Wednesday, July 5, 2006

Homeless Man & No Littering

Homeless Man & No Littering
© 2005 Martin Liew

Homeless Man & No Littering

I paid a visit to the National Library today to check out Eye e City 2005 photo-exhibition. I took part in the event last year and one of my pictures was selected, as shown above. I know this is not related to night photography but I just wanna share my joy with every reader here.

Here's how I came about making this picture:
31st Dec 2005, Saturday morning. I arrived early at Waterloo Street and walking around for some interesting things to shoot. As I took the escalator up a level above the hawker center, I saw this homeless man sleeping soundly on the floor. I walked pass him but as I turned back to look again, I spotted the "No Littering" signboard on the wall. As the wall was curved outwards, the old man's body laid just along the contour comfortably as if he's performing some yoga.
Initially I wanted to shoot the old man as the main subject but upon seeing the whole scenario, it occurred to me that the old man and the sign board have a contrast implications. It somehow creates an awareness of homeless folks wandering and sleeping in the street with no-one to look after them. These people are literally treated like "garbage" and the No Littering sign board speaks for them. Don't neglect these people and their welfare. This can be a serious social problem if attention isn't paid on them.
Nikon D70s • 18-70mm standard lens • B&W conversion in Adobe Photoshop with Level adjustment and minor dodging.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Eye é City 2005

Eye é City 2005:
A Visual Account of the Last 24 Hour of 2005
2005年岁末二十四小时人文记录

This was the fourth year of Eye é City. Through this project, the organiser encourages the documentation of social changes, recorded through photographs on the last day of the year to form the collective memories of Singapore from the eye of ordinary individuals. While for the past few years, they have had being collating photographs of amateurs, novices and professionals alike, and showcased them at exhibitions and in publications. Last year they also invite Secondary School and Junior College students to join in this meaningful event which they hope to see Singapore through the eyes of our young future leaders.

It was my first year participation in this event. It was a fun and fruitful day on 31st Dec 2005 Saturday. Six months later, on 12 June 2006, Monday, I received 2 emails from the Organising Committee. One stated about the launch of photo-book and photographic exhibition which will be featuring the 100 B&W pictures selected for the photo-book. Here the details of the event:


Book Launch cum Sharing Session
新书发布与分享会
Date: 8th July 2006, Saturday
Time: 2:30pm - 5:00pm
Venue: National Library Board, Central Lending Library @ Basement 1
100, Victoria Street

Exhibition Period: 01 - 31 July 2006
Opening Hours: 10am - 9pm


A talk (in English) by Mr Lee Tiah Khee, Chief Photographer of Lianhe Zaobao, has also been scheduled for you on the 29th July 2006, Saturday at 3.00pm at the same venue. Everyone is most welcome with their friends or colleagues to attend this talk to gain some insight on photojournalism.

All above mentioned events are free admission.

The second email is a good news for me. It stated that one or more of my submitted photographs was/were selected to be printed in the photo-book and for the exhibition as well. As a compliment, I'll be receiving a copy of the photo-book. This is really exciting for me! Awesome!

I'll post the selected photograph here on that actual day. Watch out for it!