The faces of togetherness and happiness juxtapose with the sobriety and solitude of the subject. There is the proliferation of photos of ‘the good life’ on social media that is unrealistic and warp our sense of normalcy, ironically intensifying negativity.
Phase I Medicine student Ching Ann Hui made local news recently when she won the CDL Singapore Young Photographer Award (CDL SYPA). She explains her love for the art form.
What I am fundamentally interested in are people and emotions and I do this through what I call a blend between documentary and street photography.
In my free time, I like to wander around parts of Singapore and talk to people I find particularly interesting. My camera is my window into the lives of others that are completely different from mine.
What draws me to particular subjects is their frankness. Subjects who are candid and open about who they are. Ironically, sometimes what draws me to photograph certain subjects are their invisibility, people who are in our midst but are either ignored or overlooked.
This sounds very trite, but there is a world inside everyone one of us that outsiders don’t explore. This is what informs my interactions – listen, don’t assume, we don’t know what they’ve weathered. Everyone has a reason for behaving the way they do!
The power of powerful photography is that it lets you feel how it is like to be someone else, someone else whom you otherwise would never have a chance to encounter, and that is possibly important in an increasingly polarised world.
Photography is analogous to poetry – the necessary brevity forces one to distil all into one moment. More crucially, this brevity gives the audience the chance to reflect – they have to think of the significance of the photograph and that is different for every person and it depends on where they are from, what they’ve been through. So unlike other art forms, it isn’t heavy or overwhelming. It doesn’t force a particular interpretation, but lets you experience someone else’s life through your own lens.
This is one of my six winning entries in the CDL SYPA. I find this photo rather poignant and true to reality. There are countless strangers we pass by every day, most we never see again.
My sister introduced me to photography when I was nine. Much more than learning about aperture and shutter speed, the latent sibling rivalry made me work harder to prove that I could take better photographs than her!
Along the way, I discovered photographers who inspire me and influence my work: Alex Webb for his use of colour and Richard Kepler because of his comedic portrayal of daily life. I was lucky enough to attend a workshop by the Magnum photographer, Patrick Zachmann in Hong Kong this June. Under his tutelage, I completed a photography project on Islam in Hong Kong. His workshop opened up completely new ways of photographing I never knew existed – for instance, now I focus a lot more on light, colour and what he calls “atmosphere” and the “itinerary of the eye”.
However, the first photographer I was exposed to is still my biggest influence: Henri Cartier Bresson and his concept of the decisive moment where many elements just click together to create meaning through juxtaposition. I think this is why I continue shooting, to find moments which are in plain sight and that reveal a lot, yet many don’t see.
A woman and her child sharing a happy moment while a foreign worker passes by. It is extremely easy to forget that our privilege or success comes from the backbreaking (sometimes literally) work of others.
It was evening and a group of workers had just finished work and were waiting for transport. I was first drawn to their jollity and how relaxed they were with one another. However, the worker second from the right saw me photographing and started to get up! I also liked the way the dragons framed the photo.
I took this photo because I liked the colours, light and the man’s kind facial expression. The baby in the pram to the left of the photo was a nice counterbalance.