Our journey to capture the local stories of families required a lot of courage from us, to stand by what we do, and multiple refinements to be able to articulate why it matters. Looking back, we are grateful for the many families who have opened their homes and hearts to us, as it gave us better clarity on what matters to them.
Theme 1: All about the little one
(Documentation of first encounters, milestones and parents' aspirations)
We discovered many priceless expressions of first encounters among siblings and relatives. Meticulous documentation of all the little things that revolves around the baby, including their weight, time of birth and carefully archived 3d scans were common requests to help the family remember these precious moments.
Walking into the homes and rooms of the child, the parent's aspirations for their child can also be seen through the decoration of specially curated ornaments in the environment, and the name that was chosen for the child.
Theme 2: All about the parents and their stories
(Stories of various roles held, their personal interests and their love stories.)
Growing up, it was hard to learn about who my parents were before they got married and started a family, as such conversations were few and far between. My siblings and I would only get an occasional glimpse of who they were through conversations with my aunts or through our relentless effort to dig out some juicy stories when the mood was right. By documenting this theme, we want to give children a more complete view of their parents.
In this theme, we capture photos of families with their personal collections. Beyond their role as a parent, their other roles are also documented through accessories that represent snippets of their other communities, such as their workplaces. Interestingly, it is only after we started on this approach that we learnt about how similar dating gifts and honeymoon places are across couples in Singapore.
Theme 3: All about home
(Stories of childhood memories and everything local)
Looking at picture-perfect studio photography of newborns and families, it can be easy to forget who exactly we are and how it is like to grow up in this era. Almost every newborn and family photo looks like it has been taken overseas due to the props used or filter applied in post-editing stages. It is the desire to be able to share with our future generations the context of how we grew up that led us to work on preserving our context and culture through distinctly local photoshoots.
While we have just started on this approach, we are humbled by the stories that families have shared with us, and we are hopeful that one day these seemingly quirky yet light hearted works, will live through their intended purpose of connecting families. ◡̈