Amrita Chandradas

Singapore is a myriad of personas, this city and Island state presents a wealth of history and culture, its sleek ever changing skyline is in stark contrast to the shop houses and hawker centres, balancing much of its past with its gleaming future, but there is more to Singapore than meets the eye and navigating this space Amrita Chandradas who’s practice explores changing environments and its inhabitants takes us with ease under the skin of this country, whilst also balancing her families history a We speak to Amitra about education, practice and the growing list of accolades which have cemented her as one to watch in South East Asia

Singapore is a vibrant and multi-cultural country full of possibility, what drew you to photography  how has the space and culture of Singapore influenced your practice ?

I did not really pick up the camera until I became an intern at a film-making production firm. I came across a black and white photograph of a mother clutching on the hand of her son tightly, the work was enigmatic and in that process I became obsessed trying to find out who this person could be, what was on her mind? What was on his mind? In that seeking and searching I picked up the camera and started photography.

Growing up as a minority – 5th generation Tamil those experiences itself profoundly drove me to tell the untold stories about what it was like for us growing up as a minority at Singapore,  grappling with different identities and the struggles growing up as one, without a voice mostly. That drove me to try my best to cover the stories visually for those who may not have a say.

Places and spaces in Singapore are constantly changing, I could dive in further into what the nuances are of public and private spaces are at Singapore but I would like to derive this from personal memory. I’ve witnessed tremendous amount of those changes of how spaces in Singapore have evolved through the years to become something else or to be completely eradicated. There is no time to mourn over the loss of memory or attachment to the spaces. In a country where space is limited and the population is dense most of the areas are cleared away for housing and other modern infrastructures. 

But my first idea of space came about when I grew up in a public housing estate where blocks were packed closely to one another. I was and still am able to peer into the lives of others just from gazing across from my house. Call it voyeurism but I looked and marvelled at how there are all this lives packed into one space yet no one really knows one another. The sounds of inaudible conversations and prayer bells of different faiths, the smell of different cuisines and washing. The list goes on. 

The outer façade of Singapore may be portrayed to be futuristic but I grew up weaving into lanes where I have witnessed different superstitious rituals taking place. Singapore is a country with different layers to her and I guess these are the layers I try my best to unpack in my work or of which drives me to put those experiences forward. 

There is a strong history of photographers emerging from the MA photojournalism at LCC ? Can you talk us through studying in London and what did the course do for you ?

MA photojournalism and documentary photography course ran for a year. I never imagined then I would ever studied a course related to photography, it never crossed my mind. I came to London for other reasons. Photography was an outlet then which I hid from everyone for a very long time until one day I plucked the courage and I decided to show my work to a few people to get some feedback. It was through encouragement and curiosity or maybe to get the hang of how to put the work together that drove me to study this course in the first place. The course doesn’t teach you any photography techniques or skills but rather what you know and how to string it together. It was an intense course, I remember in the first few months we had to shoot three different stories in a week.

I was also largely inexperienced compared to many others who were on the course, there were students who were already shooting for New York Times and other major publications. In the beginning I was intimidated but as time went along, I realised everyone was just as nervous as I was. It was a fantastic cohort where we grew close with one another, helping each other with our work and the support has lent over till today. The course became a safe space for us to give each other constant feedback on our work and also for us to express our emotions vulnerably. In my experience this is a luxury to have as photography is a solitary profession in nature. 

I am incredibly grateful to have known a fantastic group of people and that we were allowed to learn from another and have a support group within one physical space. It was an intense year which pushed me to leave London after 5 years just by being amazed and inspired by my fellow classmates and to chase light & stories within SE Asia and my home country Singapore. 

Being nominated for the Joop Masterclass is quite an honour, how has the nomination changed things for you ?

Thank you. The nomination was a great encouragement to be amongst across a group of photographers from around the world, whose work I really admire and respect. The nomination honestly did not change anything for me, but maybe it allowed for others in the industry to have more notice or access to my work. Regardless I am humbled to have been considered twice so far.

Singapore has a thriving photographic scene with the likes of invisible photographer and DECK, what are your hopes for the future for the scene ?

I want to start off by giving a shout out to Objectifs centre for photography and film. They were integral and instrumental in helping me to connect with the rest of my peers in the industry and with the Singaporean photography scene in general. Great appreciation to Kevin Lee from IPA who continually strives to support local upcoming photographers and other photographers in the region. Both platforms are constantly passionate in involving photographers in projects and have given us a space to put our works out there. They have created a supportive network and given us visibility.

My hopes for the Singaporean scene though ? I look forward to witnessing the voices of the minority artists/photographers to be further recognised not marginalised or ignored. I want to see more of them being represented, elevated and not forgotten. I feel as much as there are improvements being made over the past few years, in representation. It is extremely difficult to speak about the topic on race and the complexities that surround it especially deriving from one own’s minority experiences and learnings. There are so much more that needs to be done to be addressed in helping the minorities to navigate through this. I hope more of them take the leap to make the works to address their thoughts and feelings even though it can be challenging considering the censorship at Singapore.

As one of the photographers involved in “We will have been young” the book has served as a launch pad for many of the participants, how did this process influence you  ? and what of the process of making the book ?

“We will have been young” was a cohesive project where 12 of us SE Asian photographers shot stories related to youth and future for a year within our own country. Our mentors Jörg Brüggermann and Tobias Kruse ( Ostkeruz Photographer’s Agency)allowed us to experiment, to fail and question ourselves while being constantly guided by them in the making of our projects. 

 Once again we were given a safe space to learn from two experienced individuals and from each other as a group. The mentors had profoundly influenced or maybe reminded me once again to be unafraid and to dive away from the literal manner in telling a story thus finding my own voice in this process. 

 We didn’t have much part to play in creating the book because we were all strewn across the world at that point and we were pressed for time as we had an exhibition several months down the road from that point therefore we had to make sure we could get the book together in time.

  Calin Kruse from “Dienacht publishing” did a fantastic job in curating and putting the book together with our mentors. They did go through with us on how the images would be sequenced and were asked how we felt about it. But constant changes to be made was out of the question due to time constraints. We did have a lot of say on how the exhibition was curated at Obscura festival and that followed as the exhibition continued to travel to showcase in most of our individual home countries including Germany. 

Vanishing point raising some interesting questions of conflict and post conflict representation, as well as reconciliation. How close are you to this story ? and how did you deal with the complexities of dealing with historical representations, and ‘ late photography’ ?

Ethnically I am Indian Tamil ( my roots come from southern India),  I grew up not knowing much about the plight of Eelam Tamils who hail from the Northern part of Sri Lanka. It was not until living in London and attending the fiery protests by Eelam Tamils- who were seeking for answers on the disappearances of their loved ones and their plea for justice in war crime atrocities that were committed by the Sri Lankan Army — particularly during the last weeks of the conflict in May 2009 that drove me to find out more. My uncle himself was an interpreter for those seeking refuge at UK and the stories he brought back etched a deep mark in my mind. I started by photographing the protests and in that process of speaking the same language as they do I connected with them and learnt their struggle and stories that greatly moved me, shocked me, affected me.I met the most dedicated activists, who are first-generation, U.K.-born Tamils from Sri Lanka. Most of their parents or relatives ran to the U.K. seeking refuge from the war. Some of them at that time could not visit Sri Lanka or were barred due to their activism. Through their help and advice, I was able to visit northern Sri Lanka in mid-2015 to speak to the Tamils, particularly those whose family members had disappeared during the last 26 years of conflict.

For me the complexities were not much with historical representations as the issue is current and still on-going. I travelled to Jaffna to try and document the topic of the disappearances of the Tamils, upon reaching there I had the impression that the search continues to be active publicly however the situation remained that most of the North-east of Sri Lanka remains to be heavily militarised and I then wondered how could I tell their story? How could I bring this out visually? 

I realized after speaking to the Tamil families that their search and waiting remained in their own homes. I observed that the things which belonged to their loved ones were sometimes left exactly where they were, photographs of their past celebrations and gatherings that laid around and just the general loneliness and emptiness of the surroundings told the story. The story then became a documentation thus resulting in the project “ Vanishing Hope”. 

The recent update this year is the Sri Lankan government had issues death certificates to loved ones who protested out the whereabouts of their missing family members without offering answers on how their families died.

6:9  offers a very intimate discussion of the possibilities and limitations of development, what are the issue faced with gaining traction with such a story ? is there an appetite within Singapore for such stories ?

Actually to my surprise, I  thought there would be censorship and perhaps the inability to find the space ( how ironic) to present the work/issue since 6.9 project directly addresses the government. The project focuses on the Singaporean government’s grand plan to increase the population to 6.9 million due to our dwindling birth rates but in order to accommodate this new population figure by 2030 - places that are tied to memory and traditions are eradicated. Also in the name of progress the dead are being moved, traditions are slowly phasing out, buildings are getting taller, spaces are more constrained, xenophobia is on the rise and the future is just getting harder.

The work was brought up in different places in Singapore and publications too such as the +50 book which featured  the works of 50 Singaporean and local based photographers in ode to Singapore’s 50th birthday then. 6.9 is still a work in progress till 2030.

There are plenty of stories in Singapore that are focused on lost, changes, the idea of space and disappearances considering how we quickly evolved economically in the last 50 years or so that it is difficult to grapple with the rapid changes. I mean my grandparents sang 4 different National anthems, the British, the Japanese, the Malaysian and finally the Singaporean anthem, that blows my mind every time I think about it. We are not really given a say most of the time and I feel that greatly infuriates us, collectively I think we do unite on this. The topic about space and tradition giving away to modernity is a constant debate. Several notable artists and photographers have worked on this in our own ways as these are issues which we grapple alongside with other Singaporeans. 

To name a few there is Mr Lui Hock Seng, an 82 year old photographer who have captured most of how Singapore was like dating back to the 1950’s which hold as a precious record and story of change, Ore Huiying who is currently photographing her family farm which is slated to be cleared away by the government this year and so on. 

What is photojournalism to you ? how does it enable you to explore the complex and nuanced issues you address ?

Photojournalism to me is a window to current issues or on-going happenings around us which most of us do not have personal access to but the photojournalists take the responsibility to bring this forward visually on global spectrum. I don’t look at myself as a photojournalist but just as a photographer. I would rather say photography to me is a standstill in time, it is pure magic to be able to make a memory permanent, it could allow one’s mind to wander or another to be educated or informed by the images created with the medium of photography. It could be a catalyst for change sometimes. It’s a powerful tool at the end of the day.

I think to me, no matter how I try to address or explore the complex or nuanced issues I come across in my career then, now and the future. I first and foremost place that it is important to be ethical, we are very often stepping into the lives of others. It is integral to always listen first, be empathetic and not overstep one’s boundaries. It is challenging because most of the time I do find that in the process of photography it is a lot more taking rather than giving. I hope to give more in the future. 

I try my best to not repeat stereotypes as I myself am constantly annoyed at how certain issues or places are constantly exoticized or the westernised representations. It is important to keep myself in check and regularly asking myself time to time, why am I doing this? Why am I working on this? These are the questions I ask even before I try to address the issues I am working on with my projects.

You have achieved so much, what is next and how do you see your practice evolving ?

Honestly I feel I still have a lot more to work on, learn from, experiment on. I still do have a long way to go in this profession, I am grateful for where the journey has brought me thus far but what is next I can tell you – I am currently working on a project that revolves around the Tamil migrant community in Singapore – drawing on questions on femininity, patriarchy, superstitions, rituals, questions of one’s identity intertwined with nationality and etc. I see my practice evolving with further collaborations, being unafraid to work with other mediums and perhaps finding other possible ways to tell a story or convey an issue