Series - I saw what you did at the Bazaar 2022
Although my main passion is abstract street photography, I enjoy capturing candid shots once in a while.
This series focuses on the unseen candid scenes and my observations at the Chinese New Year bazaar in Chinatown, Singapore 2022. Compared to the previous years, there are only few stores opened and the crowd is much lesser this year due to the COVID situation. However, I still try my best to capture the scenes and had great fun working on it. This year, we welcome the Year of the Tiger.
My personal thoughts:
I posted this series on instagram and am very grateful for the great support and appreciation for this candid story about my observations at the bazaar. Ending the series is an emotional thing for me and I had a big cry for few days after the bazaar closed. This is because due to the COVID pandemic, Chinatown turned from a vibrant place and into a depressing ghost town for the last 2 years. Because of the slightly relaxed COVID rules this year, some vibrancy returned and some shop owners were able to get some income out of this event. When the bazaar closed, I saw these people packing up and closing their shops. I re-visited the place few days later and that really made me feel sad as Chinatown became a ghost town again. Chinatown has a special place in my heart because I lived around the area for the first 21 years of my life.
Photographing this series is also emotional because whenever I photograph, the outcome is not the only thing I care about. It is the entire process that matter to me and it is during the process that I put my entire heart and soul into it. Another interesting fact is that I got infected with COVIDwhen photographing there. Fortunately, the infection only came after the bazaar closed and hence, am happy that I managed to complete the series.