PHOTOJOURNALISM – ORPHANS (B&W SERIES 1)
by Wong Casandra
I was watching Channel News Asia last Saturday, and I spotted a familiar face in a programme called Warring Frontiers – Mr. Wayne Umehara, a photographer who taught Photojournalism in my school.
This was the man who taught us how to shoot on B&W (he was also the man who inspired me to take the plunge and venture into photography), how to develop film and print them. He is also a spectacular photographer with years of experience in both commercial photography and photojournalism.
Aside the man himself, what was also memorable about the module was the experience attained during the many shootings for my final project. We were given the liberty to do a photo essay on any subject, and I chose to do one on the subject of orphans. However, because of the tight legal issues surrounding orphans in Singapore, I had to make do with friends and friends’ siblings or cousins (who of course, weren’t orphans).
What happened was that for a couple of weeks, we had to report to Wayne with what we shot, and he would look at them during scheduled one-to-one sessions. These sessions were interesting and informative chats on how to improve your angle, how to make your shot more interesting by changing the background, etc. I would have say that I learnt a lot while shooting for this project.
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1. Cracked This (and the 2nd and 3rd photo) was taken in a small-forested area in Yishun. It was really hot and humid when we went there, and everything was drying up (hence, the cracked ground). |
2. Eyes Half Shut Impromptu shot! This was taken while standing on a plastic chair dumped at the aforementioned place. |
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3. Painted Love I got my friend’s brother (a very patient, sweet and cooperative boy mature beyond his age) to paint a heart on the ground. I deliberately left his face out of the composition. |
4. Lines & Shadows Photographed my friend’s cousin at a staircase in Marsiling. The sunlight made it looked as if he is confined to a jail cell. |
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5. Peering He did a great job in looking forlorn and hopeful at the same time. He was peering out of one of those unnecessary ornamental structures found at the void deck of a HDB flat. |
6. Stare I managed to rope in two friends to help me out. While unintentional, this shot had a more aggressive mood compared to the first five. |
Though the shots were done when I wasn’t so sure about how to use a camera, I was far from disappointed by the results!
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