BAYBEATS 2007

Yes the annual local music fest, BAYBEATS 2007 is just around the corner. 3 - 5 August 2007, Friday to Saturday.

BAYBEATS is Singapore's own local annual indie music festival at Esplanade. Since 2001, it has sought to showcase good local, regional and international indie bands, give them an opportunity to meet and exchange ideas, and bring to audiences a fun, free-for-all weekend celebration of great live indie music in a variety of sounds such as post-rock, punk, emo, electro and hard rock.

Now BAYBEATS has become one of the most massive and anticipated music festivals in Singapore, hosting bands from countries such as Malaysia, Norway, UK, USA, Australia and of course, our very own Singapore, and drawing a growing audience by the thousands. And one of the best things about it is that it is FREE!

For those of you who love music photography and supports local music, get yr photographic gear ready for this year's big event, big actions. For more details, please log on here.

Hope to see you guys there. Rock on & cheers!

Comments on Photo Clinic

Comments on Photo Clinic (Print Commentaries) 

Three weeks ago, I went to PSS (Photographic Society of Singapore) to attend a Photo Clinic session which they held on every Friday evening from 7:30pm - 9:30pm. It's been months since I last attended. So I thought I went back to catch up with old friends. I've also heard the news that PSS has appointed new community members to run or operate courses, seminars, and photo clinic sessions. So no harm in checking it out.

On my first visit on 29 June, the photo clinic session was conducted on the third level of the building - the gallery room. Unlike the past photo clinic sessions where each PSS member will take turns to showcase their work to the respective instructors, they changed the whole concept by gathering every member or interested listener in the gallery room, more in a seminar style with a digital projector showing members' photographic work. An instructor will be present to comment. Well, it was kind of refreshing to see this new concept of the photo clinic session. They are trying it out for 3 months til September. If it doesn't work, they'll resume to the old traditional ways.

Based on my observations after that three sessions, with my last on 13 July, I do not find any parts of the photo clinic session or any comments the instructor gave so proudly with much enthusiasm, that help us understand the members' work. Even on some rare occasions where they see good photographic work, their praises hold no meaning at all but pretentious flattery. The instructor made silly assumptions by judging the members' work which they did not essentially bother or require the members to explain about their own artwork. I do not see that it helps in the artistic or in this case photographic development of the members, especially those new beginners and/or intermediate and serious amateur photographers.

Related to personal preference is the often-heard comment in a critique "If it were my image I would do this to it..." followed by some advice about cropping it here, straightening there, dodging, burning, etc. The point is, it's not my work. How I would approach a photograph, how I would change it, or how I would print it is essentially totally irrelevant. It doesn't tell us anything about the work as it is. It doesn't clearly tell us anything about the photographer's intent or success. It doesn't help us understand the context, meaning, background, intention, or historic importance of the work. How I would make it, similar to I like it, is a statement about the person who is making the comment. Even if interesting, these comments are meaningless in the context of looking at an exigent photograph.

When you're offering a critique to a fellow photographer, there is nothing of importance or value in these opinions for a photographer to hear. I like it or I don't like it it doesn't tell us anything about the artwork, although it does (again) tell us quite a bit about the person who makes the statement. Frankly speaking, why would you care if I like a piece of work or, for that matter, if I don't like a piece of work. It doesn't make any difference whether or not you like it. Furthermore, such personal preferences don't add anything to the discussion about the work. As the basis for a critique, this is a perfectly valueless statement.

Therefore the only important comments that we can make, the only useful comments that we can make, are about the work as it exists now. There is a great deal we can bring to the discussion - our reactions to it, our interpretations of it, the context, the background - all of this is fair game. But how we would change it in order to improve it seems to me to be fundamentally unimportant, at best, and a silly distraction, at worst. 

Not long after I attended my first session, I came across this bi-monthly magazine, Lenswork* in the local national library. Issue #69 Mar-Apr 2007. I've always been a faithful reader of Lenswork, created by Brooks Jensen. So I borrowed it.

In that issue, there's a chapter written by Brooks titled, Some Comments on Print Commentaries. It's an interesting reading material based on his observations and experiences. The whole article is meaningful, which I find very helpful as it changes the way I see (based on my own experiences too) local photo clinic sessions. I strongly recommend you to read this article.

circa 2007

circa2007: A Photographic Encounter with the Everyday
for Singapore Art Show (SAS 2007) 2 Aug – 8 Oct

About
Circa in Latin means "about" or "around. This photo outreach program is to enable one to pause, to look around and think about our everyday lives, to see the things less ordinary. †And then to communicate that pause in the everyday routine, that sense of "about-ness" through photography, seen through the eyes of Singaporeans.

This inaugural edition begins with our youth; it is Singapore’s most ambitious photographic outreach event, and it serves as a platform for photography as a medium of creative expression on the lives and livelihood in Singapore.
It is also a part of SAS 2007, the major platform for showcasing the breadth and depth of visual arts in Singapore.

We are excited to invite every Secondary School student to participate, and share his or her life, and images of Singapore. Photographs will be exhibited online, in the city and the heartlands.

Goal
1. Education through photography.
2. Telling a Singaporean Singapore story creatively through photography.
3. Finding an Asian photographic identity.

Theme: Singaporean Singapore
Everyday images that occur through both our daily routines as well as the unusual occurrences. Anything from home to school, from breakfast to dinner, from football to CCA, from friendship to heartbreak, all the ins and outs of life in Singapore as seen by the Singaporean youth.

Outcome
1. An island-wide exhibition of the 8 x 10" photographs
2. 10 selected participants will be given a chance to further their photography images by working with established photographers together with student-mentors from NTU and SMU. These 10 students will work on specific themes to showcase their works.
3. An online exhibition for everyone.

How to be part of circa2007?
All registration details can be found on the website. The website will also offer tips on photography.

To participate in the online exhibition, simply register and upload digital images on the website.

To participate in the island-wide 8 x 10" exhibition, follow the steps:

Step 1. Students simply take interesting photos of their everyday lives. If students are keen, they can also attend a free photography seminar led by some of our best photographers.
Step 2. Go online to download and print the entry form. Fill up the necessary details.
Step 3. Go to any participating
photo labs located on the island and do an 8" x 10" print (without borders) for only $2.50 (usual RP $4 - $16). Do bring along your student identification.
Step 4. Send in entries and formatted images on a CD, together with the entry forms to:

Nanyang Technological University
School of Art, Design and Media
81 Nanyang Drive Level 3
Singapore 637458

ATTENTION: IVY WEE
Website: www.circa.com.sg/2007
Contact:

info@circa.com.sg

+65 6440 6328

For more details on participation, please kindly log on here.

If you know of any teenagers who are interested in photography, do encourage them to take part in Circa 2007. I'm not involved in this event but hey I thought it'd be nice to help spreading the words.

All the best of luck!