Tag Archives: guitar

Project 1: Picture Story – Curating Self

Hello! So here is my series of photos for our first project on ourself and let me take you though more about me!

Task 1: Me

Often when I think of myself I think I am someone who isn’t actually like other people which includes my thinking process. Here, the series of photos about me in around the Bukit Timah Railway has to make you stop and look to observe what the picture actually means. I used a lot of long shot technique because I want to show the surroundings around me and compare it to me, a small girl with a red bag pack exploring. I got inspired by Lavender Chang’s art photography where she does more conceptual stuff.

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So this photo is to show how much of a day dreaming person I am. I decided to put myself lying in a field looking up and daydreaming but decided to leave in the blur effect in the photo because I intent the user looking at it to feel that dreamy effect but upon closer inspection he/she can actually spot me in the picture!

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For the second photo it portrays me up on an abandoned bridge walking off in the distance to show that I am someone who likes to venture into the unknown. I like taking risks and exploring uninhabited places when I do my photography which is why is this photo me and my friends actually climbed up from below to get to this area over here!

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As for the last photo of me, I am actually looking up at the big rock structure to show that “I’m a small girl looking to explore in a big world”. In the physical copy of the photo i actually chose to trim off the white border to let the viewer have the impression of “looking outside the photo” and let them think of what could be out there and what is the bigger picture.


Task 2: Object and Representation of Self

The object that is very near and dear to me was an old classical guitar passed down by my elder cousin.

Object 2

For my first photo, I took a very close up shot of the guitar encased by the guitar bag. My intention was to draw the viewer’s eyes to the edge of the guitar where it is torn and tattered but at the same time show how ironic it is that even though it is very old, I still want to keep it and preserve the rawness of the guitar. It’s markings sort of show the marks left behind by my elder cousin when eh used to play it in his generation.

Object 3

As for this photo, instead of the usual full figure shot of the ‘I feel like a rockstar when I’m alone’ look, I decided to give the viewer a more relaxed vibe as the guitar is more of a sentimental value to me rather than something rocking out to. So I picture myself lying down, playing the guitar and as I strum the guitar I sort of get to feel the texture of how old the guitar is and it makes me reminiscence back to how it belonged to my cousin.

Object 1

As for the last photo, I decided to shoot it in a mid length shot because to wanted to capture the motion up close but as well as showing just enough of what I was feeling. I also used a slow shutter speed while I was moving about with the guitar to capture a double exposure because I wanted to encapsulate how one object could have two lives, belonging to two different people at different times. Its interesting to think about how my cousin spent his time with this guitar could be different or same with mine.


Task 3: My World

As for the final task, the place that means something to me is actually my void deck where I lepak and meet both new and old friends. My void deck area is recognisably a vibrant orange so I chose to shoot it during the daytime to capture interesting aesthetics and how they represent as a signifier to me rather than placing the people inside. I got inspired by Tham Jing Wen and how he shot his Flat series.

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In this photo this is the walkway whereby my friends will either say goodbye and leave by, or say hello and come by. By taking the picture in this way, I wanted to create a paradox whereby there is neither an entry nor an exit where I see familiar faces. The bright orange pillars almost seem like a grand entrance or exit.

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Here in this photo shows the flight of stairs where I always come down from my floor to meet my friends to hang out. Its a signifier for telling my friends upon hearing my footsteps that I am on my way down to them. It also its interesting as even though I pass by it every time to hang out with my friend, I never realised how aesthetically interesting it actually was.

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In this photo, I think I find it interesting how my void deck sort of has a face of its own in a place where I meet so many different faces. I thought it was an interesting unintentional aspect to my void deck and I decided to capture it as a signifier for the faces in my void deck area.

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As for the last photo, I actually took it during the night time. Here pictured are actually the legs of the stools and also the table. I was trying to capture the essence that even though the viewer does not see any legs hanging indicating that some one is lepak-ing there, the shadows of the stool and table itself creates a presence in itself that some how the space is always occupied.