Perseverance

• Main Author: Zhan, Jeremy Shiwen
• Other Authors: Paul Kohl
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Visual arts and music::Portraits; DRNTU::Visual arts and music::Photography
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/52398
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

“Perseverance” is a Documentary project begun from an interest in studying the advancement and economic development of our society, where many of the early traditional trades that were common in Singapore are fast disappearing. This project question of the theory behind socialism and capitalism, which inevitably contributed to the disappearing of early local settlements’ trades. By attempting to preserve images of Singapore’s early cultures and rationalizing the need to preserve our history among various government policies and social stigmatism, I have decided to document by photographing and video-graphing the trades that are still established in present day Singapore’s society. Each individual photographic image aims to portray the vendor, the type of trade and its environment. The project is inspired by childhood memories, patronizing (example: convenience stall, barber or hair-dressing salons shops) that were conveniently located beneath HDB-flats. For the previous three years, I have been documenting aspects of the Singapore culture. Through a close investigation of various modes of representation, I am seeking to examine the use of Portraiture in Staged Photography, to aptly depict a person through his/her environment, portraying the individual trade’s invaluable contribution to nation building in Singapore over the decades and the need to preserve images of them before the complete eradication of such significant past of Singapore’s identity. Secondary to the objective of documenting the vanishing trades, I impersonated, disguised as a son or daughter of various vendor. This impersonation will illustrate / implicate the second-generation citizen’s avoidance pursuing the family’s business due to various factors. This is a growing social stigmatism among the second-generation Singaporeans that grows from government’s ever-changing advancement policies, which contribute to these undesired consequences.