Montage of Mortality: Photoessays

Info PFF

October 18, 2021

“All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability…Images transfix. Images anaesthetize.”

– Susan Sontag, On Photography

In Shooting the Mafia, the images that photographer Letizia Battaglia captured in the streets of Sicily took aim at the heart of the Mafia—the aftermath of senseless murders, the spontaneous portraits of crusading anti-Mafia political figures, and the striking faces of grieving families.

Inspired by director Kim Longinotto’s multimedia convergence of the moving and still, we invited our audience to share their photographic responses to the theme of ‘Mortality’, their memento mori, their transfixing scenes of unembellished life.

*A version of this compilation of photoessays was originally published in our 2021 Programme Booklet. It has been modified, lengthened, and adapted for the web.

Supermarket Flowers

Even the prettiest flowers nature has to offer has no chance of beautifying the harshness of imminent death.

About the Artist

Yiling Goh

Yiling Goh—adds grain to her bowls and photos

@_dustandlight on Instagram.

About the Artist

Kevia Tan

Kevia Tan is currently studying in Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University. She delves mainly in street photography and her gentle renditions of fleeting street occurrences are about quiet contentment and overlooked simplicities.

@keshoots on Instagram.

Transient Joy

No one is truly aware about our own mortality as kids. We were more interested in having fun. As our youth draws to a close, the concept of death becomes apparent and there is an urgency to live. Yet that fearful urgency thwarts any genuine attempt at revelling in life. The most innocent form of fun now lies in our memories, but we can never go back to that time. This photo series attempts to portray that period before we contemplate our own mortality, and before the existential terror hits.

Acquired Taste

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” – Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

About the Artist

Angela Mae Macasinag

Angela is a multi-disciplinary designer and photographer based in Singapore. She is currently in LASALLE College of the Arts pursuing a degree in Design Communication, set to graduate in 2022. Her practice is mostly independent and intentionally diverse, having special interests in analogue processes, printed matter, and experimentation. She frequently collaborates with KIRSHANN, a local artist, helping with merchandise and creative direction.She can be found at @anglemerkel on Instagram.

About the Artist

Anonymous

I wish to remain anonymous so that there will be no added biases as all I want people to take away are the messages from the pictures. I am just your average photographer hoping to bring across the feelings and events that transpire across the world.

Pursuit

The pursuit of freedom is a core part of humanity. This is an entire nation’s pursuit of freedom. Whether you are with them or not, you cannot deny that this is human

Aged

My submission is from a walk I had previously around the neighbourhood park, with quite the start contrast in demographic, from young kids playing to elderly in wheelchairs trying to get a breath of evening air. By chance, I managed to catch a caregiver sitting by the bench with an old lady, and everything in the composition gave me a sense of a nostalgia that I didn’t own. It was not something I was reminiscing, rather something I could have been intruding. Again, by luck, another caregiver wheeled a young baby by in a stroller and it was interesting – two ends of life converging at this point, both in their own wheelchairs. The setting sun was just so apt for the mood as well. A sense of nostalgia, of longing, I don’t know which one, I only know it’s something I’ve yet to reach.

About the Artist

Cheah Hao Yuan

I’m Hao Yuan, a photographer around Singapore! Currently, I’m studying architecture in NUS, and I picked up film photography while waiting for school to start. I don’t really have a specific genre of what I shoot, just things that I like, or places that I am at, but I guess moments that I found interesting. Also I like the mechy clink clunk of old cameras.

About the Artist

Tan Zi Jie

Tan Zi Jie, an NTU Humanities graduate who uses photography as a medium to document her daily life. She was an Honourable Mention (Youth Category) recipient in NUSPS Montage Photo Competition 2020. Most of her works are taken with phone or film cameras. Black and white film photography remains her favourite form of presentation.

State of Emergency (2021)

This series of photos were taken on my way to the quarantine hotel after I was tested positive for Covid. My elderly parents were also hospitalised for Covid treatment at that time. Travelling in an ambulance, which is commonly associated with concepts of life, death and emergency, every possible and even the worst-case scenario had played out in my mind. As we adapt to the new normal amid Covid-19, constant reminders of the importance of vaccination and severe complications of Covid did not prepare us for what is to come after contracting the disease. This Covid experience felt like a close shave with mortality as my family had encountered our greatest health crisis.

普洱 (Pu Er)

‘普洱 (Pu Er)’ is a 20-minute short film that tells the story of Guan, a snobbish artist, who loses himself to his sudden fame after being scouted and discovered by an art critic and private gallery owner.

Guan becomes entangled in his pursuit for fame and desire to stay at the top and is determined to tear down anyone who is a threat to him. He is forced to come to terms with his sinful ways and their impacts under the watchful eye of ‘Meng Po’, and the tea of forgetfulness that controls him.

—

‘普洱 (Pu Er)’ conveys the message of fate and destiny through the imagery and symbolism that echo the Chinese belief, the Ten Courts of Hell, where souls are brought to after death to atone for the sins they committed while alive. A person’s actions have consequences and karma falls on the unkind.

Razors and blood are symbols and imagery of hell’s third court, where those who are ungrateful and disrespectful will have their hearts cut out. The seventh court of hell punishes gossipers with ripping or cutting their tongues off.

About the Artist

Jia Han Goh

After watching a behind-the-scenes feature on a local movie, Jia Han chose to study film and has been pursuing a career in media ever since. His previous works include coming-of-age and fantasy shorts, as well as a social documentary. In his free time, you will see him watching Taiwanese films, adding too much salt to his food, or taking photos on his phone or camera.

About the Artist

Ng Xin Lui

Growing up surrounded by individuals who are interested in the Arts and Humanities, Xin Lui has developed an interest in photography. Photography is a hobby that she has picked up at a tender age and ever since then, she has embarked on a self-taught journey whereby she learnt to shoot with both digital and analogue cameras.

Xin Lui’s venture into photography allowed her to introduce the element of minimalism into her works. Combining her past experience of working at a bridal boutique and minimalism, the vision of her work is to explore on composition, emotions and aesthetics of the subject. She also hopes that through her work, she would be able to leave an impact and contribute to society.

Respite

We are deemed as mortals because we are each an individual that is destined to leave this Earth and are susceptible to death, after we finish living this cycle called Life.

Life can be harsh and tough on us sometimes, but whatever happens, we should always continue forward. One can stay on the lane of Life, through the form of sleep, which is an essential function that allows the brain and body to slow down and engage in processes of recovery. The works presented represent how Life takes a toll on us, beckoning us to stop and take a break. The private resting space crosses over to the public, and shows that rest should not be perceived as something private and personal, but a universal need. It is also what makes us human.

Waiting

These photos were taken in the pockets of time while waiting. As one passes through each stage of life, it could be thought of stopping and then waiting for the next. The wait could be for nothing in particular, and all these small moments of waiting add up to a single wait for the end of life.

About the Artist

Bernadette Cara Teo

Teo likes the feeling of winding film back into the spool, and in placing the film in its canister, feels a sense of security that the unedited moments are contained upon the cellulose frames. She knows that she would not edit the photos even after receiving them scanned in TIFF. Even with her phone camera, she prefers the photos taken without pre-editing or manual focus. The moments taken in those instant captures encapsulate the raw effect of the present moment.

About the Artist

Kenneth Leow

Hey, my name’s Kenneth, and I’m a youth photographer. What I want to achieve with my art is self expression. There are many feelings, thoughts, that simply aren’t able to be conveyed through words. I’m pursuing the solution to that problem, photography. I am extremely happy with what I managed to produce for this competition, and hope to take part in even more in future.

Beauty in Death

Death, in my opinion, is a process. From the moment we’re born, to our final moments on the deathbed, death is a gradual deterioration of the body. A process, that is without a doubt, beautiful. All the accumulated memories, the best of times, the worst of times. Life is a collection of unique, individual experiences that is full of beauty. My shot shows the marriage between the exquisite nature of the flowers, and the harsh, cold metal of the skull, representing the beauty of death.