroid shots as required, on whatever Polaroid camera but only 16 shots were to be submited and judged by the others.
Using the convenience of the Eurostar, we started off with Brussels.
Whilst travelling to St Pancras International, the more I thought of the concept and format, the realisation dawned on me that it was aping a certain motoring programme on the BBC. Then bang, the name Chop Gear was born in my head.
In short, yes I was being a bit self referential/deprecating/stereotypical, as I pondered the use of the word Chop. We are all of Chinese decendancy and anyone growing watching Kung Fu film would know they were referred to as Chop Socky films. I did think about coming up with a meaning for the word like (CH)inese (O)aps do (P)olaroids but a) that was overthinking it and b) as much as I hate to admit it, Edward Lui is still in his 30’s.