Life is short and you have to kind of choose how best to use your time on this earth and
I try to be a useful person so the main way I try and do that these days is through my
photography. So I've always been interested in social issues from the time I was a teenager
and now as a photographer I choose to tell stories which I feel have some social meaning.
I really got my social consciousness from school. I was very lucky to go to some pretty
good schools and I had very good teachers who kind of sensitised me from early on to
the fact that there were people in our society that were less privileged and that we could
as individuals do something to help them.
We didn't have a photography club so basically she was the school photographer. I used to
invite her into the office and we used to chat about philosophical things. She was
interested in photography. I didn't think much of it I just enjoyed talking to her
but in 1999 at Christmas as I said at last year at university she actually wrote to
me and spoke about it and she spoke about the conversations and these things that we
discussed. So I have the letter with me and I would read something that she said I'm
constantly struck and appalled at the fact that I'm only now beginning to make sense
of what and how things happen in the world we live in. Persistent sense of inadequacy
has perhaps been added to long standing self doubt but I suppose that can be shaped into
a positive force if it does not overwhelm and that's Chi Yin.
I started seriously taking pictures when I was about 17 I guess 16 17. I started to spend
Sunday mornings by myself going down to places like Little India early in the morning taking
the bus down there to take pictures of just light and shadow and people just street photography.
I have friends who've known me for a long time and they remember me being a very intense
18 year old when I first started working at the newspaper. I mean they gave me all sorts
of nicknames like the professor. Because when I talk to her I forget I talk to someone
that young. I keep thinking I'm talking to someone my age or someone older. There's
an old soul in her and that kind of personality means that when she has the opportunity to
engage with the subjects or like migrant workers then you see the detailing that goes into
it. It's really about the subject and I feel that in that sense she carries the message
to the world on really fringe things you know things that people don't hear about or read
about that often. And I keep diligent notes especially on my own long term projects. I
do interviews I keep notes I do my own writing I keep a journal of what I'm seeing feeling
and hearing and what people are saying to me you know and you know I get kind of deeper
in relationships with people as well and maybe that shows in the intimacy in some of the
pictures. It's like a long term you know investment emotional investment and people open up emotionally
which is kind of a rare thing. A lot of the time photographers have a great visual sense
and they'll come along with you and sort of on the way there they'll say what's the story
about and then they'll start shooting at that point. But she really will often know more
about the story than the reporter does and that's can be sometimes intimidating but I
think it leads to a great result. She does have a very strong commitment to the underdog
to the lower members of society who are struggling. I think this is just a sense of justice that
she was probably born with or maybe that was cultivated in her while she was growing up
and she's always been interested in these kinds of issues. I think she views this as
part of her mission to try to help let to be a voice or the eyes for people who don't
always get into the newspapers as much. What impresses me the most is how hard she works
and how she never really lets up. She's almost like a professional athlete in that she's
always prepping in that every story, every assignment is important for her. She doesn't
seem to do sort of cut herself slack on a lot of things. So I think that that's quite
impressive and I think that probably leads to her being having been successful so quickly
in that she doesn't waste a lot of time and she's working really hard on the story all
the time. Her concept involves engaging the imagination
you know and it's not just cut and dry and it's not just a message that she has that
she's in a very didactic way wants to preach to the person receiving her work. It's really
a work that invites the person in to think a little bit more about the issues and the
themes and to kind of humanise these themes and issues.
I think she moves people to action. She's incredibly powerful at that and she doesn't
move people to action and not dig into her own pocket. She does it herself but you are
not to know. You know she'll do it and that will be quiet just like Chi Yin. It's a quintessential
Chi Yin. It's a very kind of privileged job. You get to have fun, you get to enjoy watching
that magical intersection between time, light and human life almost every day. You get unique
access into people's lives that you have no business being in and you get to tell stories
for other people. I've kind of taken the route where I feel I want to empower people who
can't necessarily tell their own stories so that's something that I feel quite strongly
about is the sense of social purpose in giving a voice to people who can't be heard otherwise.
