I have covered a wide range of events including opening ceremonies, speeches, birthday parties, concerts and conferences. My approachable personality and ability to engage big groups means you won’t have to worry about dull, lifeless shots spoiling the party.

 

I derive a satisfaction from portrait photography because of its ability to connect myself, the subject and audience. By engaging them in a direct manner, I get the opportunity to exchange ideas with people in a limited time and express those interactions, the subject’s character, history, influences and social significance in the form of an image. I have photographed people from all walks of life including families, soldiers, monks, scientists, artists, lawyers, celebrities and activists and am always looking to meet more.

 

Although we had just been through an 18-hour flight, the first thing we did after dropping off our bags at the hostel was to sprint a few streets down into the heart of Times Square. I was thrilled to be in NYC and shouted out in joy. Around me, a huge Starbucks café, the M&Ms building, the Morgan Stanley building, a huge C.S.I banner… it was all so familiar, just like on TV. I was in America!

 

SOMETIME earlier this year after reading that Singapore would host APEC and President Obama, I was determined to get myself involved in one way or another. As the months went by it was always at the back of my head – How can I photograph it since I’m a freelance photographer and the wires would definitely have no space for newbies to be in the thick of action.

Sometime in late August, I received a phonecall from S. S was one of those people I knew online from my teenage blogging years. Although we hardly ever had a face-to-face conversation, she always lurked in the background with utmost support for what I do. It was also thanks to S that I got to represent Singapore at the ASEAN Youth camp in 2008. This time round, she had connections to an official photography job for the APEC Business Advisory Council dialogue meetings – on condition that I had to pull together four other photographers and work around the allocated budget.

I was absolutely thrilled. Managed to round up four other guys and grew progresively excited as the whole country went into full preparation mode to welcome the APEC delegates and leaders. I was especially excited to see Obama, Arroyo and Hu Jintao up close and personal, without having to jostle with the other media. Alas on the morning of the assignment, the papers reported that Obama’s flight was delayed and he would miss the dialogue session. Damn! Huge disappoinment there.

Still, it was a very privileged experience to have official access to photograph these world leaders. I was trying to reconcile the preconceived ideas I had about them — These people were on the papers 24/7. I grew up watching some of them on CNN. Their words moved markets, their policies moved people. They were loved, hated, respected, shamed.

And at some point while trying to avoid getting shoved by Hu Jintao’s bodyguards and chasing Abhisit before he vanished into the crowd, it struck me that these prime ministers and presidents were mere human (with an unimaginable great weight on their shoulders). Suddenly my camera bag didn’t seem that heavy anymore.

Just a quick note to say thank you to everyone who came by Objectifs last Saturday. This was my third photo fair, having taken part in last year’s Affordable Photo Fair and 2902 Gallery’s On the Wall event, and definitely my most successful one to date.

I love photo fairs because I get to meet people and share with them what I do. To kick it off, the thrill of having a very nice lady buy not one, but five of my photo prints pretty much got me on an adrenaline high for the rest of the day. Thank you to everyone who bought sets of Road Stops 2009 and a print or two. Even if you didn’t buy anything, thank you for just coming by my booth and asking me questions… questions that remind me of the stories behind the images, the motivation that pushes me to walk this path. I am really glad to have you listen to my stories. Special thanks to the superwomen at Objectifs for organizing this smashing event in their lovely new home, my dearest friends and family who came in full force with lunch and snacks in hand. :)

Here’s a slideshow of the prints up for sale this year.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

If you missed the fair and are still interested in ordering prints or Road Stops 2009, please view free to view the Catalogue and contact me. I’m always available to meet up.

You are invited to The 4th Affordable Photo Fair on 21 Nov (Sat) from 11am – 7pm.

Here are some of the images on sale. I will also be launching Road Stops 2009, a set of 12 greeting cards.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

For more information, check out the Catalogue and visit http://www.objectifs.com.sg/apf/

See you there!

Route:

Home as it is to me.

 

This project was exhibited at the Shooting Home Class of 2008 reunion show.

Project statement:

In The Modern Nomads, Jean Qingwen Loo pieces together a personal documentary project of her relatives in Beijing as they take on the Chinese dream.

Since young, she has been in awe of how her Uncle C.Y., his wife Fanny and their son Alexander ­­split their time and lives over homes in Beijing, Hong Kong and Melbourne. Even though they only visited Singapore twice a year, there was a tight kinship that grew stronger with distance and every moment together.

Regular visits to Melbourne were always the highlight of any school holiday. And somewhere, sometime in between feeding the geese behind her uncle’s lake house, running wild into fields of lavender and lapping up aunt Fanny’s cheesecakes, Jean caught the winds of wanderlust and decided she would try to see all of the earth when she grew up.

Today, as a 25-year-old trying to find a foothold in a world that’s moving too fast, these are the carefree memories of yesteryear that ground her. Some people grow up and grow apart, but Jean is determined to keep her family close.

 

I was invited by my Burmese friends to join in the celebration and prayer session at the Singapore Burmese Buddhist Temple for Aung San Suu Kyi’s 64th birthday. This is an excerpt of an article I wrote, partly inspired by the 64 for Suu campaign.

AS MAEMAE Myint entered a makeshift dining room at the back of the Burmese Buddhist Temple on Ah Hood road in Singapore, her eyes were drawn to the striking banner of Aung San Suu Kyi hanging proudly in the distance. “That is a very nice picture of our lady,” said the 34-year-old tour guide who was in town with her family from Yangon. “I am glad to be here today and be free to pray for her with everyone.”

She joined the crowd queuing up orderly for their free bowls of Mohinga or rice vermicelli in fish soup, who had all gathered for the same purpose –– pray for Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s imprisoned democracy leader who had just turned 64 under house arrest.

POWER OF THE POWERLESS

For 14 of the last 20 years, Suu Kyi has been placed under house arrest on numerous occasions. Disallowed contact with the outside world, she would busy herself reading, meditating and playing the piano. In recent times, she has been permitted to meet foreign diplomats like United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari.

During this time, her efforts to bring democracy to Burma and sacrifice of her personal life and freedom won her support and recognition from all over the world, including the Nobel Peace Prize (1991) and Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought (1990) which her sons accepted on her behalf.

Although she was offered the freedom to leave Burma on several occasions, Suu Kyi refused for fear of permanent exile. In March 1999, after several failed petitions to the Burmese authorities to visit his wife for the last time, Aris died of prostate cancer in London. The last of five times they had met since she began house arrest was at Christmas four years ago.

“Over the years her personal sacrifice and stoicism has stood in stark contrast to the opulent lifestyles of the military leadership,” said Dr Jason Abbott, an expert on Burma from Britain’s University of Surrey. “It is arguable that without Suu Kyi’s international fame and notoriety the regime would have long since dispensed with her.”

Her last public appearance was in 2007 at the gate of her home to receive blessings from Buddhist monks who were marching in support of human rights. In May this year, as her latest detention period was about to expire, the untimely intrusion of John Yettaw resulted otherwise.

CRACK OF DAWN?

WITH both the junta and Suu Kyi sticking firmly to their guns, it seems that the way forward would depend on how they react to persuasion from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a ten-nation organisation which Myanmar is part of and engagement from the west.

Dr Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a visiting research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies thinks it is very clear that the priority of the Burmese government lies in its maintenance of political power.  “Letting Suu Kyi participate in the upcoming elections risks the regime losing power so they have every reason to continue to lock her up,” he said. “After all Burma has shown that it has been able to manage its domestic politics without any restraint all these years.”

Furthermore, the growing strength of Suu Kyi’s popularity over the last two decades of her house arrest and the lack of a succession in the NLD party has made her even more indispensable in Burma’s political struggle, he adds.

Others caution on tying the political crisis in Burma too closely with Suu Kyi alone and see another possible way out beyond hard sanctions and boycotts.

ASEAN and the west should instead explore new avenues of connection with a paranoid military leadership defined by a nationalistic worldview that “Burma is beset by opponents within and without”, said Dr Abbott. “International pressure and condemnation simply confirms this outlook and even ironically strengthening their obstinacy.”

Yettaw’s release could be a prelude to a new era of politics between Burma and the west. The fact that US Senator Jim Webb was allowed to meet Suu Kyi after UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon was denied a similar visit earlier is icing on the cake.

The most significant development from this bizarre episode, perhaps, came from none other than the Lady herself. Reports of Suu Kyi softening her stance towards the tourism boycott and sanctions are emerging for the first time in many years, and could well be pivotal in steering Burma into brighter days.

 

Set in 10 acres of lush terrain in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, the Noah’s Ark Natural Animal Sanctuary (NANAS) is home to a mix of abandoned and stray dogs, cats, horses, rabbits and the random monkey.

From its early beginnings as an animal shelter in Singapore, what started out as one man’s enthusiasm and devotion to provide stray animals a home has developed into a movement that aims to reach out to Singaporeans and address the issue of abandoned pets and strays. Together with a team of dedicated volunteers, Raymund Wee tends to the day-to-day running of the animal farm, providing food and treating them when they fall ill.

To find out more about NANAS, please visit http://noahsarkcares.blogspot.com/