This is a slideshow of the photographs submitted during the basic photography workshop. I think the participants did a good job.
Last Saturday, we met up to discuss their individual project ideas. Before the meeting I was quite worried because most of the participants had not responded to the request for project ideas. But at the meeting, we were greeted with many interesting and diverse ideas. I am so looking forward to the pictures from the projects.
Well. We have completed the basic course in photography. I think that I can safely say that the participants enjoyed the lessons. They were very enthusiastic and we had some really nice photographs. Here we have a selection of images from the last exercise on textures.
We next move on to the next phase, the personal project.
Ngiap Heng
I have been working hard on corporate and art photography for ten years now. But it seems to me that caught up in my world of photography I knew very little about what goes on in the rest of other people’s lives. So I asked Dawn Mok about volunteering to give out condoms for Action for Aids. Just so that I could meet people and she told me that I have more to offer than distributing condoms. So, inspired by the film, Born into Brothels, I suggested to Dawn that we run a photographic workshop for people living with HIV. And she loved the idea and we began the project.
The idea of the workshop is to teach people basic photography and then mentor them through a photographic project. In November, we hope to curate a photographic exhibition that will allow people living with HIV, and also people working and living with people with HIV, to express their personal view of life. It is hard to put the personal perspective of a person living with HIV without being able to see and hear these people. This is because they still face a stigma in Singapore. We hope this project and exhibition will give a space for people living with HIV to express themselves, their hopes, their joys, their lives.
Dawn put together a committee from Action for Aids to help run this project. I got together a bunch of photographers to help run the workshops. I have not taught basic photography before and I have not run such a workshop before. Fortunately, I knew Straits Times photographer, Bryan Van Der Beek, who has worked on a similar workshop for migrant workers, inside out. He agreed to come on board this project and brought with him Wang Hui Fen, Terence Tan and Wong Maye-e, all press photographers. I managed to get Luke Bartholomew Tan, a commercial photographer, and Ho Hui May, an art photographer and teacher to come on board.
This process has been a little less structured than what I am used to in the corporate world. But it seems that things are coming along just fine. We are now in the middle of six weeks of basic photography. This is being lead by Hui May and me. As Hui May is teaching photography, her input has been invaluable. The AFA committee and I had tried without success to have some simple digital point and shoots for the participants. And Wang Hui Fen, chief photographer of the Straits Times, managed to get assorted cameras sponsored by Canon for the course.
The first session of the workshop, like most workshops, was long on lectures but the participants were enthusiastic. In the second session we asked the participants to just take a few photographs and bring them in. It was nice to see that the participants some really nice images and it occurred to us that we were starting on a pretty high level. The discussion amongst the participants were also very insightful.
Tan Ngiap Heng
Here are a few photos from the participants.
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