A guide to Singapore’s photography scene

Famed for its skyscrapers, the densely packed city-state can be residence to a burgeoning photograph scene. Photographer and lifelong resident Calvin Chow guides us by the cultural highlights

Landing in Singapore. The flight attendant welcomes you to the Backyard Metropolis over the aeroplane intercom. Most travellers go to for a brief vacation, or maybe for a style of modernity earlier than heading to different South-east Asian locations. However I’ve lived right here all my life and realise that point is what you want most to correctly uncover this metropolis’s a number of facades. An ultra-modern skyline with spotless streets and orderly skyscrapers constructed on the legacies of colonialism, the town’s mix of greenery and metal is unparalleled. There may be, nevertheless, a human hand concerned at each flip.

To see Singapore is to take a look at the amalgamation of immigrant histories, native cultures and sacrifices of the pure world. The photography scene within the area started with an ethnographic intent within the 1800s, however has since morphed into a up to date power. Pushing boundaries and distilling life into artwork, photographers haven’t solely recorded the meteoric price of change on this metropolis, however what it means to stay in Singapore and South-east Asia at massive. When new practice strains and houses compete with areas of nature, priorities grow to be obvious within the metropolis. Pragmatism is maybe the secret, however life, not like new condominiums, strikes at a a lot slower tempo.

In Singapore, we discover consolation in meals. A nationwide pastime is to enterprise to the completely different hawker centres (an open- air advanced of meals distributors) in the hunt for delicacies. From Malay to Chinese language delicacies, our meals celebrates multiculturalism. The ever present rooster rice is straightforward in its premise, but its aromatic rice with juicy rooster meat has fed generations and is the dish I crave most when abroad. Meals means a lot to Singaporeans as a result of it permits us to maintain on to our tradition and historical past.

On this guide, I provides you with an thought of how I see the place. After all, it’s best to go to the favored websites – such because the hulking metallic flowers at Gardens by the Bay, or the Avatar-esque waterfall at Jewel Changi Airport – however the magnificence present in buildings constructed by the genius of people can simply be matched by that of nature. I encourage you to spend a while within the ‘jungle’, resembling at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, the place you will see crocodiles, birds and monitor lizards. Briefly, Singapore is no matter you need it to be. On a Monday morning, you may be preventing for standing room on the subway, or sipping champagne on the infinity pool on the highest of Marina Bay Sands. You would eschew glass-and-steel in favour of nature however by no means be greater than an hour away from an air-conditioned mall. If you’re simply right here for a short while, hit up the highlights and go away however know that what you noticed was all constructed for you: a facade of a metropolis twisting and bending its magnificence, interesting to the attention of the beholder.