The Accidental Tourist

10 years ago, clients would tell me to take only bluebird taxis when I’m in Jakarta. 10 years later, client still tells me to “walk pass all the other taxi drivers and look for the guy in a white shirt/blue vest and the logo that looks like a phoenix. ”

The first visit to Jakarta was with Mum and brother. All i remembered of that trip was the river was polluted, squatters living their lives next to it and of course, my brother and I puking our guts out in the hotel room ‘coz of food poisoning.

In my first job, ex company sent me to Jakarta during the riots (or rather, despite the riots) to do training session for clients. It was scary for the fresh graduate out of school traveling alone and looking at all the trucks with protesters driving by. It didn’t help to find out there was a protest on the airport highway the night before but the protesters had dispersed due to rain.
Forward to present day, I’m still none the wiser . Walking out of the airport, i totally missed the guy in the white shirt and the blue vest. Yeah, i felt pretty stupid walking up and down looking for the “Bluebird”. Jakarta doesn’t seem to be what i remembered it to be. Building looks bigger and expensive. Malls are filled with the latest IT gadgets. Hey, the telcoms were having an Iphone event today and the best part is, you don’t have to queue to get one. The shops are filled with factory outlets. How about a burberry polo tee for $20?

No shopping for me since it’s only day 1. So i’m off looking for bluebird taxis while i’m in jakarta and pretending to look like i understand bahasa indonesian.

….so i thought…wanted to print a picture of Mr and Mrs Ng Wai Mun and frame it up for them but I just found out that Mr Ng passed away this evening…I got caught up in work….lame excuse, I know.  

Eeks….how can i forget to put up this information on my blog…..

First up! 

1. BENGALURU RUSH

A photography exhibition featuring the works of nine photographers who found their own beat to India’s rhythm.  

Duration of Exhibition:  Feb 21 – Mar 14

Time:  Monday to Friday, 11am to 7pm / Saturday, 1pm to 5pm

Venue:  Objectifs – Centre for Photography and Filmmaking / 12A Liang Seah Street

For more info:  http://www.farm.sg/index.php/farm/feature/bengaluru_rush/ or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T_Aq6UHtg0

Commonly regarded as one of the beacons of modern India, Bangalore or Bengaluru has made a name for its IT firms and international business relations. Yet somewhere in this cosmopolitan hustle-bustle is an eclectic traditional charm that sweeps the city into a mind-boggling mix. 

The images on exhibition are for sale. The photographers will donate 20 percent of the proceeds to SoCare Ind, a foster home for 104 children whose parents are convicts facing life or long-term imprisonment in Karnataka state’s jail system. The home provides free boarding, healthcare and education for the children and depends on donations and volunteers to function.

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2. THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S STORIES: PASAR: SIEM REAP AT BISHAN LIBRARY

Date:    1 Mar – 14 Mar 2009

Mon – Sun : 10.00am – 9.00pm     

Details:  Open to public, free admission       

Venue:  Bishan Public Library

5 Bishan Place, #01-01, Singapore 579841

Website:  http://www.farm.sg/index.php/farm/feature/the_photographers_stories/

I’ll be showing my Pasar : Siem Reap Series at the Bishan Library. This series was exhibited in Tokyo at  Month Of Photography (Japan) last June. This will be my first little solo show in Singapore. Also check out the other ongoing exhibitions in the other libraries! 

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 3 .THE PHOTOGRAPHERS’ STORIES REDUX

Date:   1 – 29 March 2009

Mon – Sun:  10.00am – 9.00pm

Details:  Open to public, free admission     

Venue: National Library Building, Promenades, Level 7 & 8

24 photographers, 24 original stories and 1 group show,

Just as the name suggests, all images will now be brought together from the 12 public libraries and shown as 1 exhibition within the National Library Building; where the works will now take on a new context with reference to each other and the space. Pasar : Siem Reap will be part of the 160 works on display. For the Central Library, the curation will be different.  Curated by Mr Chris Yap. 

Mr Phua has motor neutron disease. The illness has left him immobile as he is slowly losing the use of his muscles. Mrs Phua is showing him pictures that I took. He is confined to his room except for the rare excursion to the hairdresser. I take comfort that my pictures are his windows to what’s happening on the outside…..just a thought….

Meet Mr and Mrs Ng Wai Mun. You probably can’t tell from the picture but Mr Ng has nose cancer. When I first met him, he had tubes going down his nose as he can’t eat and has to go on a liquid diet. The tubes in his noses got choked up and the doctors changed it to a tube that’s going directly into his stomach. The two of them are also one of the sweetest couple that I have ever met. Even the cynic in me thought that “hey, true love is possible after all!”

I started shooting for the Lien Foundation’s Life before Death champaign about 4 months ago. Initially, I found it hard to talk to my friends about it. I was depressed. More so than the patients themselves. I couldn’t help but to think that the end road was death. In our society, it’s still taboo to talk about death and to talk about death seems inauspicious. Almost seems like I’m wishing the worst on the person. I’m not an emotional person. I don’t think I am. I didn’t cry at my own grandmother’s funeral when i was 16. I teared ‘coz I saw my dad crying and I felt sad for him. I still feel a pang of sadness when i open my dad’s wardrobe and see that he still has my grandmother’s pictures on his wardrobe door. When my own uncle passed away from throat cancer last year, I dreaded giving the news to my mum who was overseas. All i could think of was she will be sad and how do I break the news to her. In the end, my brother told her.  To put it simply, I fear death and I fear the sadness that surrounds it.

But something clicked tonight. A friend mentioned that thank god that I was back from India with the bombing happening in Mumbai. I reminded him that i was in Bangalore, not Mumbai, which was miles away. I don’t mean to sound unkind but I’ve always said that you can choke on tofu and die. I thought that at least the hospice patients have a chance to say good bye to their family. Initially, when we started on the champaign, I thought it was impossible to shoot happy pictures of the hospices patients. Looking back, I think my own depressing mood was affecting my pictures. After meeting more hospices patients,  I don’t know if it’s because I’ve grown accustomed to talking about death or the strength of the families who chosen  to celebrate what they have at the moment, but I’m not afraid of talking about it anymore. Or maybe I choose to look on the bright side now. Someone once said to me that the destination is not important, but the journey is. I guess the celebration of life as a journey makes the destination insignificant.

When i saw the papers this morning, I was thinking to myself “Finally!”. After days of reportage on TV and papers about the shortage of rice (which resulted in mass hysteria among the market aunties), our national propaganda machine paper, ST has finally done the right thing by showing a picture of a plentiful supply of rice. The photo in the paper was shot by Terence Tan. 

Interestingly, another friend was also documenting this mass hysteria by shooting the empty shelves in the supermarket. I was wondering, just wondering, if he had published that picture with empty shelves, it would have probably caused greater panic to everyone. But this is the truth, the markets are empty ‘coz of mass hysteria. As photographers, we are simply documenting the facts. Photographers are documentarists. Visually, we saw the people in the supper market holding on to the packs of rice for their dear life, empty shelves, stacks of rice in the trolleys, etc. 

I guess this is one example about how a photo can make a difference. Maybe it was the photo editor’s choice of picture. Maybe it was responsible photojournalism. Or just a brief from the big brothers up there. At the end of the day, the picture was made for a purpose and hopefully, it has served its purpose. Stop buying rice lah! 

I’m going to risk sounding like a bitch and say this. Do not pay people for pictures!

See example above. At the riverside of Cho 12 in Hanoi, this sweet old lady, a fish monger, saw me with the camera from far and started peddling over. Her old but nimble limbs started posing. Squat down. Standing up. Holding her oar on the left. Lifting it higher. Then, it started. “1 dollar , 1 dollar.” The dreaded 1 dollar chant.

Walking through Cho 12, I had already hear the chant. Mind you, this is a local’s market, not a tourist attraction. But they have been spoiled by the hordes of tourists coming through and paying them for pictures. Some of the store owners were nice. Once a conversation was striked up, they were open to pictures. Or buy stuff from them. Buy roast dog meat and eat it right infront of them. They will be amused by you and you get better pictures. Buy coffee for your mum at home. Buy some local tibits and just give to the hotel staff at the front desk. Whatever you do, DO NOT PAY for pictures. Why? ‘Coz you spoil it for the rest of us. These people make a living out of selling their wares, not posing for pictures. And don’t insult them by offering money.

Dragon.

I’ll be the first to admit this. I do not understand Contemporary Photography or Art. When I visited NY last year, visits to Chelsea Art Galleries often had me going, WTF is that? Can wads of chewing gum on a canvas pass off as Art?

If photography is an Art, how do we define it? Or do we define it at all? In Mauricio Alejo’s class over the weekend, he mentioned that Photography’s primary function is still to document, no matter you’re a documentary or contemporary or fashion photographer. We are all documenting. You could be documenting an great moment in mankind, an idea or the hottest trend. Strangely, this self reasoning suddenly puts contemporary photography into perspective for myself. Pictures are an archive of information. The idea of Indexal and Iconic pictures came in play. Indexal pictures were explained as eg, a photo of a foot print. An example of Iconic picture was of Gregory Crewdson’s where the idea came before the picture and the picture was constructed to show the idea. I’m not sure that the word “idea” explains the concept. Point of View? Vision? Hmm….

I’m still trying to process that mind cramping session that we had. Lots of information and theories were discussed. It did make the assignment of reading a chapter in Susan Sontag’s On Photography a little easier. Though I’m still trying to string all this information together and try to see the big picture.

At the end of class, I was reminded that I love looking at paintings and I don’t rationalised paintings when I look at them as compared to lookinng at Photographs. I enjoy a painting just because of the way it makes me feel. I remember seeing Picasso’s painting of Torso in SAM and going “wow, cubes also can show a human body and how strong that body felt.” Maybe it’s time for me to think less and just enjoy the photos and let them speak to me instead of trying to rationalise what was the message behind the photos.

“At one end of the spectrum, photographs are objective data; at the end, they are items of psychological science fiction.”
Susan Sontag, On Photography.