A series of portraits of Singaporean artists performing themselves.
Most photographers start in the press or in a commercial studio. My path to becoming a photographer is different: I started taking photographs for the arts. My passion has always been in dance portraits. In general, I work a lot with dancers but also theatre practitioners. I usually meet these artists in my studio for publicity shoots, or if they need profile portraits. Or, I may have photographed them performing, as part of a documentation of their artistic process. Through the years, many of these artists have become my friends. I have taken wedding and family photos for some of them. And I have been fortunate to collaborate with some for my own art photography or for their projects. After all the different ways that I have interacted with these artists, I really wanted to additionally take portraits of them, as people, as they are. Or, at least, to take portraits of them being themselves without any agenda for a project or portfolio.
In 2015, I started to organize Drama Mama shooting parties in my former photography studio, The Pond. I would invite a group of artists to have a party with me there, with my equipment set up to take portraits. As people chatted and relaxed, I would ask them to pose for me, and I would let them do anything they wanted. Naturally, as most of the guests were in the performing arts, they performed for my camera. Without any specific brief of what they needed to portray, however, they simply had fun in front of the camera. In a way, they were performing themselves—there is also a truth in those performances.
These shooting parties took a hiatus as I undertook a master of arts programme, graduating in 2018, and then my wife and I had our daughter, Lila. I was hoping to restart Drama Mama when the Covid pandemic happened. With the ensuing lockdowns, studio rentals and photographic work stopped. I looked around at my failing old equipment and realized that after 20 years of The Pond, it was inevitable that there would come a time when my photographic studio would close down.
I decided to turn it into my artist’s studio, but first, I really wanted to bring my Drama Mama portraits to some conclusion. After the lockdowns lifted, I invited some artists to have portrait sessions with me: mostly one-on-one, and some two-on-one for artist couples. These sessions took a different tack from the original shooting parties. I spent more time with each subject, and there were many long and deep discussions. After the isolation of Covid, human interactions were so precious. I found the extended, intimate time allowed for deeper connections and more revealing exchanges. Sessions could be a musical recital, a dance, or a frank exchange about life’s experiences. So often after each session, I felt that I had been given a wonderful personal gift, and my artist friends also enjoyed sharing their unique selves with me. These Drama Mama photographs, then, are simply a documentation of these interactions.
This series is not meant to be a compendium of Singaporean artists. The bias has been towards artists I have an affinity to. The aim was to get artists to truly perform themselves. There were artists who wanted to be part of the project, but just were not able to find the time. There were also artists who did not feel comfortable with the premise of the project. Also, even after all my time in the industry, there are many artists whom I have yet to cross paths with. I think, though, that I have managed to represent a reasonable number of Singapore’s artists. Drama Mama, then, is the fruit of our work and friendship, over more than two decades, in a community that feels more like my extended family.