Photography – Page 3

4D | Project 2 I

Lights of the Night, a continuation of “Before Dawn”

While I was doing my “Before Dawn” project, I realise that there’s this certain stillness to the night, everything takes on a mystical charm which is so colourful, but also dark, and all seems magical and suspended as if time was frozen. It isn’t noisy at night, be it sound or sight, as there’s lesser people and cars, I guess that’s what makes the night so beautiful and calm.

I realise that what is prominent in my “Before Dawn” series are the lightings. The subtle light in the photographs makes up the atmosphere, even if there is nothing happening in the picture. It is quite strange that even though the scene is suppose dead, stagnant and colourless, a subtle light that creeps in brings a certain life to the stillness.

For this series, I wanted to focus on Atmospheric photos. I find it fascinating at how lights can bring an empty scene to life and different colours portray certain characteristics. The quietness and the mystery of city nights, each corner of the street that seems abandoned, tells a story. Shooting late at night is like being between a dream state and wakefulness. I feel like I’ve stepped into an alternate reality.

4D | “Before Dawn” Final

“Before Dawn”

A photojournalistic series which consists of different professions that operates everyday in the wee hours of the night, while the city sleeps.

Little do we know, from dusk to dawn, the night workers are awake in the dead of the night, contributing and keeping our society together.

Fishmongers supplies fresh fishes to our supermarkets, coffeeshops provide our morning toast and coffee, and petrol station workers make sure our car tanks stay full even during the dead of the night.

As a 24-hour nation, the night workers are the heroes of the night, running our country smoothly while we are asleep, who are always around, yet hardly ever noticed and taken for granted.

This series is to raise awareness by sharing the stories of the night professions, and that we – the society, should appreciate them more.

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Execution: A 200 x 160mm publication, and 4R printed photos

Exhibition
4R glossy photos hung on brown string with wooden pegs

To compliment the essence of the photos, I decided to use brown strings and wooden pegs to give a raw and natural feeling.

Publication
200 x 160mm / 152gsm matte paper

4D | “Before Dawn” (II)

Hey guys,

Recap on last week’s critique, Mr Zhao mentioned that the fishery port and market photos I shot are more than enough, so he suggested to take a variety of professions to show different stories!

Before further ado, here’s my artist statement for this series:

“Before Dawn” is a photojournalistic series which consists of different professions that operates everyday in the wee hours of the night, while the city sleeps.

Little do we know, from dusk to dawn, the night workers are awake in the dead of the night, working hard and contributing to our society.

As a 24-hour nation, the night workers are the heroes of the night, running our country smoothly while we are asleep, who are always around, yet hardly ever noticed and taken for granted.

This series is to raise awareness by sharing the stories of the night professions, and that we – the society, should appreciate them more.

During the long weekend, I managed to snap more shots for my series, and had like supper for 3 days straight as I was out during the night……… Anyhow, enjoy the photos!

Time Check: 2am, Petrol Kiosks
Have you guys forgotten that petrol station workers are working round-the-clock too? I feel that they always taken for granted. Who else helps us to fill up our tank in the dead of the night!? Oh and since I was there I had to feed my car too. Not forgetting the convenience stores at every Kiosks, a way to satisfy my hunger pangs.

Why are you washing your car at 2am in the morning???

Time Check: 2.30am, Macdonalds’
Not forgetting everyone’s go to supper place to have some mcwings and filet-o-fish! When in doubt, just Macs. The thing I noticed about our favourite fast food chain is that people takes the 24-hour service for granted, for example: we do not realize how the mcdelivery bikers and service team made it so accessible and easy it is to get the food at anywhere and anytime of the day.

Time Check: 2.45am, 7-11
Yes guys, I didn’t forget about our 7-11 store where we can purchase overpriced tidbits and drinks. I can’t imagine working on a night shift and how boring it must be as there won’t be a lot of customers in the night. It’s gonna be tough to stay awake.

Time Check: 3am, Holland V
Our local newspaper man who is delivering newspapers to shops at some ungodly hour and keeping us up-to-date to the rest of the world while we are sleeping.

Time Check: 4am, somewhere in Dunearn Road
Enroute to shoot some photos at a nearby hawker center and I caught this guy who is on the way to work! Or maybe he’s on the way back home?

Time Check: 4.30am, Bukit Timah Hawker Center
It was so early that the birds aren’t awake yet. I can’t imagine waking up at 3-4am in the morning to start prepping for the morning / lunch crowd and working till the late afternoon, or maybe even the night. Hawkers are so under-appreciated!

Oh and this hawker center sells amazing satay beehoon and hokkien mee #jacesays

Gotten eggs and kopi from this stall!
Verdict: Awesome coffee #jacesays

Got a plate of chee cheong fun from this auntie.
Verdict: Not enough light sauce 🙁 #jacesays

Time Check: 12-6am, Taxi Drivers
All I can say is, taxi uncles and aunties are amazing. They are basically your life saviours for rushing from Point A to B and dragging your drunk ass home while you may puke in their car. Cab drivers are often forgotten as they sort of blend with our “everyday life”, and people tend to forgot how taxing and tiring it is for them to work 12 hours day, driving all around Singapore.

There were like few cabs waiting to pick up passengers at like 3-4am in the morning, even though there really isn’t anyone there. How convenient can this get?

Time Check: 6am
I guess he’s really tired. Me too, time to knock out.

4D | “Before Dawn” (I)

Hello!

To start of with my “Before Dawn” series, the first location I went for a shoot was at the Jurong Fishery Port, where I never thought I would be. It was 2am on a Saturday morning and the sun has not yet broken its first ray of light and most mortals were still in their slumber. My parents (thank god for them), brought me to the fishery port and they were much more enthusiastic than me whereas I was dying of exhaustion!

As my footsteps took me nearer to the port in the dead of the night, the smell of fresh fish permeated the air like an essence of the sea – salty yet crisp. I was then bombarded with a vibrant sight of an open space flooded with fluorescent lights and splashes of primary colours, from the signages and the containers used to store the fish. Surprisingly, the port was not what I envisioned it to be. It was not dark, dull or stagnant at all.

The open space was a chaotic yet organised mess as the booted men were pulling and throwing their catches onto the floor, laying their fishes in an orderly fashion onto the wet, slick, cement floor and sprinkling ice to keep them fresh. Their movements were smooth, but full of life.

Nonetheless, the fishery port was phenomenal yet rarely would anyone sacrifice his or her sleep to see its beauty and value, which was hardly noticed or known. Older than the people was this port itself, and everyday in the wee hours of the night, it lived while the city slept.

Now, here are some of the pictures that I shortlisted among all the shots I took. I hope that this images are able to deliver and tell a story about the fishmongers’ working life in Jurong Fishery Port.

Time Check: 2am

Time Check: 4am
We left the fishery port and headed to a nearby wet market.

Time Check: 4.30am
I was walking around the neighbourhood market and was surprised that “buzz” has opened!

This was shot at the hawker center which is connected to the wet market. It’s in the wee hours of a Saturday morning and I’m amazed that our fellow humans are already up and awake to have breakfast! Well… except for this tired guy here who’s sleeping so soundly.

That’s all for the exciting and exhausting adventure I had last Saturday! All I can say is that, I’m glad that I chose this topic for my project, it was an eye opening experience for me.

This is not the end, there’s more night professions to come! Check back to this space soon 🙂

4D | “Before Dawn” Ideation

Hello!

I’ve finally decided to change my topic for Project 1 as I felt that my previous idea – “Ctrl Z” wasn’t working out for me.

For my new idea, I was inspired by my Mom, who is a shift worker and she works in the night, from 6pm-6am daily. I don’t really like the fact when she gets the night shift as I feel that it takes a toll on her health and thats when I realised that people around me don’t really know much about how the night shifts works, or how taxing and tiring it is. Hence, I decided to do a topic about night professions.

“Before Dawn” is a photojournalistic series which consists of different professions that operates everyday in the wee hours of the night, while the city sleeps.

A normal day for most people consists of clocking in hours at work or school, and then returning to the comfort of our homes by night. Little do we know, from dusk to dawn, the night workers are working in the dead of the night, contributing and keeping our society together.

I feel that the night workers are somewhat the “unsung heroes of the night” as they are the ones who are keeping our society together while we are sleeping in the comfort of our beds. They are the ones who provides our daily newspapers, morning coffee and breakfast, who keeps our country safe or even supplies fishes to our everyday supermarkets and wet markets. They are doing so much, yet are not getting the recognition they deserve.

The night workers are the people who keeps our country smoothly as a 24-hour nation, yet are not getting the recognition they deserve. They are the the heroes of the night, who are always around, though hardly ever noticed and taken for granted.

This series is to raise awareness of the night professions, by sharing their stories, hoping to gain awareness on how taxing their jobs are and that we – the society should start appreciating them more.