Bustle

Early Sunday Morning

This was indeed taken on an early Sunday morning. Around here, nobody seems to rest on the sabbath. The lady here sweeps the public road in front of her shophouse whilst the man loads up the trishaw. The constant sweeping motion of the lady's arms and broom stands in direct contrast to the potential nature of the trishaw, loaded and awaiting transport. The former happening, the latter waiting to happen. The former making a rustling sound, the latter dead silent. So much activity, so many possibilities. The darkened doorway, another Hopper influence, makes you wonder what lies beyond. The artifacts lined along the street gives a hint, but with such an eclectic collection, one cannot say for sure, and it remains yet another possibility.

Junk

"If your picture aren't good enough, you are not close enough"
~Robert Capa

I should have gotten closer before taking this photo. But I was amazed that I had already gotten so close without intruding, another tick for the rangefinder camera. I must say that shooting exclusively with a prime lens forces you to think through your compositions thoroughly. Once again, Hopper has greatly influenced this photo. Hopper's characters never attempt to leave the composition. Nor do they seek to make eye contact with the viewer or to engage, the result of being too caught up in their solitude. They appear contented to remain away from the prying eye and in the shadows. Alone is not loneliness but there is definitely the feel of immense solitude. A single warm heart surrounded by cold hard metal. The picture may seem cluttered with details but they are essentially all of the same genre, junk. Even so there is a perverse and converse nature to this, in that what most of us consider junk, some consider gold. The industrial weighing scale is testament to that, surely whatever that is worth measuring is worth keeping.

Attachments

"I never have taken a picture I've intended.
They're always better or worse"
~Diane Arbus

I don't quite know what to make of this photo. I suppose I should have fired the shutter 2 footsteps earlier. But I didn't. Nevertheless, I like the rhythm of this photo; the background echoing the foreground. The old man in the photo grips his trolley tightly, as tightly as the other man in the background holds his partner's hand. Both men holding on to that which is closest to their hearts; their life, their everything. Perhaps as tightly as I was gripping on to my Leica when it capture this shot. And so, maybe I was right to wait the 2 footsteps, to allow the old man to step out of the frame, and into my reality.

Chairs

Photography has the power to capture abstract feelings;
A sensation of strangeness inside the familiar.

Christmas

Christmas Lunch, in ascending order.

Christmas Lunch today was wonderful. There was a real air of Christmas about it, especially when the kids opened their presents. I love their raw honesty and enthusiasm. Everyone has grown. Not so long ago, I was playing Starwars toys with the doting parents in the photo. Now, their kids eschew Starwars for power rangers. Alas, the best Christmas gift is always the present; a reminder of its presence.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Peek-a-boo

How much is that doggy in the window?

Christmas is just round the corner and the mad rush to buy and shop will have subsided in a couple of days. Being a beneficiary of this enraged consumerism I really shouldn't be so hard on it. But I can't. Enough said. Today's ST had an interview with a Malaysian poet/author who said that economic reasons underlie the recent racial tensions in Malaysia. I believed he mentioned something about income inequality or unequal opportunities. Maybe I should qualify my previous stance, that race or religion will be the rubric for any social disintegration, but inequality still remains the underlying cause. Lets think about it as we ring up even more sales till Christmas.

Rails

Jump the tracks

I love rail travel. I love the link between the start point and the destination, something bordering on an organic feel. On the train, you watch the landscape change and there is a greater sense of progression, of adventure and most definitely a greater sense of journey. Maybe the love for rail travel stems from my hatred for air travel. I can never sleep on planes. You go into an airport, board an aluminum tube, strap yourself into a seat and a couple of painful hours later you are at your destination; dazed and disoriented. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for romantic nostalgia.

Artists

Void deck painters;
So real it seems unreal.

Triangle

6 degrees of separation in 180 degrees

I like the geometric composition of this photo, everything is geometrically ordered from the positioning of the people to the hard angular lines of the path ways. I especially like the slight intrusion of the building corner. I think it adds a certain punctum to an otherwise regular scene. It also helps that the intrusion is of the right kind; a right angle. Although I am utterly hopeless at mathematics, the philosophy of geometry fascinates me, particularly the approaches of Kant, Descartes and Euclid. I also love how the Muslim mathematicians adorned mosques and palaces with geometric shapes to exalt the Creator without involving idolatry; think the Alhambra, Cordoba, Istanbul, Cairo. There is an order to almost everything, especially aesthetics. I wonder if there is an intrinsic order to life. And if so, what is the formula?

Bald

Show some skin;
Ladies cover up,
what time eventually
unveils.

Squirrel

He lives well who lives lightly,
hoards nothing,
lets go the air he breathes-
to draw in more.

~Peter Abbs, The Flowering of Flint.

Lonely

Lonely at the top.
The odd one out;
Tries to blend in.

Work

Worksite, Sungei Buloh

I like nature walks because I love seeing nature at work. I like the constant hive of activity, and the symbiotic relationship between flora and fauna. Nature's mechanism and ingenuity never ceases to amaze me. Everything seems to have been so intricately designed. A blind watchmaker? I doubt it.

First

My point of view.

I wanted to do a self shot like this advertisement when I first got the camera but decided that it was too much trouble and too pretentious. Instead, I told myself that I would post the first picture that I took with it. So here it is, a window. The past few days have gone by so quickly. I must say that it has been a very fulfilling long weekend. I managed to get in 2 rounds of 18 holes, managed to go for a long walk in sungei buloh yesterday (with 5 hours of sunshine! And saw my first osprey!) and more importantly, I've been sleeping well; especially last night. And now, its time to go back to work. No more mucking about and no more exams. Moving on is always good, as long as it is progressive and not regressive.

Grey

We want out

It poured the whole of yesterday and today's almost as grey, albeit a little drier. I like the rain only when it is not intrusive. Yesterday evening, Liz and I stood by the window and watched the rain pour down; she wanting to go for a walk and me wanting to take photos. Both equally frustrated by the rain. 

Hopper

Myself

I have been two-timing my Popper book. My only excuse is that Popper requires digesting, so in between I indulge myself with Gail Levin's "Edward Hopper, An Intimate Biography". Like all illicit affairs, I am passionate about my new muse and I fear I might finish all 760 pages of the biography before I am even halfway through Popper. A scandalous affair indeed. The quotes are not from the biography but from the Tate Modern's 2004 Hopper Exhibition booklet that I dug out on impulse last night. On the topic of art, this is an interesting piece on the death of photography.

Broadsheet

The hands that feed, coffee and morning read.

Today's Papers promised that no Singaporean will go hungry. It also promised more money into the CCCs. Cash hand outs and vouchers "make sure that we can give the assurance that nobody will go hungry", for today. What about tomorrow? But tomorrow's front page will be for something else, and there is always Christmas shopping to think about. Its not easy feeding everyone and keeping the country cost attractive. Thats why we've elected people to do the job for us.

Body Language

Light and Form, photography's lingua franca

Man has form and sees only form. And Man always had and will continue to have an affinity for light; from the flame of Zoroastrianism, to the beam of light through the dome of the Pantheon, from the sun god of Aten and Amun Ra, to the Church of the Light. We use words to communicate but it is our actions that say so much more. Actions illuminated by light. A photo cannot capture smell and sound. The only language it speaks is that of light and form. Yet it is a language that everyone understands.

Calatrava

Lyon, Saint Exupery Airport

I bought a Calatrava book last night, to reward myself for making it half way through the exams. I like architecture books because there are more pictures than words. And also because architecture's practicality/utility and its ability as an artform to engage people on a conscious and subconscious level appeals to me. When I took this photo, the ignorant piglet that I am, had no idea that it was a Calatrava piece. I knew it had a sculptural feel to it, and I thought the columns had a Gaudi-esque appearance. I should have connected it after seeing his Turning Torso in Malmo but I think it was all the thoughts of Steph's Mama's cooking and the bottles of Cotes du Rhone that distracted me. Apparently, the airport terminal is "surely one of Calatrava's best known works". Ok. Enough said.

"art must be considered as a source of ideas for architecture. 'Why do I make drawings of the human figure?' The artist or the architect can send his message across time by the very force of form and shadow. Rodin wrote, 'Harmony in living bodies is the result of the counterbalancing of masses that move; the Cathedral is built on the example of the living body'. Let me give you an example of the importance of art for 20th century architecture. When Le Corbusier wrote 'Architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses brought together in light' in 1923, how many people knew that he was borrowing from the thought of the sculptor Auguste Rodin? In 1914, in his book Les Cathedrales de France, Rodin wrote, 'The sculptor attains great expression only when he gives all his attention to the harmonic play of light and shadow, just as the architect does.' The fact that one of the most famous phrases of modern architecture was inspired not by an architect but by a sculptor underlines the significance of art."
~ Santiago Calatrava