The camera moves slowly through an Amsterdam street, the setting of this medium-length documentary which seeks to unveil the relationship between photography and film. The street is home to small businesses owned by immigrants from Suriname, China, Pakistan and Turkey. Their lives are captured by director Van der Keuken as their paths cross with Chinese photographer Li To Sang, who runs a small photographic studio with his wife. Immigrants from the neighbouring shops visit his studio to have their portrait taken. While the photographic master To Sang stages his portrait scenes to the last detail with the clear-cut vision of a true artist, the manipulation of the film direction, however, is less conspicuous. To Sang Fotostudio is not a film comparing the strengths of different media – photography and film; it is much more about their unseen coexistence.
