Eye e City 2007 - Preliminary Selection

This morning I went to Bras Basah Complex for Eye e City Preliminary Selection of my photographs. Well I always want to have control over my own work and I know what I wanted and got the kind of pictures I wanted, so I selected the "best shots" in advance last night. I did all the essential write-ups for the selected photographs as well. This year Eye é City committee launched a new challenge, A Visual Retrospective of the Year - an open call for a set of photographs reflecting and depicting the year's events and happenings, I confidently took up the challenge Participants of Eye Challenge should submit a set of photo-essay (4 - 12 frames) taken anytime during the year, but at least one frame captures on the last day of the year. The participant is free to decide on the scope and subject of the photo essay.

Below are the photographs I selected i.e. 2 individual single shots and a set of 5 photos with photo-essay. The topic or theme for the Retrospective challenge I chose was Singapore National Stadium. Yes, I dug out all the photos I took within the year 2007, and I remembered I made lots of photographs of our National Stadium. Well, most were taken in medium format with my TLR camera. Nonetheless, I did take a roll of 35mm color negative with my Nikon FM10, night photography at the stadium. I did attend the official closing ceremony event held on 30 June 2007, Saturday. I was lucky as my friend got an extra ticket to the event and I was delighted to accept the offer. So here is the set of photographs of our National Stadium. Pleasant viewing and reading.

Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall

The Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall (Chinese: 孙中山南洋纪念馆). also known as Wan Qing Yuan(Chinese: 晚晴园), and formerly as Sun Yat Sen Villa (Chinese:孙中山故居) is a double-storey colonial villa at Ah Hood Road, off Balestier Road. The villa is now a museum commemorating Dr. Sun Yat Sen who visited Singapore eight times between 1900 and 1911.

The museum is closed for renovation since 1st May 2007. I was walking along Balestier Road and thought of dropping by to check out the venue. Of course, the main gate is locked with a notice signboard hanging on it. Minutes after I took this shot, a lorry pulled up right behind me. They are the exterminators, coming to "smoke" the mozzies. So I have to leave.

Unchanged Melody - Mr. Chen, a construction worker

This is Mr. Chen from Jiang Xi China. He works as a construction worker at a nearby construction site that builds new condominiums named Pavilion (in the background). I happened to bump into him while I was walking up to this grass field area right behind the old Balestier Road Market (defunct). As I walked towards Mr. Chen, he looked up at me and said with a smile, "Taking photos?" in Mandarin. He sounds friendly and I replied, "Yes I am." He stood up and started to chat with me.

I asked Mr. Chen what is he doing on this grass field. He was told to patch up the whole field with new grasses, to make it more greener. Later on, we talked about his homeland, China, and his hometown, about life living in China and Singapore, work, etc. He has been working in Singapore for 2 years. The construction company he's working for employs mainly Chinese foreign workers. After our 30 - 40 minutes conversation I asked for his permission to take photographs of him. He was shy and kind of reluctant at first, so I convinced him that I'll print and send him the photos as his souvenirs. He gladly agreed.

Photo-essay: Unchanged Melody - Mr. Jimmy Chin, an iron welder

Mr. Jimmy Chin, the iron welder at work

Conversation with Mr. Jimmy Chin

Mr. Jimmy Chin's hands

Mr. Jimmy Chin and his workshop

Eye Challenge: A Visual Retrospective of the Year (2007) - Singapore National Stadium

Bridge to Stadium

Ticket Booth

West Entrance 1

West Entrance 2

Soccer Match

Spectator

The Kallang Wave

Lights Off For Countdown

Fireworks

Ice Cream Man

Last Glimpse 1

Last Glimpse 2

The Singapore National Stadium (Chinese: 国家体育场; Malay: Stadium Nasional Singapura) is located in Kallang. Opened on 19 July 1973, the National Stadium was used for many sporting, cultural, entertainment and national events, such as the Southeast Asian Games (when it was hosted in Singapore), the Singapore Armed Forces Day, the Singapore Youth Festival Opening Ceremony Parade, and the finals of the 2004 Tiger Cup. The National Stadium has been the venue for the National Day Parade 18 times (in 1976, 1980, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996 to 1999, 2001 to 2004, and 2006).

Plans have been made to demolish the stadium in the second half of 2007 but due to some reasons, it was delayed. The stadium has to make way for the new multi-purpose Singapore Sports Hub which is expected to open in 2011. Before its closure, the Singapore Sports Council organized a photography competition to commemorate the stadium.

On 30 June 2007 a closing ceremony titled Field of Dreams - A Tribute to the National Stadium was held at the National Stadium. 45,000 people attended the event, together with our President S.R. Nathan, members of the Cabinet, and Singapore athletes, past and present. Before the ceremony, a soccer match featuring ex-internationals from Singapore and Malaysia like Quah Kim Song, T. Pathmanathan,Samat Allapitchay,V. Sundramoorthy, David Lee, Dollah Kassim, Soh Chin Aun, Santokh Singh, Chow Siew Wai and K. Gunalan was played. was played.

The match was followed by the highlight of the evening, an international friendly match between ASEAN champions Singapore and the Asian Cup bound Australian team, the Socceroos. Next was the countdown to fireworks and an all-night dance party with Zouk's DJs. The closing event certainly relived many fond memories for many Singaporeans, especially to all soccer fans.

As for me, the stadium certainly attracts me to take photographs with some of the night photographs I took in early April 2007, including the closing ceremony event in June. On the last day of 2007, I took the last few photographs of the day for the last glimpses of our National Stadium.