Collaboration group B comprised: Victor Joubert, Douglas Stenhouse and myself.
We had the most diverse time-zone spread. Douglas GMT +1, Myself GMT +8 and Victor GMT +10. With the added joy of having less than 48hours to turn this around. Spoilers: We did!
Our Brief for the mini-project was to capture the response to the CoVid-19 pandemic on the streets of the three cities in which we reside. Creating a street photographer's historical document.
This was a task firmly in my comfort zone. Out doing street photography. I took a walk on Orchard road in Singapore and using a single 35mm camera with two lenses 35mm and 28mm) I aimed to capture people, place and time. In other words I wanted to show Singapore, as a cosmopolitan and conscientious community. Throughout the pandemic the public and governmental response was to strategise and follow. Ensuring that all measures were followed and public safety was prioritised. I wanted the time to be obvious, hopefully this pandemic will be confined to 2020 in its current state. It needed to appear to be Singapore (hence going somewhere iconic or at least globally synonymous with the 'little red dot'). However, the signage and street level addition became an important focus as did a sense of irony. The billboards with mask-less models, promoting an aspirational life almost mocking the 'real' people having to wear masks.
Margot looks on
Signage
One thing I didn't want to depict was isolation or remoteness. These conflicted with the way Singapore has pulled together. To work as a community to limit the spread of the virus. So there were shots that I took that I rejected for this collaboration.
It has reinforced how challenging a project involving people is going to be. My research project will almost certainly involve people and identity in some form.
We ended with a portfolio of around 36 images which can be found here: https://adobe.ly/31jsYlG
This was a very different collaboration. One where we worked separately and still managed to feed off and inspire each other. The post production chats, were not as involved as the other group but time was against us. We were working up until 6 minutes before the deadline.
It was truly enjoyable and especially nice to be working with other photographers. Not working in isolation is something I wish to do much more in future. Having other pairs of eyes on the work is liberating and motivating.