PHOTO ESSAY
Graded Assignment
A photo essay done for M316 Photojournalism module on urbanisation in Singapore.
Urbanisation taking over the little red dot
According to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Singapore’s urbanisation rate is at 2.02%. We take a look at the effects of urbanisation on this small, sunny island.
Amongst the ASEAN countries, Singapore is the only country that has 100% of its population living in major urban areas, with Malaysia coming in second according to ASEAN UP.
As the peak hour grew near, traffic at Bencoolen Street began getting denser. Heavy traffic isn’t an uncommon sight in Singapore, despite the government’s effort to reduce the number of vehicles on the road.
To better tackle urban challenges that the city faces, the government is striving to turn Singapore into a smart and sustainable city. In 2014, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong revealed the latest Sustainable Singapore Blueprint, an outline of plans for on sustainable development.
Amongst the ASEAN countries, Singapore is the only country that has 100% of its population living in major urban areas, with Malaysia coming in second according to ASEAN UP.
WRITE-UP
This is a thematic photo essay on the topic of environment, regarding the issue of urbanisation in Singapore. The reason why I chose this issue is because, urbanisation is an important and serious thing to keep in mind especially for our city. For a small country like Singapore, the small land area is related to other urban challenges such as traffic congestion and crowd congestion as well. Additionally, maintaining an environment with enough greenery and a sense of space can be a struggle for the city.
Urbanisation is constantly happening all around the world as countries get more developed and technology rises. Singapore is one of the smallest country in the world but it cannot stop urbanisation from happening. For a country with land constraints, urbanisation can be largely challenging, which is why I felt like it would be appropriate to highlight this issue as it is something that will only get tougher to tackle in the years to come.
The 10 photos in this photo essay have been carefully chosen to illustrate the issue of urbanisation. I wanted to capture the elements of urbanisation which includes traffic congestion, crowds, construction of new buildings and the contrast between green space and man-made buildings. These elements can be seen in the photos as the shots demonstrate that. A couple of the shots are of buildings which helps to illustrate how Singapore is becoming a concrete jungle through urbanisation. There are also shots of both traffic and crowd congestion which are two of the main consequences of urbanisation, especially for a small country like us.
To end off, the main challenges that I faced while shooting was finding locations to shoot at which enabled me to capture the buildings at a good angle. Although there are buildings everywhere in Singapore, I found it a little difficult to capture the clusters of buildings together at a good angle which would show the image of Singapore being a concrete jungle. Low angle shots didn’t really allow me to capture everything in the frame whereas high angle ones required me to shoot at a high rise building. Besides that, it was also hard to get shots which showed the contrast of nature and urbanisation side by side, because finding the locations to shoot that were not easy. However, I have found this shooting experience to be a meaningful one.