Kindred. Where were you fest.

Last weekend, Where were you fest happened at Substation Guinness Theatre. The show saw 20 local bands from the 90s reuniting to play for one night or for some to get together to make music again. I, however came only to see Kindred play 'cos emo violence is forever.

Streets of Selegie

#streetsofselegie_helloembrace

Street series shot in the Selegie area and around it using the iPhone. 

Steel wool -ing you.

There's always something new you see on instagram that makes you feel inspired to try out. I came across Norrisam's feed and showed it to a friend and we did some research on it. Steel wool photography. Who'd have thought that that scrubby thing you use to clean your frying pans would be used for anything else other than cleaning? I had a chance meeting with two other guys I saw attempting the very same thing at a rooftop a few weeks ago and they told me what I needed to get…and so we did.

Last weekend. it poured and it really did dampen our spirits. We occupied ourselves with led lights but we really wanted to play with fire…and few hours later, we just went ahead with it. Not really a cool idea to be wearing shorts and your favorite trainers…

It was pretty scary at first…but I got the hang of it. We only did four runs before we heard an old drunken man moaning. We're gonna try again in two weeks.

Everybody Street

A few months back, I found myself in an artistic quandary. I felt the subjects of which my photos were mostly based on; of walls, of doors and empty streets, lacked life. No pun intended. I was beginning to think that they were lacklustre. And I knew there had to be more that I could do because it's not like I could keep shooting the people I knew everyday…

And then came this image on my instagram feed; someone I was following was saying that everyone should watch the documentary, Everybody Street. The image seemed interesting enough and I was compelled to click the link on profile. And I came to a trailer on Vimeo.


I was intrigued and liked it so much, I immediately paid for the video download. It was done so awesomely well and I realized it was done by the same lady who did Beautiful Losers which I had watched a few years back featuring some of my favorite artists.

The documentary was inspiring, to say the least. Street photography was something that I had always thought about doing but didn't have the balls to, let alone the mindset and had been procrastinating. But in comes the iPhone, and with how (glorious) I am at stealthy shots, I was reborn. Haha. My phone battery drains pretty quickly this way, but I carry two power banks with me for that reason.

I've restarted my flickr account and have been uploading my shots there.

It's not all street cred worthy(yet), but I hope to get there.

Library.

On the 10th floor of the National Library, there's a place called The Retreat. Just a little garden above the streets where it is quiet. Of my years coming to the library, I never knew. Til I was passing the time and ventured up the escalators. This wasn't shot from that floor, I shot this from the 8th where I spend a lot of time in the Arts & Humanities Reference Library, going through book after book in hopes for some inspiration for new projects. I wonder how often they update their catalogue, but I hope soon cos I am running out of books to peruse. 

Knuckles and notch.

I had the pleasure of meeting the people of Knuckles and Notch, a risograph printing company last week at their humble studio in Normanton Park. Risography isn't particularly a new printing process, it's been around since 1986, coming out of Japan. It has only in recent times, emerged in our little country through Knuckles and another company, Push Press which is based out of Aljunied.

For those unfamiliar with risography, here is my non-technical, layman description of it. It starts with a machine that's quite like a digital photocopier but designed for inexpensive high volume printing. The printed result is almost silkscreen print-like. With limited colors, what makes it stand out from normal xerox machines, is that it prints luminous colors like pink or bright orange, and even gold. You can see what I mean from the first image above or from my previous entry here.

I'll be working with them on some prints I want to get done, so stay tuned for updates.

New site.

It's finally up and running. The only hard part was to compile what I had lost and some, unfortunately had been lost. It's hard to determine what types of image storage would be reliable. They said CDs were reliable and now not all of them are. But I have what I have and I'll move on from this knowing that.

I had been longing to create a proper site for what seemed like forever. And now that I have time off, I got to it. The archives will grow and I hope some recognition will come along with it. Even if it may be small. But I did it. And now I can move on to other projects. Yay.

Overhaul

In the midst of doing a serious overhaul of this site, re-structuring and figuring out how best to showcase my works and archive all the work I've done the past fifteen years or so which is made up of a lot of photographs. So not a lot of updates for now, but here's a photo of Alleycat being a busybody while I was re-shooting my old works last week.

To stay updated, you could just follow me on my instagram.

Girls of the Underworld

I was invited to be a part of a girls only exhibition by Kult...

Car Park Route

 Just more to add to my ongoing series of gloomy grey grimy parking lots.

See more after the jump.

Kult Memories

My submission for Kult Magazine's Memory issue way back in January/February, where we were given an old image to remix for modern times. New Tide was a magazine from back in the day and I did a Warhol inspired piece.

From the ps show.

Mary Bernadette. 

Plain Sunset - The Gift 10 year anniversary show.

Plain Sunset are one of those bands that outlive everyone, and I'm only referring to the local indie scene. Having been around since 1996, it is no wonder to how large a following they have. Having known them since 1999 or so and been their "official" photographer at one point, needless to say, my archive of them over the years is aplenty. I was there when they first released The Gift album and some of the photos I took then were flashed on the screen during their 10 years anniversary show last weekend. They may all be older and married now, but you can always still count on jumping shots during Find A Way. That song still gets me all choked up and even more so cos Ronny(their old drummer and also former M12 drummer *ahem*) came up on stage to play a few old ones with them. 

Trisha.

I met Trishy about two years ago, she had been going back and forth between Singapore and Vancouver where she lives now and has been for the past few years. She's one of the most likable/loveable people I have ever met and she makes jewelry. Having started making little dainty bead and threaded bracelets and necklaces, last year she progressed into making sterling silver jewelry under the name, WYLDEN.

She asked if I could take a few shots of her for her site just when I asked if I could do the same for my so called portrait project.

Farewell to Marns

"The hardest part about growing up, is letting go of what you're used to;and moving on with something you're not."

Sunday afternoon.

I've just been taking pictures cos it is the most convenient and I had been spending a lot of time with my girlfriends and they are after all, my usual suspects subjects.

Welch's.

Sam loaned her camera to me and I took her photo not realizing that the crop was sized at ratio 16:9(dammit!!!) and so am left with this long/tall shot of her.

Girlfriends are forever.

Two weeks have gone by, I've been settling into my new job. My co-workers/bosses are a fun duo that it's hardly dull. Time seems to pass by even quicker now.

Just got news that Marni will be leaving in two weeks. Too soon in my opinion. How do you try to cram quality time into those days before someone leaves you to go far away? I get attached to people as much as I get attached to inanimate objects, I will always feel a loss. And it's not like Sweden is across the border, that every weekend would be a little adventure. Okay, I am tremendously affected by this. We knew it was going to happen sooner or later, just that I didn't expect it to be in two weeks!

It's hard to put into words how despondent I feel, but just cos eventually we will all go our separate ways and live separate lives and for some, especially at the rate we're going, live further and further away that it would seem as if I am being left behind. Selfish, I know. With the closest people I grew up with from school also having moved overseas years ago, its not unusual for me to feel some kind of anxiety. Sure, I have lots of friends, but how could you ever find a group so tightly knit ever again. I'm pretty sure I will look back on this many years from now and laugh at the insecurities I am feeling this very moment. Just that for now, indulge me.

"We all take different paths in life, but no matter where we go, 

we take a little of each other everywhere." - Tim McGraw

Viva la GFC.

Marni is "Rejoice" in Hebrew, apparently.

With time running out, it was of utmost importance to be able to spend it with my friend,Marni before she moves to Sweden to live in matrimonial bliss. And to of course, take portraits of her if I could, to which I did.

Southern Ridges

The Southern Ridges is a 9 kilometer trail that connects parks along the southern ridge of Singapore. We started walking from Marang Road which is beside the Seah Im Food Centre carpark opposite Harbour Front and ended at Kent Ridge. It was a nice change from the usual hustle and bustle of Singapore and it was a nice somewhat peaceful adventure. It starts with inclines and stairs up to Mount Faber(first pic) which will make you feel the burn if you're out of shape like I am. I like walking and I do walk a lot but walking upwards is a different story. We finally visited the Henderson Waves(second pic) and surprisingly, we were the only ones there apart from another couple and a foreign family. Granted that at the end of the day, I was tired from it all enough to be able to fall asleep early. 

I guess this new year will see more walking trails to be able to see the parts of Singapore unseen. Next Stop, Pulau Ubin!

*all photos shot with the iPhone.

Artmire - Mrydette

I met Mary Bernadette in 2013 through instagram, we had mutual friends and I started following her for her illustrations. We became friends in real life and really hit it off because of our love for urban explorations amongst other things. She's a talented illustrator and I really love her line work; working mostly with ink and watercolor, and as a joke but with the utmost respect, I would leave "#myidol" comments on her instagram images of her work. Last week, on a whim I asked her to draw portrait of me, to which she asked me questions about my hopes and dreams and then took some time to do it up.

She first showed me the digital image of it but I was blown away when I had it in my hands, because it was not only drawn and painted but was cut and paste in a form of a collage as well.

On the reverse side, she left a note. A quote by Patti Smith.

An excerpt from her fb page.

"Dewi dreams of traveling to the States particularly NYC, San Fran, California (to see the Sequioa Trees) and Chicago. As you all already know by now (shame on you if you don't), she's a photography-typography maestro and enthusiast. She hopes to marry art, photog and type with travel. I really hope she gets to do this in the near future. Here's to you and fulfilling that crazy dream of yours, Dewi! ❤❤"

Needless to say, I love it. Thank you, Mary.

You can check out her works here and here(this one seems regularly updated)