Category: Research

When I was first given the brief for the zine project, my mind immediately gravitated to this series of work that I did a couple of years ago, about and for my grandma. This series of images are particularly important to me because this was where it all started; where I found my love for stories and documentary photography. It has given me so much, and its only right it gets to be printed like it deserves. I have decided to pair up the images with something unlike a letter to my grandma. It holds the words that I have always hoped that she knew, even though due to our asian heritage and our conservative nature, I have not actually told her directly.

Faithfully was done as part of the Objectifs Junior Shooting Home ’12 mentorship programme, an intensive programme where we were given a month to shoot what was “Home” to us. My work gravitated towards my grandma, as I tried to capture her unconditional love through my images.

For the design of the zine, space was an important factor. I wanted a floating feeling for my zine, where images could take centre stage while providing a kind of movement that flowed with the words. As a result, the composition of the zine put two images close together, but not touching. Similarly, the words lack capitalisation as well as punctuations. This is intentional, so the reader will not be able to understand where it starts and where it ends, which is a reference to how unconditional love never starts and never ends.

This work was exhibited in the National Library in 2012, as part of Objectifs Junior Shooting Home ’12 exhibition. More information can be seen at the links provided below.

http://objectifs.com.sg/jsh/donn-tan-zheng-yu-faithfully/

http://donntzy.format.com/faithfully

Thank you Shirley for being the most amazing 2D lecturer one can ask for. 🙂

Project 1: Typographic Portraits

The objective was to come up with six A5 sized pieces containing your name, using any and all mediums, that represent a characteristic of myself. So firstly, I had to come up with a list of characteristics that i portrayed:

• i am invisible
• i am a photographer
• i make a mark
• i am conformist
• i am always late
• i am complicated

In the end, we were told to present 4, instead of 6. As such, i chose:

• i am invisible
• i am a photographer
• i make a mark
• i am a conformist

HELLO I AM DONN AND I AM A PHOTOGRAPHER

Since I was a little kid, I’ve always been a quitter. I could never keep my attention onto a subject for very long, and as such, it has always been about discovering new things but not staying long enough to enjoy being good at it. Until I discovered photography. It gave me everything I have today, from paying for my school fees to feeding myself and more than anything else, I love what I do, and I love what I can do for people. This is why I chose to depict something that has been such a big part of my life. This was made by shooting Fuji Instax film using the Fuji Instant Camera, before being mounted on the black textured paper and finally the mounting board.

HELLO I AM DONN AND I AM INVISIBLE

Often I feel that being in the creative industry means that we are often overlooked and forgotten. We are in this sea of talent and we often find ourselves struggling for attention, and only the special few are recognised. As a result, this is what I chose to depict using alphabet macaroni + paint that only shows in UV light.

I AM DONN AND I AM A CONFORMIST

Actually, there’s a funny (not really) story about it. I started off as “i am donn and i am complicated”, as shown below.

But while doing it, I realised that all I was doing was conforming. I was conforming to standards, and I was conforming to expectations. And that took my work in a completely different direction. As a result, I decided to paint in white, a show of complete uniformity.

Lastly, I AM DONN AND I MAKE A MARK

In this world, everyone has different aspirations. And I am no different. I aspire to make a mark, and no matter how roughly cut, or not badly carved this mark is, a mark is still a mark. This is made using wood, with my name carved directly into it.

Thank you Shirley, for your comments and direction. 🙂

Enjoy.