Superficiality of it all.

Again. Wasted pictures. I  dont know what to do with these set of pictures. That hobby of mine turned out into something that was part of my career again. I’ve always wondered what makes a good photographer? Yeah, everyone can claim that they’re a photographer as long as they have a hold on a DSLR. What makes a photographer unique? Well, my experience in Singapore, if your expertise is in photography, then you’ve got to fight for that attention.

How to survive in Singapore if you’re planning to get your works out there:
(Disclaimer : please sense my sarcasm, whatever that I wrote here is based on experiences from friends & what I got out of living in sg for 21 years of my life)

1. Hang with people who are in the social scene
Why? You might be surprise, because they are the ones with plenty of connections.

2. Take Tumblr like, pixie kind of pictures. That’s the trend right now yeah ain’t it?

3. Be superficial. Take pictures of pretty and popular girls only. U know girls who are of a hybrid of dutch/british/malay/scottish/ chinese/ american blood etc? Oh and once they actually thank you as a photographer and post up their pictures on facebook, you’ll probably get that 15 minutes of fame on facebook. Yeah, it’s funny because the links on your model’s facebook goes over to 134 ++ etc likes, where it comes down to a miserable 30 likes on your album. See where i’m going? (as long as they don’t look asian, that’s the way to go)

4. Make sure you have good works too, yknow. It’s embarrassing to claim that you’re a photographer and produce work that can be taken using instagram.

5. Send all your entries to whatever contest there is, go for whatever events there is. Fashion events/ clubbing events / launch of some brand just go. You need to socialise to get your name out there.

6. Bring your namecard wherever you go. You want people to remember you? Hell yeah, here’s my name and my contact number please call me back if u need me or when you actually remember me.

7. Get into a fun photography agency with popular photographers.

8. Keep posting your work everywhere. Till your friends get sick of it.

9. Dress like a photographer or a hipster MAN. really, you’ll totally fit in.

No offence to anything, but i’m just saying this is how it works. How it works for struggling “photographers” who are in their 20s and who have no direction in their life in singapore. Sad, but true. Anyhow, I hope you liked what I’ve got. I never got to publish these pictures, always thought they were just a load full of pictures without meaning. This is just a set of photos that somehow complied to whatever that I’ve just said. Except, it never got anywhere.

 How has it worked out for you as an artist/designer/media student ? What are the trends and patterns have you picked out in your creative industry? Are you willing to comform? Is this just a way of life?

This post is very much like the reading done by Paul Graham about the “The Age of the Essay” . In it we all spoke about how ironic his entire article was because it was just basically bemoaning structures in an essay, yet still comforming to the conventional sort of writing while coming up with the article. I guess it goes for the same for this, here I am trying to critique every thing that is flawed about the scene of being a photographer in Singapore, but somehow or another my pictures that I’ve shown you are just basically proof of certain topics that I’ve touched on.