Singapore Snaps

2014 / Installation / Photographs

Using the archive of 15,239 old printed photographs collected from the public in Singapore, these experimental films are created using photographs categorized by prevailing themes and geographical locations.

Anchored by the fragility of memories, 'Singapore Snaps' is a relational art project which recollects and reconstructs the nation's history based on the public's collective memories. An unperceived amount of civilian history documentation were recorded on old printed photographs, which, on top of being replaced by digital technologies like the smartphone and the digital camera, are fast disintegrating and fading due to the elements of the environment. The memory intended to be captured by the photographer becomes vulnerable and will be lost without proper care and steps to duplicate these photographs.

In 2014, the project team visited developed neighborhoods and set up collection points at public community libraries to collect old printed photographs contributed by the public. All submitted photographs are meticulously packed and delivered to our professional scanning studio for digitization. Once scanning completes, the team personally returns the original photographs to the contributors at their homes, together with the digital copies stored on a DVD. Stories, mostly oral histories of this young nation and personal memories, narrated by these contributors are also documented. This in turn reveals the threads of the unseen social fabric that hold us together, as an individual and as a unit of society, through time.

View Project Website

Acknowledgment

Supported under the Singapore Memory Project's irememberSG Fund, as part of the Singapore50 (SG50).

Press

News / The Online Citizen

Screenings

SGIFF x Our Tampines Hub - Singapore, Aug 09 '22

Singapore Survey 2015: Hard Choices - Singapore, Aug 05 - Sep 13 '15