NM3223 – Cel’s Photography Blog

The category chosen for this final project is “Fine Arts”. We have decided to go by the theme of “In-Dependence” to portray our thoughts about Singapore being in dependence of something or other.

For more information on this project, please feel free to visit the team blog at <in2dependence.wordpress.com>

To see my contributions to this project thus far, check this out:

Here’s the picture that’s going up onto the exhibition panel:

In this picture, traces of red and white paint on the paint brushes are in line with Singapore colours. Brokenness evokes the feeling of frustration and ultimately, giving up on the task at hand. The splash of red paint and play on shadows is to further emphasize the anger and confinement of Singaporean artists. The brochures represent foreign art talent. More often than not, foreign art pieces are displayed and given much more publicity as compared to local exhibitions. Thus, this picture evokes a sense of forlornness by fellow Singaporean artists, whom are often shunned aside by so called more prolific foreign art talents.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Through my pictures, I hope to make viewers think about what is happening in the context of Singapore. We tend to oversee certain things that go on in our everyday lives, things that co-exist and depend on each other. My aim is to stir up a myriad of emotions and entice viewers to question and talk about what they see and feel from my pictures. The purpose is for them to realize how Singaporeans tend to depend on others, feel confined, yet ultimately and ironically, achieve a state of contentment. With the use of everyday objects placed in harsh settings, or simply a visual feast of strong colours and blackened hues, viewers will be inclined to face a conflict of emotions – frustration versus peace of mind, confinement versus security. My pictures seek to present some of the many things that we have overlooked. If we only slowed down to think for a moment or two, we’d start to realize that everything relies on something else or other. They say that a picture paints a thousand words, but in my pieces, I expect to evoke just two: In-Dependence.

SELF-ASSESSMENT (95/100):

I feel I’ve put in a lot of effort for this final photography project. It’s been great working with a dynamic team of people whom help you improve on your pictures. According to Prof Reddy, most of the pictures from our first idea didn’t seem to fit the theme of in-dependence, so we had to re-shoot. This was a rather time-consuming project, but along the way, I managed to learn a lot of photography skills. This final project has also taught me more photoshop abilities that I can use to enhance my photos. Initially, the chosen picture as seen above did not have the dark hue around it. My team mates all agreed I should create the feeling of darkness so as to blend in with the exhibition series, therefore I had to make the necessary changes using photoshop. Comparing my photo with for example, that of Jialin’s, I feel that I could have made my photo look a tad gloomier. Looks like I have to learn how to play around with colours more efficiently in the future. With that, for effort I give myself 10/10 and for creativity 9/10. Total is 9.5/10.

PEER EVALUATION:

Looking at the works of art brought out by my team mates, I am very impressed. The piece that shouted of the most emotion, is no doubt the one taken by Jialin. Her dedication to making her piece filled with emotion (eg. breaking the strings of her violin) really showed that a lot of effort went into it. For that, I give her a full 10 marks.

Other works I like include that of Mark.

Here’s the photo that Jasmine and I analyzed. Beware, much controversy involved. Negative connotations also included in ad. Perhaps you could leave some comments and tell me what you see in this picture. Are you annoyed by it? Do you feel as if Absolut Vodka is poking fun at Singapore? Do you love that this ad features Singapore? Feel free to comment.

Click on absolut presentation to view our powerpoint slides.

SELF-ASSESSMENT (99/100)

For this particular assignment, I feel that our presentation sparked quite a conspiracy. The classmates were commenting more on the advertisement itself rather than the presentation by Jas n I. It looks like Singaporeans can be quite patriotic at times. hehe. All in all, I feel that our presentation was quite in-depth, given the short presentation time of 7 minutes. Since we managed to create a stir in the class, in terms of emotions running high and much analysis being passed to and fro, this assignment deserves 99/100. The 1 mark lost is because intitially, we failed to analyse the negative connotations of the image. Take for example Paul’s and Mei Mei’s presentation, they had a section on cartography that showed the negative aspects of certain cards and the positive meanings of others. After the presentation, Jas and I added in a section on “negative connotations”. Now we’re complete. =)

PEER EVALUATION:

Under construction

For this assignment, I thought about how redundance and neglect creep over things as they age. When we stroll in a park, we hardly take note of the nature around us. We notice that there are greenery all around us, but how often do we stop to take a closer look? So, with no further ado… I dedicate this assignment to an old, but hopefully not forgotten, tree.

Standing tall and alone, no one really bothers to take a 2nd glance at the tree. Yes it makes the park nice and green, but what use is it to you and me? It’s slowly creeping towards redundance and negligence as it ages. The first picture shows the tree in all its glory, standing tall and proud. This is my take on realism(straightforward “transparent” view of the world). Moving on, my idea on formalism(limited view of the world) is to portray the tree in its essence. I feel that the bark is symbolic of a tree as it tells how old the tree could possibly be. It’s really nice how the texture of the tree bark turned out in my 2nd picture as well. Last but not least, I thought of a little twist to convey how a tree can be useful to us. This one i call expressionism because I wanted to show that when a tree ages, it could actually be more than just a visual component. This would also mean that a tree is not as redundant as it seems. yay! To end off, the 3rd picture shows a man meditating under the tree, which I feel expresses the usefulness of the tree. In fact, any other actions can be carried out under the shade of a tree (please don’t think dirty, heh).

Realism: A tree, just a tree.

Formalism: The bark depicts the age of a tree.

Expressionism: Putting a tree to more use than just to spruce up a park.

SELF-ASSESSMENT: (TOTAL = 8.4/10)

Hmmm, it seems my concept was too straightforward. Either that or my classmates were too tired to comment after a long critique session. Sin Guan commented in class that my piece on ‘Expressionism’ is obvious. That’s a good sign I guess. Actually I had another idea which I wanted to explore. When i find the time(if i do), I shall take the photos and upload it here. Alright, for this assignment, I give myself 8/10 for effort and 8.8/10 for creativity. Total of 8.4/10. There’s lotsa lotsa room for improvement for this assignment.

PEER EVALUATION

For this assignment, I feel that Jasmine’s idea on pipes creeping around was interesting. The cropping of her photos also shows that much thought has been given to each picture. I particularly like the yellow pipe in which she was attempting to depict formalism. For creativity, I give her 9/10 and for effort, 9/10 as well. That gives a total of 9/10. Keep it up Jas!

I like Stephanie’s concept of creep. Both her presentation and photographs were full of emotions. It was further amplified by the fact that for her, it was a personal experience that her family’s estate got taken away by the government.  I especially like her photograph of the signage that says “State Land..”. Click on the link to check out her blog.

Another piece of work I like is by Jillyn. I like the way she took pictures of the snail and showed the fence as if it were a pathway. The use of a snail and fence as a pathway really fits the theme of ‘creep’ well. The consistency in colours also shows clarity of thought throughout the 3 pictures. I give her a perfect 10 for this assignment.

Hmm.. I began this assignment with a vision… one that made me take a picture where a path leads into lush greenery. That place was the beach. The path was Bedok Jetty. That took 2 days of shots to fill up the missing pieces and 5 hours of hard work to piece together 400++ layers of photos. As it turns out though, this piece is going to the dumps.

Attempt 1: East Coast Park

And so the story goes: One day I’m in Europe and the day after, I’m back on sunny island Singapore(with its limited attractions and pale blue skies). The feeling of wanting to be back in Europe strikes me hard as I walk past Chijmes one day. I could not help but notice how it resonated with gothic and neoclassical European architecture. I call this, “A little slice of Europe in Singapore”. How i miss Europe. In order to capture the entire front portion of Chijmes, I stood in one place and took close to 200 shots(up, down, left, right) to get the fish-eye effect. Raffles City got in the way of this shot, so Photoshop to the rescue! If you notice, I gave Chijmes a golden glow to signify surreality(The question of “This is Singapore, isn’t it?”). All this was done using plays on shadows and highlights. This is my mind’s view, and I thought I’d let you in on it. The sky is also given a stronger dose of blue to resemble European skies(which is almost always bright bright bright blue). Comments please………………

Chosen for presentation: “This is Singapore, isn’t it?”

SELF-ASSESSMENT(Total: 9.5/10):

For this assignment, I went to many places to try out different angles of shots of various places and also played around a lot with Photoshop – to take away unwanted buildings/people from the image. The Chijmes photomontage is my best piece yet and I succeeded in making people think that it was a shot not taken in Singapore. I rate myself 9.4/10 for creativity and 9.6/10 for effort. (Total = 9.5/10).

Mark feels my work should be rated 8.5/10, as the discoloring of CHIJmes to a yellowish hue was not to his liking. To me, the discoloration was intentionally done to create a golden hue to the building and hence bring out the ‘Europe-ish’ feel.

PEER EVALUATION:

I like Paul’s photomontage of the lone man sitting under a tree. The picture looks silent, which brings out the theme of “The Day After”. The only thing I disagree with is the overpowering green colour of his entire image. With that, I rate his work 8.5/10.

I feel that Michelle’s idea on creating movement is interesting. She created overlapping squares where the man’s hands are portrayed as doing different actions. Also, I notice that most if not all of the squares in her montage are focused. This was what Prof Reddy was looking for in our photomontage. I give her 8/10 for creativity and 8.8/10 for effort. (Total = 8.4/10)

My favourite piece is by Jialin. It was really refreshing to see a change of perspective and use of colours. The next time I take a walk down Pagoda Street, I’m sure to remember Jialin’s photomontage. I give her a perfect 10!

This assignment asks us to create a photo essay of 8 to 12 pictures. I did 8 pics. My story is about a person’s change in status as he grows up. Everyone starts off by riding the toy cars at the playground. Then they progress by riding a 4-wheel bike, then a bicycle…. n in the past, the trishaw was yet another mode of transport…. then some have no money to buy a car, so they buy a scooter (in this case, a Vespa). The next is a motorcycle, which is slightly more expensive to buy. Ends off with a beetle and then a really expensive car, a Bentley. Enjoy….

The car in the playground: f/2.0, 1/250sec, ISO100

4-wheel bicycle: f/4.0, 1/100sec, ISO100

Bicycle in the alley: f/7.1, 1/30sec, ISO100

I’m gonna retake this pic cos it’s the only picture with people in it. Anyone have any ideas where I can take nice trishaw pictures?

Vespa: f/1.8, 1/100sec, ISO100

Motorbike: f/1.8, 1/200sec, ISO100

Orange beetle: f/4.0, 1/160sec, ISO100

Bentley: f/4.0, 1/125sec, ISO100

SELF-ASSESSMENT (TOTAL = 8.8/10):

My depiction of change is very explicit. Most of my classmates did otherwise. Either way, i think I’ve done a pretty good job in terms of scouting for vehicles and creating a story out of them. With that, I give myself 9.2/10 for effort and 8.4/10 for creativity. (Total = 8.8/10)

MY OPINION OF OTHER CLASSMATES’ WORK:

 I like the works done by Mei Mei and Jasmine. I feel that portraying emotions of people is a daunting task, and so I must applaud them for effort. Jasmine’s contrast between “Live to work” and “Work to play” was an interesting way of depicting change. Mei Mei’s photos of old people and their jobs showed clarity of career changes through the times. I give them both a total of 8/10 for this assignment.

I am impressed by Jie Ying’s photographs. The composition is consistent and the colours are very much alive. A perfect10!

The aim of this assignment was to observe how light interacts with objects to create patterns, shadow and sense of depth. How colours change their saturation through dawn to dusk and how shadows make textures feel tactile.We were supposed to explore image capture techniques to create a sense of space and time of real world in our prints. Below are the 2 images that I came up with.

Somehow or other, I kept thinking of “the light at the end of tunnel”, so on a Sunday morning at around 8am, I headed outside my house and climbed into a drain to take some photos. Thankfully the drain wasn’t smelly. =p The focus of the picture is on the walls of the drain at the foreground. Towards the light, the drain gets a tad bit blurry. For this shot, I badly needed a tripod, and since I don’t own one, I decided to improvise by using a tile that I saw outside my neighbour’s house to put across the drain.

Taken at 8:30am, f/22, 1.6sec, ISO100

This next picture is of a series of Russian dolls, from big to small. I like that they all look as if they’re the same size from this perspective. The focus is on the 2nd doll as you all can see. The only thing I wish to change about this picture is the background, as I feel it clashes with the colours of the dolls. Feel free to comment.

Taken indoors, f/4.5, 1/25 sec, ISO1600

Change of focus: Now on 3rd russian doll

Colourful staplers: f/4.0, 1/8sec, ISO 100

More shots for Assignment 2 (Do you prefer the shots below?):

SELF-ASSESSMENT (8.2/10):

For this assignment, I rate myself 8/10 for effort and 8.4/10 for creativity. Prof Reddy feels that I should focus on the 3rd doll instead of the 2nd. He said that it would add more balance to my picture. I shall do just that and upload it once I’m done. Classmates’ comments include, “I like the way the 2nd doll is peeping out at me…seductive” and “The background colour is fine, leave it the way it is”.

As for the drain picture, classmates commented that “It looks like something from Incredible Tales” and “It really draws me into the picture”.

MY OPINION OF OTHER CLASSMATES’ WORKS:

For assignment 2, I like the photos taken by Paul. He played around with shadows and colours very well. I’m not very sure which are the 2 photos that he finally chose, but either way, all his photos are really interesting. I particularly like the one where orange windows are contrasting with a white wall. I rate him a perfect 10 for his work!!

This first assignment is to make a photogram. What’s a photogram? Well, by placing objects directly onto a scanner bed in an interesting composition, you can create an image without a camera. The task was to make a “self-portrait personal photogram” using objects that say something about my personality. I went around my room searching for all the items I often use and the image below is the composition I came up with.

Initially I arranged all my perfume bottles on the scanner bed, but after scanning, I realised that the image did not come out well. The perfume bottles that were transparent in colour could not be scanned properly. Thus I went around looking for more solid-coloured objects from my room.

The use of red objects is intentional and I used a black cloth so that there would be a contrast between the two colours.

SELF-ASSESSMENT(8/10):

For this assignment, I rate myself 8/10 for effort and 8/10 for creativity (total = 8/10). Prof Reddy feels that I should add an object of another colour so that the red isn’t too strong (or in his words, “nauseating”). I’ll redo the photogram and upload it once its ready. Other comments from classmates include “It looks like an ad from a magazine”, “Maybe you could try using a black cloth that has more texture” and “I like the composition”.

MY OPINION OF OTHER CLASSMATES’ WORKS:

I like the photogram that Mark did. It looks a tad bit like a chinese painting, very minimalist in style but yet it draws me into the picture. Even the colours are well chosen and give a soothing feel to his artwork. I’ll give him 8/10 for effort and 9/10 for creativity (total = 8.5/10).

I also like the photogram that Jialin did. I feel that a lot of effort has gone into her artwork and the final outcome is sweet success. Very colourful and appealing. I’ll rate her a perfect 10!

Welcome to my NM3223 blog. Will post up my assignments once they’re ready for viewing. Stay tuned.