Category: Media

May 17, 2010

What is a book?

In the past few months, Borders Bookshop in Singapore has literally “cheapen” books with its seemingly never-ending weekly offers. It’s got me really curious about what is actually going on in Borders. Is it closing down? Is this a sign that people will no longer pay for good books? Are books going extinct?

While I have no idea if Borders is closing down (my guess: yes), I’ll suggest you attend a book art exhibition just a 5 minute walk from the Borders in Wheelock Place to find answers to my other two questions. In Centre to Periphery at the Japan Creative Centre, you will find no bookshelves. In fact, you might not even find books — those with a cover, spine, page and words on them. Instead, you find yourself lifting up an empty book to capture text projections…

Enlightenment (2009), Goh Qidi Jonathan

… staring into a pinhole camera made out of a book to find out its ending…

Shin Mitsu (2001), Miyuki Kido

… wondering how solid books can be…

The Ground Book (1998), Rie Takeuchi

… seeing a book scene come to life…

All About Her Story, Masako Kobayashi

… going through the “elements” of what makes a book’s character…

The Ele men tal In ter ludes (2009), Hazel Lim

… and contemplating how 10,000 years of life is so efficiently reduced to a tome you can carry home.

Byo-Koku-Tetsu-Cho (2002), Hirose Tsuyoshi

You won’t find any discounts for books at this exhibition organised by the Japan Creative Centre and La Liberia, but you will find, for free, that books are much more than just for your reading pleasure.

May 13, 2010

The reality of The Straits Times

Straits Times put on trial its latest “feature” today — seeing the world through tinted lenses (aka 3D glasses).

The paper says this is one way it is trying to improve itself, by allowing its readers to get the news from a different perspective. So I decided to do a simple quantitative analysis to find out if it was so. It turned out that only 10 out of the 65 news photo and graphics (excluding small profile pictures) could be seen in 3D perspective. On the other hand, some 20 advertisements were 3D ready. Plus, that pair of 3D spectacles was “Brought to You by Samsung”. And, if you didn’t know, TODAY newspaper was actually the first to bring 3D to newspapers. They worked with Panasonic Singapore and were upfront about it.

Most importantly, they kept it out of editorial content.

This aggressive campaign by Samsung and Panasonic to reinvent advertising on our local newspapers to push the 3D agenda is one thing. But, 3D editorial content? I’m not sure if it works, at all.

Besides the fact that it takes 1.5 hours for the photo desk to process a 3D photo, and photographers having to shoot such that it is suitable for 3D, the effect is simply not very nice at all. Through those glasses, the photos lose their colour. Without them, the photo looks blur. Moreover, none of the photos I saw today convinced me that seeing something pop out was nothing more than gimmicky. And, let’s not even start on how those spectacles hinders the reading experience!

If ST is really keen on improving their readers’ needs for images in the newspaper, then put it in multimedia journalism like this, and give more space to infographics and photojournalism in the newspaper and online. No need for anything fanciful, just let the talented photographers and artists do good old visual storytelling.

The only reason why I think ST hopped on to 3D was because it is ‘cool’ now to have it, and I won’t be surprised if it was heavily subsidised by the advertisers in some way or another.

May 11, 2010

Do photographers ‘make’ or ‘take’?

I’ve been talking to some photographers recently and there is a recurring word they use to describe what they do…

“I make photographs.”

I’ve always thought of photographers as people who take photographs. So is there really a difference between the two?

To make, I think, highlights the photographer’s involvement in the photo. That the act of snapping is deliberate and possibly, even ‘manipulated’ (not photoshopped), to create a desired image. This is opposed to take, which almost sounds objective and mechanical — think of this as photographing what you see, as it is.

In case you’re wondering, these photographers were all doing social documentary work, which means they see their pictures as a reflection of reality.

So why make instead of take? I think it inserts a purpose (some say agenda) into the photographs, which without it, might make photos seem nothing more than events coverage. If it’s the latter I want, I probably just need to place a camera at strategic times and locations and let it snap all day.

To make a photograph, means the photographer matters too, that it is he/she telling the story through a photo and not just the camera.

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If you’re keen on social documentary and visual story-telling in Singapore, do check out this new PLATFORM.