photography

There are 7 posts tagged photography (this is page 1 of 1).

Zine for Kampong Glam (Part 4 – Night Adventures and … More Ideas)

So my earlier ideas got rejected because it was too “touristic” as if its a promotion or publication for Singapore Tourism Board. So I decided to think it through again.

Idea 4: Silk Roads

For this idea is a play on the fact that previously Kampong Glam used to be a place where people do trade, selling different items to make a living. Another thing that stands out during my visits there is the number of streets there is, how they criss-cross each other and forms like a grid system for the area. So I could play with these 2 elements to create the zine.

However, I would think that the idea is not deep enough as a concept.

Idea 5: A Fictional Destination

So there is a palace. Many shops that sell different made things. Many shops that sell items needed to make stuff. A mosque. And food outlets, restaurants. An idea struck me in a way that it looks like the elements that can be found in a game. Castles, shops that sell items, a place of prayer, and food shops. So I could create a form of promotional content for a new in-game area that just opened. The design concept would be pixel art, like those Pokemon-top-view games.

However, I would feel like I’m just literally making the place into a game, and not really exploring much of the graphic forms and visuals.

Kampong Glam at Night

So after rejecting my own ideas, I decided to go back to Kampong Glam. but this time I decided to go at night, to see what is there, and what are the differences, and to my surprise, it was actually quite different.

(Sorry for the bad images! I have really unsteady hands)

Eating and chilling

At night, there seem to be more people there to eat, drink and chill, and more food shops open at this time too.

Neon lights and signboards

The things that would stand out the most would be the neon lights and the signboards that would only be switched on at night. In the day it would appear as just a plain signboard. Some signboards would even change colours!

Lamps of all sorts

At night, the lamps that you normally see along the streets will be switched on, hence creating and displaying all these different patterns and colours that you won’t normally get to see in the day.

A barbershop that operates into the night

Bottoms up!

Not only referring to the drinking culture in Kampong Glam at night but the lights at some of the buildings at Kampong Glam also does it too. The lights shine upwards on the buildings creating a unique look and also making the buildings look different.

The lights on the minarets of the Sultan Mosque changes colours too!

Other findings

A friendly resident

Lights from the nearby buildings, such as this Duo offices and residence, has a unique look too!

The lights shining in between the window panels make it look like an opening book effect

The many different lights caused a layering effect on the walls, which is really interesting!

The lights also caused some of the seen patterns during the day to be hidden, creating an interesting look to it.

So after all these findings, I came out with another idea that hopefully works.

Idea 6: Day to Night to Day

After all the research and visits, I could see that there are different activities that would stand out during the day and also at night. In the day, most of the retail shops would be open, and the place would be crowded with tourists groups. In the night, however, the retail shops will be closed and the bars and pubs will open. The lights from different signboards and lamps will be switched on creating an entirely different vibe to the area. All these would be interesting to explore and put in the zine.

Zine for Kampong Glam (Part 2 – Site Visit)

So after doing the pre-search for Kampong Glam, I finally went there now having already mentally prepared myself.

When approaching Kampong Glam, you would definitely see the shophouses first as the whole perimeter of the area is lined by them. No matter where you come in to enter Kampong Glam, you will for sure be greeted with a row of shophouses.

Some of the shophouses that you find: As you go deeper into the area, you will come to this famous street, which aligns nicely with the Sultan Mosque. Both sides of the street are filled with eateries selling Middle Eastern cuisine and some other shops selling unique items like textiles and fragrances.

And of course, the main feature of Kampong Glam, the Sultan Mosque, with its shiny golden dome high above everything else in the area.

The Sultan Mosque. Probably the tallest structure in Kampong Glam

Moving into the right lane and you will spot something that is not a shophouse. It is the old Temenggung palace, now converted into the Malay Heritage Center.

The Malay Heritage Center, which used to be the palace.

The Architecture

As mentioned in the previous post, there are 4 main types of architecture found during my research. So I decided to look for these 4 different styles.

Art Deco Shophouse Style

It took me a while to look for this one as the main features are hidden behind the signboard, but what gave it away is the “striped” pillars.

Late Shophouse Style

This one was not hard to find as it was the most decorated and detailed amongst all the shophouses.

First Transitional Shophouse Style

This was quite hard to find as it was across North Bridge Road and I would not expect it to be there, at the famous Zam Zam store!

Early Shophouse Style

These few shophouses, eventhough colourful, was a little out of the way and was furthest from the center.

Trades of Kampong Glam

So based on the research that I found, I tried to look for the different trades in Kampong Glam. There were a lot of different kinds of trades that can be found around Kampong Glam, but most of them are located along Arab Street. There you can find mostly carpet traders and tailors who also sell different kinds of fabrics.

There were a few shops selling carpets of different designs and shapes

On one side of Arab Street, you can literally find a whole row of fabric shops.

Alot of the fabric shops also offers tailoring and can be seen having mannequins outside

Another type of shop that you can find are perfume shops.

Modernisation of Haji Lane

Most of the things you see in Kampong Glam would seem old and dated, very traditional. However, if you go towards the famous Haji Lane and Bali Lane, you will find more modern shops such as boutiques, hipster cafes and bars.

The sign that you see at the entrance of Haji Lane

Towards the other end of Haji Lane, there are more pubs, tattoo parlours and more graffiti works on the walls, which have been an attraction by itself for tourists and occasionally for locals too, making it a photo spot.

Some of the photos of pubs. It’s considered empty as I went there on a weekday lunchtime. It would be more crowded in the evening and weekends.

And some of the graffiti works that you can find filling up the walls of this section of Kampung Glam:

Project 2: The Bromise.

Groupmates: Clemens, Joy, Nick and me.

‘A “bromise” was made before a friend went off to try and pursue a career in music but everything started to go downhill from there. From failed auditions to a break in a relationship. At his lowest point, he seeks help from someone who has always been there for him even before his journey began. But did he keep his promise?’

(Bromise: Essentially a promise you make to a bro. One that you can never break. ever. Stronger than a promise. – Urban Dictionary)

The Process

The task was to create a photo story based on someone whom you have lost touch. So getting together with my groupmates, we thought of coming up with tragic drama, initially.

Storyboard

Our initial idea was actually to start off with a present time looking at a photograph, having flashbacks of an event that is related to the photograph, and bringing back to the present time again, so it will all seem linked together. But after that, we sort of thought to scrap the idea of present and past scene as it was sort of redundant to the whole storyline which the main idea was to feature this friend’s life.

Another idea that we scrapped was the ending where the character, Jon, decided to commit suicide at the end when Nick did not answer his phone. To think about it, that idea was somehow too much and would not makes sense. It is more like we were trying to fit in a story with a suicide ending.

There were quite a few other scenes and last minute shifting there was added on or removed just to fill in the plotholes and make more sense in the film.

Artist/Film Reference

One of the film references that we used was the film Suzhou River by Lou Ye. I was particularly inspired by the use of black screens with dialogues in the film because I think that with just the dialogue and no visuals, the audience would be more focused on what the dialogue is about and also they are free to create their own visuals in their head.

Elements in the Film

There were quite a few elements that came to mind when creating this film as even the smallest detail could convey a huge part of the whole story.

Visuals

For the photographs, I tried to edit it in a way that the scenes with the character Jon in it will slowly desaturate as you progress on through the film. I did this to show the sadness and the downfall of Jon as he tried to pursue his dreams but went downhill instead. The scenes with Nick, however, remains the same throughout, no desaturating.

I have also thought of using the black screens as a way to split the different scenes in the film and also create more of an impact on the different sections of his life ending. Scenes that if joined together would not make sense and would be more abrupt. It also creates a breathing space for the audience.

Sound

There are 3 different sounds used in the film – sound effects, dialogues and background music.

For the sound effects, I tried to closely insert all the relevant sounds into the different scenes, like a door slamming, footsteps and even ambient sounds. All of these sound effects will make the scenes more realistic and will play an important role in joining all the images together to create the film.

The dialogues in the film are mainly to create and summarise the different scenes. For example, at the beginning of the film, the short conversation between Jon and Nick helps to summarise the bond and “bro-ship” between the 2 characters, which would take quite a long scene if gone with another direction.

Lastly, is the background music. I would not consider it as ambient sounds as the background music actually plays throughout almost the entire film and also at the end. An acoustic guitar instrumental is chosen as a guitar is in a way symbolic of the main character, Jon. When the guitar music starts, it represents the start of Jon’s music journey, and when it stops, it shows how he feels like the end of his dreams. There is also no separate guitar sounds being played when in the scene he is playing one. This is because I would not want to create a clash in guitar music and also would not want it to be a determining factor in the story, like why he did not get the audition or did not receive good feedback when busking.

Conclusion

I was really really excited in creating this film as I have never actually created a film before but I have always had scenes play in my mind whenever I listen to music or look at images. This was a good assignment for me to try and express all those and really hoped it worked. Although i still feel like there’s so much i can improve on, like in terms of my concept and the missing plotholes, I still learned alot just using sounds and still frames to convey a story.

Project 1: Picture Story – Curating Self

Task 1 – Object and representation of self

I bought my first camera using my own savings as a motivation and push to develop my photography skills further. Over the years I have slowly developed my photography skills by collaborating with various people in the photography industry as well as being able to work with different models and strangers that wouldn’t mind me taking photos of them. It has become a platform for me to socialise and open myself up to others, and when I work with others, not only do I learn and get to know them, I also get to know myself, my own limits and discoveries.

The camera grows with me, like how I always try to improve myself as a person, I also try to improve my photography skills. It has changed how I see things, like how my eyes will seem to frame objects and environments even when I do not have the camera with me. It has become something that I have been known for lately – a photographer – and it has become part of my identity.

I tried to achieve the style similar to Nan Goldin for this task by trying to include shadows and strong lighting in the photograph.

Fig 1.1

Figure 1.1 shows the camera against a neutral wall that has shadows of plants on it. It represents how I started my photography journey by taking pictures of plants, and nature and the environment.

Fig 1.2

In Figure 1.2, the use of light acts like a spotlight. The photographer is now in frame, in focus.

Fig 1.3

In Figure 1.3, i try to make it look like I’m an emerging photographer with the play of shadow across my face. The shadow of the camera in the background also symbolises the different cameras that i have worked with to make the photographer I am now.

Task 2 – My World

The location that I have picked is my polytechnic – Temasek Polytechnic, specifically the School of Design there. I chose it as a location as I feel like that is the place where i truly feel like i found myself and where i kickstarted my design journey.

Before I joined the school, I did not know what graphic design was or what the design industry was all about. All I know was that I needed to go towards an artistic direction in life because that was the one of the subjects that I was performing well in. Most of the people around me had no similar interests as me and i felt like i was alone in trying to pursuit something that i would love to do. No path ahead was clear to me at that time.

So I got to know about Temasek Polytechnic School of Design from my older sister, who was then doing Interior Design in that school. She felt like that was a good place to take my next step in education and Temasek Polytechnic has a well-known Design School. So after much contemplation, I decided to go for it, and jump into the industry.

That was a decision in life that I could not forget. When I was in school, I felt like I was among people that I could relate to. I wasn’t the outsider anymore, but rather part of a big family with the same mindset and thinking. Finally somewhere that I could fit in, somewhere I could be myself.

Fig 2.1

Figure 2.1 shows a common area in the school where designers go up the stairs to go to class. I’m shown leaping or jumping in the photo in this series, similar to Natsumi Hayashiara, as it symbolises me taking a leap into the design world. It also shows motion and movement symbolising the constant fast-paced lifestyle of the design industry, rushing to places for deadlines and submissions.

Fig 2.2

Figure 2.2 is a shot outside of the school and also shows me leaving the frame of the photograph. It symbolises me leaving the school. A reflection of me can also be seen in the glass window symbolising the school being my past, and my thoughts and memories are still with the school.

Fig 2.3

The vibrant colours in Figure 2.3 shows that a designer creates a colourful and interesting world. The upwards staircase motion shows my upwards journey to be a better designer.

The most challenging part of this assignment is the definitely the fact that I cannot fully be behind the camera the entire time. Taking pictures of myself is already a challenge by itself. I am unable to know how the frame will look like when the shot is being taken since I have to be the one in frame. Hence, I feel like this assignment is a real challenge and i wasn’t able to showcase my full photography ability.

Project 1: Research & Process

The first object that comes to mind when choosing for the assignment is my camera as it is my hobby and something I have picked up recently. It is something that I would go to if i needed some thing to do to get away from work or to fill in my free time.

For location, instantly the first thing that came to mind when thinking of a place that is significant to me is my polytechnic – Temasek Polytechnic. Just like the camera, my polytechnic is a place that I will forever remember and will always go back to, even years after graduation. It has become a second home for 3 years, and will always be.

It would be great to feature the item and the location that both helped to create and sculpt the person I am today.

Inspirations

I never knew Nan Goldin until I saw her name in her brief. When I first saw her images, I would think that the photos looks a little over exposed, and like someone used the flash too directly at the subject. But when I looked at it again, it actually makes the photo look interesting and artistic. The flash actually creates a focus on the subject, creates shadows on the others elements in the background.

I have always inspired to create similar works to Natsumi Hayashiara. I first got to know her from a colleague during my National Service, who was inspired by her as well. I really think her photos are really interesting in a way that she tries to fit the concept of her floating in photos into her daily lifestyle. It creates a boring mundane chore look really amazing and unique, making you think and look twice at her photos.