Old Romances & Old Places – Kick Off for 2013

My adventure in photographing, documenting and sharing about Old Places and lately Old Romances in Singapore, had always been a fruitful and exciting adventure for me. For my personal projects in the areas of Old Places and Old Romances, I produced a mixture of history, heritage, cultural, conservation, preservation, photographs and writing into my posts. With a mixture of current events and personal projects, I am a good mix of photography stories/adventures of past and present.

IMG_4915

After watching Old Romances at the National Museum of Singapore, it was a Rekindling of Old Romances inside me. There were still many Old Places and Old Business Trades for me to go out photograph and document in Singapore. It would be a balancing act for my photojournalism journey in 2013, between my personal projects in Old Romances, Old Business Trades and Old Places, along with current events coverage in sports, events and tourism. I am finally kicking off my Old Romances and Old Places photojournalism journey for the year 2013 and I would be sharing some areas that I would be looking into as my priorities.

Bukit Brown 

This year 2013, it would be the start of the exhumation of the affected graves at Bukit Brown for the upcoming building of the expressway cutting through Bukit Brown. I trekked and explored Bukit Brown with the Nature Society of Singapore on 24th December 2011, and with my relatives over 2 more times  to find my ancestors and pay respects to them. I had not written about my relatives visit to Bukit Brown and this would take on a more significant portion for year 2013 because three of my five ancestors (my maternal Great-Grandfather and two of my maternal Great-Grandmothers whom I never met before) are affected by the building of the expressway and they are slated for exhumation. I personally find it very challenging if the green light comes to me from my senior hierarchy of my maternal side of family to photograph and document the exhumation process. When the time comes, I would share my documentation stories and photographs with the blessings and permission of my relatives if they give me the permission to do so.

2T2J9123

Bidadari 

This is another former cemetery in Singapore, that was cleared sometime back. The plans would be a go-ahead to build HDB blocks in the area and the lush greenery that plays a birds haven to around 139 species of birds both local and migratory. There is a Facebook Group – Saving Bidadari for Birds and People, do check them out! While it is inevitable that the majority of the land at Bidadari would be used for HDB blocks, there is a chance that the lush greenery that housed the birds would have a different outcome since that area was planned to be a neighbourhood park. Nature Society of Singapore did a proposal for the conservation of Bidadari as a Nature Park, that would definitely benefit the preservation of the birds, a green space for the public to relax and enjoy. I am looking forward to visit Bidadari, enjoy the green lush space and do bird photography, along with writing and advocating the preservation of Bidadari as a Nature Park. Let’s see if civic groups and community engagements can make a difference to how we want Singapore to be like in the future, to strike a balance between growth, expansion and retaining our green space for wildlife, leisure and recreation.

Old Business Trades 

In the face of modernisation and capitalisation, many Old Business Trades in Singapore faced an uncertain future, they faced different issues such as the trade would not be able to pass on to the next generations at all since there were not any takers to do so. I was honoured that I was given permission and able to follow along with National Heritage Board (NHB) mini-projects to cover and document Old Business Trades. My first coverage of the Old Business Trades was my post on “The Art and Profession of Knife Sharpening“. Looking and moving ahead for 2013, I hope to be able to cover more of these Old Business Trades. Another segment that I covered was in the traditional arts performances such as Puppetry in Singapore and Bangsawan Performance.

Old Romances

After watching Old Romances, there was a connection between the love stories that the people kindly shared and what those Old Places, Old Trades and Cultures meant to them. From the different love stories shown, I had explored and photographed some of them, there were those that I didn’t know they were around in Singapore. I would look into this list and start to explore them in the year 2013, with fellow heritage buffs. We would all probably take turns to plan and lead heritage outing trips to the places shown in Old Romances.

Green Corridor 

The Green Corridor, also known as the Rail Corridor. An area that I was interested in, covering and photographing the KTM Railway before it was handed back to Singapore, the removal of the railway tracks and being transformed into a green corridor. While the future remains a question mark, I believe that with active and constant community engagements and dialogues with the relevant authorities. The Green Corridor/Rail Corridor would remain mostly a green corridor for all of us to enjoy, relax and stay active, exercising and healthy by cycling, trekking and running along the Green Corridor!

2T2J8009

Do stay tuned to my photographs collection on Flickr and 500px for my Old Places and Old Romances updates too!

500px ~ Old Places

Flickr ~ Old Places

Flickr ~ The Green Corridor

Finally, I got this write up off my chest and mind!! Now I can go ahead and kick off my Old Romances and Old Places 2013 documentary and photojournalism adventure for 2013!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *