This image was set up and taken during one of my Sunday outings at the now-demolished Outram Park Flats, Singapore. Later, I montaged the original with a piece of lith film to create the bias relief effect. This is another image from my FRPS panel. I think one of most difficult tasks in photographic art is to develop your originality and individuality. I think I have successfully achieved this by 1970. The visual impact of this image is quite obvious.
This is one of my colour derivation slides that I converted into a colour print and which won me the best colour print (FIAP Gold Medal) at the 22nd Singapore International Salon (SIP) in 1971. In addition, this was also judged as the best local entry (Dato Aw Cheng Chye Gold Trophy Award) and was also selected for the Pewter Tray Award of the SIP. Some of you may get the impression that this was a set-up picture. Actually, this was one of many images of man at work that I captured during the Colour Group of the Photographic Society of Singapore regular Sunday outings. For this picture, it was taken during an outing to the Jurong Shipyard. The only colour that I added here was the shirt of the painter.
I won my first Photographic Society of America Gold Medal for the best slide of the show in Mexico International Salon in 1968. I started to do derivative works in 1967. Due to my knowledge in black white processing, I started to use lith film to create picture with dramatic visual impact. One of my favourite technique was to retain the colour of a subject (in this example, the yellow umbrella) while changing the rest of the image for dramatic effect. By montaging the lith film (obtained by contact printing in the dark room), I was able to create a bias relief effect when I mounted the two pieces of film slightly out of registration. I wish that I had Photoshop at that time. Now is much easier to achieve such an effect at a click of a mouse. You still need a well composed image first to execute the techniques though!
This image happens to be one of my 24 colour transparencies in a pictorial panel that gained the prestigious Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain (FRPS) in 1970. Watch out for more images from this FRPS panel later in my gallery.
(Courtesy of: The National Museum of Singapore Permanent Collection, National Heritage Board, 2008)