Research – Sabrina

May 2, 2018

Midterm project

Fear or Islam

As I was exploring global, local and personal issues, I found that one of the major things happening right now are how the Islamic religion is being misinterpreted and misunderstood by so many due to recent events (terror attacks, ISIS).

Ever since the attacks occurred in the United Kingdom, one being not far from my home, I feel that sometimes I have to defend my faith and what I grew up to believe in: peace and respect.

I named my project “Fear and Islam” as I wanted to portray that there is nothing to fear to about in religion and what Islam really is about. Therefore majority of my prints are in A4, as I wanted to convey how there are so many good things that some people may not see anymore in Islam.

I have attended a number of exhibitions including: ‘Oceanic’ and ‘The Life of Things’ as part of research. However my biggest inspiration for this entire project so far, was speaking to Associate Professor, Peer Sathikh. I was able to ‘interview’ and gain so much knowledge about religion and places of worship in Singapore. He had recommended me to visit a number of places in Singapore (mosques and heritage centre) and capture anything that is unique and distinct about each places. From that day onwards, my idea for the final project became clear.

Inspiring artist:

Steve McCurry

Afghanistan

I admire the works of Steve McCurry as his images alone portray a story. He had continuously travelled to Afghanistan from 1979-2016 to research and produce photographs to show “a seemingly blighted yet beautiful country with a rare and disarming humanity.”

March 28, 2018April 1, 2018

Inspirational Documentary Photographers

Linda Connor is an American photographer (born in 1944), who captures images of sacred sites around the world. Connor has frequently travelled to: India, Mexico, Nepal, Egypt and many more to explore and document sacred places. Throughout her career, she has used an 8*10″ view camera and would contact print the negatives on printing out paper; exposing them with the sunlight in her garden.

Muhammad Ali Mosque, Cairo, Egypt. Captured in 1989.

Hagia Sofia Mosque. Istanbul, Turkey. Captured in 2005 (Credit: Artsy)

Tombed Doorway, Petra. Captured 1995. (Credit: Clark Gallery)

In 1979, an Iranian artist called Shirin Neshat had left her native country in order to pursue an education and career in the USA. Twelve years later, she had returned ‘home’ only to discover that Iran had drastically transformed in many aspects such as: socially, politically, economically and culturally. However Neshat was particularly intrigued to explore the concept of women’s rights and how they had lost many of the rights attained during the reign of the Persian monarchy.

‘Woman Of Allah’ is a series of images in which Neshat explores femininity and female rights where she inscribed Arabic over the photographs.

Lastly, Steve McCurry is an American photojournalist, whose most famous image is known as ‘Afghan Girl’, due to the subject’s distinct green eyes. I admire McCurry’s work on ‘Afghanistan’ as his images alone portray a story. He had continuously travelled to there from 1979-2016 to research and produce photographs to show “a seemingly blighted yet beautiful country with a rare and disarming humanity.”

Out of the three photographers, I believe Shirin Neshat’s approach is more new as she uses other mediums such as: video installations to portray her work. Her method of writing on her images for ‘Women of Allah’ is one in which I find inspirational; so much that I may use this for my final portfolio.

March 14, 2018

The Life of Things

“The Life of Things” is an art exhibition hosted at the Esplanade, Singapore, conveying the connection people have with objects and places. It also portrays how materialistic things with physical attributes have symbolic qualities that represent abstract ideas, signal emotion or simple a connection that draws people to the items.

Last weekend, I attended this exhibition (in the hopes to gain some inspiration for my own documentary project) and as a photographer, I was most drawn to Lim Sokchanlina’s ‘Wrapped Future’. I am always impressed with simple, yet powerful images.

Through digital prints, Sokchanlina portrays the increase of construction work in Cambodia, which he believes is the reason for the decrease in cultural heritages in his home country.

This project was the one I admired most as not only did the artist manage to produce beautiful images, it inspired me to keep my images as simple as I can for my final project whilst also portraying my idea/theme. The idea behind ‘Wrapped Future’ is also very similar to my upcoming project as both Sokchanlina and I are portraying fear of losing something we hold dear to.

I hope to revisit ‘The Life of Things’ before it comes to an end as I would like to take the time to view all the video installations and hope to gain more ideas and inspiration for upcoming project.