Assignment 5: Realism,

formalism,  expressionism
These 3 “-isms”, are to me, understood as styles in conveyance of artistic
message.

Realism is simply the renaissance period or the period before the camera came
into being. Painting is then used for documentation, and the subject is painted
as real as possible.

Formalism comes into the picture when the artist emphasizes on the
aesthetics and form of the image. Composition and structure of the image is
more important than any message. The sole function is to concentrate on the
picturesque quality of the image.

Expressionism reminds me of the expressionist movement in Art history.

Objectivity is less apparent, and only subjectivity is portrayed in the picture.
The message behind the image is strong, assertive, and compels a change in
thought and opinion of the viewer.

Together with the theme, Creep, I saw creep as a noun, and as a person in

particular. An irritating person that is considered a nuisance.

noun 1 informal a detestable person. • a person who behaves in an

obsequious way in the hope of advancement.
This is pretty straightforward, the venue, the name, the message the loan
sharks wants to put across, and the information of the debtor. It’s just a
documentation of the scene as it is.

The loan shark who wrote on the wall is thus the creep. The vandal who is out
to cause distress to both the owner and the cleaner responsible for cleaning
the walls.

I racked my brains a little when I thought about how to “formalize” this

subject, yet fit the theme of creep. Then I found a nice and coincidental
triangle that is formed with the number ‘3’, and coincidentally, it surrounds ‘6’
and ‘9’, which are multiples of 3 as well. So I tilted the angle, and cam up with
this shot.

The idea of creep is still there, but it does not surface that obviously, and the
form of the numbers are presented first. Writing on the walls/vadalism is
something a creep would do, thus it still fits the theme.
I literally crept down the stairs and took the picture from downstairs and
through the railings of the stairs. It forms an image that resembles the idea of
being behind bars, or being constrained.

This expressionistic image can be seen in a couple of ways.

Firstly, it talks about the confines of individual families living in HDB flats.
Every family exists within their own “cubicle” without ever thinking about the
family right next door. We’re living together, and at the same time, worlds
apart. Not until we see scribbles as such on the walls that we realise that a
particular household is having financial problem/going through a hard time.

The creep is thus, not only the the vandal, but also us. We only look through
the boundaries of our homes at a safe distance, and observe the happenings of
our neighbourhood, but never really confronting/ approaching one another to
care for them.

Second reading: Vandalism is a criminal act, and the vandal(creep) should be

put behind bars.

Third reading: This is my favourite, and the initial intent when i took this shot.
It’s the idea of being in a societal rut. This is actually a common sight in the
HDB estates, but the names and information changes. Think about it then,
that also means that in every HDB flat, there is one or two family going
through a financial rut. multiply that by the number of HDB flats in Singapore
and we do get a very different picture of life in the heartlands. That the
economic growth or promise that Singaporeans are wealthy is perhaps only as
true as it gets on the newspapers. In reality, there is a good number of people
caught in a particular social strata, and is forever caught in a rut of financial
problems.

but who do we blame for being poor? Do we live in an economy where the rich
gets richer and the poor get poorer? And why do we live in a society where
politicians up their own pays while others are out sourcing for money to get
by? Perhaps the ‘creep’ is no one in particular, not the loanshark, not the
debtor himself, but in reality, society gives us the creeps at times.

Benchmarks will be updated later. Need to look through other works again.
self assessment

I don’t have blurred images this time round! Technicality wise, I have finally
mastered how to use the shutter and aperture function properly. I did proper
post production, and named my file properly.

I also thought hard about the theme and settled for a vandal in the HDB
estate.

When I presented it to the class, there weren’t any response, except that it’s
quite clear which photo belonged to which “-ism”. So I thought I nailed it.

At the end of the lesson, Mr. Reddy kept my picture (actually, much to my
surprise) and I thought I got it right after all.

I also took a picture of something that “would otherwise go unseen”

The only challenge is to think about looking at the vandal from different
perspective. The formalism picture was hard. How do you create a formalist
picture from words on the wall? I thought I did the best I could by picking up
numbers that jumped out (multiples of 3).

Thus for concept development, I give myself 50/50

For Aesthetic quality: (because no more blurred images) 49/50

in total: 99/100

the one mark is deducted because I’m sure there’s always one more way to
look at the vandal, and I’ll keep exploring.

sidenote A day after I took the shots, I passed by the same spot and the words
were painted over! I’m one lucky photographer man.