When streets are busy, they look like this:
No one notices the guy with the camera:
People are too preoccupied:
Work work work.
Sell sell sell.
Buy buy buy.
Go go go.
Thanks for reading!
Camera: Contax TVS II
Film: Agfa Vista 400
Author: eddietay
I am a poet and an educator. I have come to realise in recent years that the act of writing poetry has trained my mind to be always on the prowl for everyday moments that might be suitable material for my writing.
Hence, I turn to photography in order to record some of these moments. I soon discover that the photographs I am taking, using film rangefinder cameras which are more discreet and hence suitable to the task at hand, are in the tradition of street photography.
In search of poetry, I have become a street photographer.
What can Hong Kong teach me about street photography, and what can street photography teach me about Hong Kong?
This blog seeks to address that question.
Art-making
Street photography is about found action.
It’s when you realize the environment is a material you could draw from.
It’s arrested action.
There’re inadvertent art displays.
Someone positioned these just so.
The goods are guiding our eyes.
The entire environment is for consumption.
Colours are for sale.
Shoes are waiting.
Thanks for reading!
Camera: Contax TVS II
Film: Agfa Vista 400
Singapore Vertigo
Singapore can be vertiginous at times.
You look up.
You could lose your balance.
It’s a culture on display.
A culture that wants to be legible.
It wants to be read globally.
To be taken seriously.
There’s an official stamp on everything.
We see what we are supposed to see.
A people on display.
No one can truly be at rest.
We keep on looking.
Camera: Contax TVS II
Film: Agfa Vista 400
Street Thoughts
I don’t want to over-intellectualize things, but after doing this for a few years now, I’ve come to the conclusion that for me, to take street photographs is to think on my feet.
When I came upon the above scene for example, I am reminded of how much culture depends on physical toil that is too often, invisible. We marvel at the Great Wall of China, at the pyramids in Egypt, and of course, there’s an invisible history of physical toil involved.
I like the way signs are re-appropriated for other purposes. The full-size image of an air hostess welcomes you into the shop, which is closed for lunch. I make it a point to come here every time I’m in Singapore, to check out some of those NATO watch straps.
The deployment of trees is part of the city’s architecture.
The trees frame the building. Living in the city, we tend to forget that it is ultimately nature that frames human activity.
Something we do every day, waiting at a pedestrian crossing. One of those insignificant yet ubiquitous experience that characterizes urban life which we tend to forget.
Thanks for reading!
Buy my latest street photography and poetry book!
Camera: Olympus XA 3
Film: Ilford XP2
Chinatown Moments
A history of the present…
The streets are clean.
Street tourism.
Somewhat in your face…
Street prayer…
Street fruit!
Street selfies…
Another history of the present…
Thanks for reading!
Buy my latest street photography and poetry book!
Camera: Olympus XA 3
Film: Ilford XP2
Indecisive Moments
There’s a lot of talk about “the decisive moment” in street photography.
Here are some indecisive moments.
This?
Or this.
This?
Or this?
Probably not this…
Thanks for reading!
Camera: Olympus XA3
Film: Ilford XP2
Monochrome Dream
A small gathering.
The eye leads you to a tower.
Why this and not that.
We’re still figuring it out.
A dream of a tree in a building.
Another look at the tree.
Just to make sure we aren’t dreaming.
Thanks for reading!
Camera: Olympus XA3
Film: Ilford XP2
Thinking Space
A bit of self reflection.
Now you see me.
Now you don’t.
There’re lives here waiting to happen.
Journeys waiting to happen.
Games to begin.
Steps to take.
Obstacles to avoid.
Work to do.
Camera: Contax TVS II
Film: Kodak UltraMax 400
Spaces of Discipline
We shape the city.
The city shapes us.
We create new possibilities.
But there’re only so many paths you could choose to take.
Sometimes the view surprises us.
Sometimes it stops us from going further.
We have to do the work of philosophy.
To think about what we’re moving, and what moves us.
Camera: Contax TVS II
Film: Kodak UltraMax 400
Urban Space in Singapore
We like to know where we are in urban space.
We cannot help ourselves.
We need to know where we are.
We need space to frame ourselves.
But space can speak for itself.
Sometimes we’re simply compelled to look.
And look again.
Thanks for reading!
Camera: Contax TVS II
Film: Kodak UltraMax 400
Hong Kong Lucida 