I’m sure the intricate details like focal length and exposure bored many of the professional photographers in our class to death but for me, a first-timer, it was a very enriching experience. Enriching almost to the point that I felt dumb for not knowing these things beforehand even though I have been handling point-and-shoots for years, haha. Anyway, many thanks to my friend Cheng Teng for lending me his Nikon D40 for most of the semester so that I could work on my assignments with ease =)

Let’s talk about the self-assessment system. This was one heck of a tricky issue which I was struggling with for this module. We rate ourselves and we get the score we rated as it is. It’s weird. Sometimes, I think I should deserve a certain score but when I chance upon others’ score, I always get confused. It’s like, “Wow, if that person got such a high/low score, then my self-assessment must have gone wrong somewhere.” Maybe we should have constant peer-assessment instead. Or maybe not, since that is going to open up another can of worms.

This Arts module has been a superb experience and I can’t wait to see how the final exhibition for all the groups will turn out. In the meantime, back to my Computing roots… Urgh, haha.

Chained

A doting husband
His loving wife
So many government incentives
Their perfect life…

Specifications:
ISO-200, Focal length: 200mm, F-Stop: F/25, Exposure: 30s

Surprised at the exposure time? I thought of keeping the environment dark so that the red would not come out bright, cheery and bloody. Hence, that required the prolonged exposure.

The above photo was shot in RAW format by a Nikon D40. Lighting, contrast, exposure and just about anything to do with intensity of colour, was manipulated in Photoshop. The only physical tweaks made were those done to remove specks of dust in the background so that the red background appeared homogeneous. Otherwise, no image manipulation here.

No self-assessment and peer-assessment posted for this round since it’s supposed to be confidential. Many thanks to Mike who helped to co-ordinate everyone and everything, Ivy for coming up with the concept, idea to string our works together exhibition-style complete with the idea of presentation, brochures and all. Not to forget, thanks to Michelle who did the compilation of our artist statements and Jialin who made sure we standardise our presentation style by providing templates.

I think when we talk about things like Singapore culture, most of us would readily agree the long queues outside a certain fast-food restaurant for a certain soft toy is a pretty accurate representation. Singapore culture is something that we as Singaporeans can identify with, relate to, be it an activity or an object or an aspect of our day-to-day life, something that is pervasive in local context.

Another question: Is the Merlion representative of Singapore culture?

I don’t think it is the symbol of Singapore culture but it does represent us in some way: it’s confused fusion status that parallels how we mix Western influences with local traditions, its fish-tail representing the fishing village we once were, etc.

The question: So what is the impact of visual media here?

Visual media propagates the coverage of a material, aids in letting something obscure gain global recognition (think Tammy), opens our eyes to sights and happenings near and far away (think Iraq War). With the advent of information technology and visual media, we are no longer confined in our little circle of attention.

With the popularisation of blogging and digital photography, we see more and more original media content posted online by the second. The average working class Singaporean will probably own either a camera phone or a digital camera. Students have taken to “photo-whoring” (Incessant photo-taking) of themselves or their everyday life, and then posting them online for all to see.

Visual media has greatly impacted Singapore culture seeing that we have embraced it as a way of life. The manipulation and utilisation of visual media becomes part of Singapore culture. Online video sites, blogging are just some of the ways we express ourselves to the web-surfing audience. We have taken on the role of content creators, something that was only restricted to a privileged few in the past with the resources.

The Merlion goes global with the help of visual media and the world gets a glimpse of Singapore culture. Maybe not a well-informed glimpse but nevertheless…

on the shelf

“That independent career woman”

Artist Statement
“Independence” is a quality, something good that we should try to attain. In my mind, I thought of showing the price that comes with independence, how we sacrifice some other things along the way to achieve independence. Life is not always about achieving every wonderful aspect of it. Sometimes, we do have to pay a price, big or small, whether we like it or not.

In a way, this photo actually plays up the stereotypical mindset of how the independent woman in contemporary society cannot have both love and career. The lady shines on her own in the midst of the dull, cool and icy background. There is no warmth about her or surrounding her. I wanted to bring across loneliness through the colours and the construct of the scene.

The duality about this shot, i.e. to show the “in dependence” idea, is simply, not there. The idea is for it to be absent, to show that perhaps it might not be so bad to be “in dependence” after all.

my loving husband

“Chains of Marriage”

Artist Statement
When a man proposes to a woman in Singapore, the local joke is that instead of asking her to “marry him”, he asks her to “apply for a HDB flat (local housing)” with him. This simple joke that touches on the gender relations in local society and their implications on certain local policies has always somewhat troubled me.

I think when it comes to marriage, companionship and love have become overshadowed by government incentives in contemporary Singapore society. Marriage has become more than just finding a soulmate to depend on for the rest of our lives. At the end of the day, the bigger picture is that the government has made marriage a commodity with multiple allures, that Singaporeans sign up for together as a heterosexual couple.

Personally I like to keep things simple in my photographs. A photograph of keychains set amidst a sea of red, that represents romance and love. I chose to contrast the background which represents human passion against the inanimate subjects which represents human logic. The photograph is about society’s chain on the genders of our society and how we are all unescapably interlinked, interconnectedly trapped and dependent on each other.

Our group is big! Fourteen of us (Mei Mei, Jialin, Celeste, Michelle, Karen, Ivy, Mike, Natalie, Christina, Jasmine, Paul, Mark, Jillyn and me) in total! Anyway, after a long discussion, we concluded that our theme would be “In-dependence“. The hyphen shows our play on the word, that we (as in Singapore) are not actually independent but in dependence. The photos below show my initial takes on the title and our concept.

Key-chains. Marriage. Dependency. HDB flats, anybody?

An independent plant in dependence on the nutrients from that which it has latched itself onto. I contrast it next to this big plant to show our small-ness.

When we presented our shots, Mr Reddy commented that our photos were too direct, theme-in-your-face and had hoped that we could capture our emotions, how we felt about the title in our photos. Paul also mentioned before we probably chose a theme that was actually more difficult that our assignments thus far, despite us having grumbled much that the given themes were very tough already, haha.

We also had to be wary of that thin line between having our pictures looking like soci-docu photographs. The titles and captions are very important as well in thickening that thin line.

Next up: What I feel about our theme…

There were lots of comments about this advertisement when Mike and I presented it in class. After all, this was something that is of standard fare in fashion magazines trying to promote clothes. I think a lot of us read our images very critically, given that we are all Media students, and perhaps too critically since the target audience may not be so critical when it comes to some images. Like someone mentioned in class, given that ours is yet another advertisement for clothes in a magazine, people may just overlook it.

Personally, the advertisement connotes this feeling of “desire”. The girl’s arm showing desire for the guy and the guy’s embrace showing he has what he desired for and is not letting go. The clothes seem to be some sort of an accessory to the advertisement, since I won’t really focus on their apparels the first instance I look at the picture. Like someone mentioned in class, the advertisement is more inclined towards promoting a lifestyle than the clothes itself.

Here’s the link to our presentation: Tommy Jeans

Self-assessment (9/10):
Paul and Mei Mei’s Paris Las Vegas presentation left quite an impression on me, partly because I am an avid player of cards like Contract Bridge and Hearts. In particular, I like their analysis because it was something that I as a card player, would have seen in the advertisement as well. Thus, I find it hard to analyse the advertisement without a personal cultural bias. Mark and Natalie’s black and white Volvo ad also stayed on in my mind long after their presentation. I guess once again, it’s the intellectual games link.

I think everyone came really close this time round for their analysis. As for the presentation that I give tops to… I think it goes to Qiyi and Eileen’s presentation on adoption. The advertisement speaks out with its tagline and I agree with their interpretations on the role reversal of receiving love.

I am giving us a 9 because judging from the response we had, it did not seem as if we had entirely covered the analysis from the audience’s perspective as what Mr Reddy would have wanted. The part about the statues threw some off and grabbed others’ attention, which was good. Overall, I still think we did great. We generated loads of discussion about classic fashion advertisements and why they are the way they are.

Oh well, on to the final project…

Realism

This is the scene as I saw it: Nature creeping in, slowingly overcoming the railing, an object of Man. There really is no one prominent subject here. Not the plants, not the railing, not the creeper. It’s just the scene.

Formalism

Not the creeper as shown above, but algae creeping up the metal railing. The point I am showing here is the rough surface of the algae against the smooth railing it has invaded. I chose to focus on that solo white speck in the algae on the railing. Has the algae corroded the railing or is that white speck a part of the algae?

Some comments I had about this photo was that I could have done a more close-up shot of this scene to really show and bring out the texture of the algae against the smooth metal bar, and that the entire railing should have been in focus and not just that mere white speck. Also, the railing looks distorted and hence the camera angle should have been more perpendicular to the railing.

Expressionism

Evil nature has crept and twirled itself around the poor railing, rearing its snake-like head, strangling the object of Man. These days, everyone is always talking about how Man is destroying the environment. Here I see nature fighting back, and being very evil at it. I kind of feel sad for that poor lonely railing.

Mark mentioned the creeper that ran forty-five degrees across the photo was rather disturbing, segmenting the photo.

Self-assessment (8.8/10):
I am giving myself an 8.8 because I feel the 3 photos I presented fit well into the categories with only a small degree of ambiguity. I guess it’s my technique this time round that prevents me from completely exalting myself. Ahh, the blurness. Ahh, the segmentation in construction.

A lot of presentations that day were dogged by Mr Reddy’s question of whether their photos could possibly better belong to another category. No one asked me on that, I think. Or perhaps it was because everyone was dying to go for lunch already, haha. Personally, I think the problem comes with how we percieve our works to be. What’s formalism for one becomes expressionism for another. The challenge is therefore to eliminate that element of ambiguity, eliminate the strong factors that would make a photo belong to other categories, and instead accentuate the essential elements required to represent its intention.

When Ivy presented, I knew I was leaning towards giving her the top score for this assignment. The theme of Creep was clear from her presentation, embodied by the graffiti’s perpertrator. Also, she was one of the few who managed to grasp and show a clear distinction between the 3 categories of Realism, Formalism and Expressionism. She made clever use of camera angles to depict the 3 intentions.

But Jillyn’s later presentation of that creeping snail wowed the class, including me. A clear distinction showed between the 3 photos and I am giving her full marks, even though I have a tiny gripe with the vertical lines in the Formalism photo being not very vertical. I think they should be straight. But anyway, the reason she gets my top vote this time round is because I felt her Expressionism shot spoke more to me, over Ivy’s jailbird Expressionism photo, depicting the endless path that lay ahead for the snail.

As explained in class, I wanted to show something like two moments in time merged as one in the same scene. The middle of the scene has been left blank without traffic to bring across the title of the work, the question of whether the two moments (Those of the people on the left and the person on the right) will collide.

Green lights on for both directions of traffic with people crossing on both sides. The inspiration to create this scene of Impossible Traffic also partly arose because I found I could not take a nice montage of the scene without the lights changing! The lights on the right were green but by the time my DSLR focused on the other side, the other direction’s lights had turned green, haha.

Photo Trivia:

1. This is a scene of a traffic junction near NUS, taken around 6 in the evening.
2. The montage took up 55 layers in Adobe Photoshop and approximately 50 photos in total.
3. The blue sky was taken on the second day of the photo shoot around 4 in the afternoon, and subsequently “pasted” onto the montage. The original sky was plain grey (As seen in the 1-photo view below).
4. Rather than take the photos from the same position, I moved along a curve by taking photos of the right from the left side and gradually moving to the left, snapping shots along the way.

Well, before I go on to my Self-assessment, let me show you the scene as it is from the 1-photo view. Notice that none of the lines on the road are vertical, unlike the ones at the 2 sides for the montage. I guess this is what is meant by the “single vs. multiple point of view” as stated in the assignment. By the way, the interesting thing about this photo is that all the lights were red…

Self-assessment (9/10):
I shall start with the points that could have been improved on:

1. Reduce the prominence of the yellow building in the centre.
2. Make the human subjects more prominent either through size or illumination.
3. Perhaps make contradicting factors like the traffic lights, etc. more prominent since no one realised the scene was an impossibility (And hence it could not have been done in 1 shot)

I think I shall give the idea of putting someone in the middle of the road a miss after hearing about the class discussion on the morbidity and horrors of photos depicting tragedies. Though somehow, I can relate to Jasmine’s idea of this “fantasy” shot. I shall stick to my intention of leaving the centre of the montage without traffic to enhance the idea of the question.

I am giving myself a 9 because I feel I have taken a creative view in this assignment to produce this montage. That rather than simply piecing together many photos of the same scene, I tried to apply the concept of time and space by weaving a bunch of photos into a seemingly plain and yet impossible panorama.

Ivy scored tops again this time round with between the lessons of yesterday and the fears of the day after. I don’t really get the title (Paul’s suggestion of “in transit” made more sense to me) but everything else about her work was gorgeous. From the colours to the choice of crisp photos used to piece the beach, sky and planes together. To me, her work speaks of a journey and of learning. She also put to creative use, the idea of putting together photos in a clever manner to form a scene.

“The Day After” is an unknown. Also, that given a specific point in time, so many things can happen. But in photography, we can only capture one moment at a time…

A photograph of a moment made up of many moments. Here I present you a small teaser of what I have done for this assignment, a photo of a common sight. Just remember “The Day After” is an unknown.

That perhaps even the Impossible can happen in “The Day After”…

33-photo montage, all of them the same size except for one which I cropped a huge portion of it away. Maybe if I had continued with the photos on the bottom right of my montage, I would have been able to show that multiple-view idea since the bottom of the scene is actually a curvature…

Back to brainstorming on the theme… I mean, Mr Reddy couldn’t have just given us a theme for no rhyme or reason. Surely not all photo montages can be related to the theme “The Day After”, right? Urgh…

Oh, check out my previous entries for edits that I made to give credit to some of what were the best works from my class!

[Edit - 28/9/2007]

For the piqued and intrigued… The complete scene! I took the bulk of the photos from standing on the grey platform you see below =)
[End of Edit - 28/9/2007]