Student Entry - Emerging Talent Awards

Photos (26)

Cover
Future is getting harder,Waddling chest deep in the highest swimming pool of the world, I pause in amazement in the far distant horizon and studied the intense changes made to the landscape of Singapore. She too paused.Who would have imagined how far we would come. What we had to lose to come this far and what could we gain in the future? © Amrita Chandradas
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87% of Singaporeans resides at HDB (Housing Development Board ) estates,which vary in several room sizes depending on their affordability.Today,with the population crisis on the rise,Some couples have to wait at least 4 to 5 years before moving into their new house due to demand for space.Most Singaporeans spend their entire life paying for their house.© Amrita Chandradas
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Gravedigger exhuming a grave at Bukit brown cemetery,Singapore. The largest Chinese Municipal Cemetery outside of China,houses 100,000 tombs. Bukit Brown Cemetery is the main resting place for the pioneers who built and raised Singapore's economy to where it stands today.The goverment has proposed to demolish a part of this cemetery to build an eight way high lane road.© Amrita Chandradas
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There are living lost souls stuck in a different time zone at Singapore,its surroundings has come to come to a stand still since the 1950's.They have chosen not move forward with modern development.They are the inhabitants of the last village of Singapore,Kampong buangkok. Awin Bin Yudin has resided for about 60 years at Kampong Buangkok,together with his wife Salmah & 6 kids.© Amrita Chandradas
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This is a symbolic process as Taoist priests who are believed to have collected restless souls, who are possibly displaced after the exhumation process at Bukit Brown Cemetery.They are sent for their course of rebirth through the sea. As the society succumb into a modern mind-set, traditional ancestral worship dwindled over the years.© Amrita Chandradas
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" They told me she only had ten years left in her grave,the day I buried her.How can i accept this?"- SA who lost her mother recently.© Amrita Chandradas
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Portrait of the dead found at Hill 3,Bukit Brown Cemetery© Amrita Chandradas
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Descendant Dr.Lim visiting his ancestor, he has 7 direct ancestors buried at Bukit Brown and worries about the lost of connection and nostalgia as this cemetery is to be given away to modern development.© Amrita Chandradas
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Gravedigger cleaning off his hands after exhumation ritual© Amrita Chandradas
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Open grave© Amrita Chandradas
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Liyana Sungep,Singaporean looks out at the changes made in her country.© Amrita Chandradas
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Singapore has evolved from third to first world within a few decades.© Amrita Chandradas
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Local Musician appeasing the souls of the dead whose graves were exhumed.Local belief that some souls are lost and need direction.© Amrita Chandradas
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Offerings for the dead,Taoist Ritual© Amrita Chandradas
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Cecilia Chong vising her great grandfather's grave," This cemetery brings our family together,what happens?When this is destroyed to build new roads and flats to house the new population?"© Amrita Chandradas
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Ghost month Musicians © Amrita Chandradas
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Flags of Singapore at the last village of Singapore,National Independence Day of Singapore© Amrita Chandradas
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" I will never leave this village, I can't survive in modern flats anymore,why would I give up this greenery?"- Nek Nek ISA© Amrita Chandradas
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" I feel like a stranger when I visit the city,this place is my Safe haven" - Jamil Bin Kamsan who refused to give up his home at the last village of Singapore as he claims its more affordable and can hold a much simpler life.© Amrita Chandradas
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" I have not seen my son since he was born,I need to work harder to keep the clothes on him" - Prabhu who works as a construction worker hails from Tamil Nadu. Recent riots  among migrant construction workers and the Government in Singapore has sparked a controversial debate if foreigners should be allowed to work in Singapore.© Amrita Chandradas
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Mohammed Samsuri lives in 45 sq meter flat which accomodates him,his wife and six children. Unemployed due to low educational qualifications,he worries about the new population boom and the competition for work.© Amrita Chandradas
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80,000 Filipino domestic maids reside in Singapore today, They are responsible for bringing up the children of Singapore and keeping the households in order as most Singaporean couples work full time. Another cause to population decline is noted due to heavy work stress thus  couples have gradually lost nterest in raising children due to affordability and time constraints.© Amrita Chandradas
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Nek Nek Lisa  has lost her memory,resides at the last village of Singapore. Her daughter moved back to take care of her and claimed however that she cant take care of her at the modern flats as she would fall even more ill due to the cramped environment.© Amrita Chandradas
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Jamil Kamsah collected antiques from several  Malay weddings which he worked as a make up artist,creating his own home into a wedding studio of his own. Every house in Kampong Buangkok boasts a character of its own, unlike linear public housing structures in Singapore.© Amrita Chandradas
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"We are living ghosts within a ghost city" © Amrita Chandradas
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Expat officer worker looking out modern housing which costs more than a million dollars to live despite constrained spaces within the vicinity.© Amrita Chandradas
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