Earlier this year I visited the National Library of Singapore. The architecture, deigned by Ken Yeang, is quite interesting, but the day became overcast just after I arrived. The photo above was one of the last that I shot before the rain.
Looking straight up to the shaded skylight. I tried printing light but the image lacked the the feeling I hoped for, so I’ve printed down to explore a darker mood.
This series makes me dark and moody. It turned out opposite to my goal of conveing the strong feeling of lightness that Singapore exhibits almost everyday.
I’m looking for the feeling I get when looking at early urban landscape pictures from the 19th century (using silver chloride), but I seem to have ended up in the work typical of the 20th century with its contrasty, shadow heavy silver bromide images.
The first picture works well. I think the second and third also work in this interpretation.
This last picture also lacked the brightness that I’m after, but has contrasts and details that work really well.
Film is Ilford FP4 shot on a Yashica 635 twin lens camera from 1958. I think the focal length is about 80mm.
