
All life begins with a birth.
With that in mind, I thought it fitting to pick this beautiful image, shortly after birth, to kick start the series of weekly featured photographs. From the thousand plus photographs that we have collected thus far, I noticed a trend in photo taking when a child is born. The arrival of a new being into a family seems to inspire photo taking.
Take a look at your family album, does it also have lots of photos of babies?
It is also common for babies to be naked in their photos!
The cabinet in the background of this photo looks like the cabinet that we have at the Toa Payoh booth! Are we seeing a trend in the design of cabinets from the past? I wonder which time period we can this design is from?
Also, check out the old sewing machine behind the boy, these days, such machines are being restored and dismantled where by the “legs” of the machine are used as legs for a new table. Do you still have a similar type sewing machine at home?
Back when kids still played outdoors bare foot. The following two photos were taken at the HDB flats in Jalan Besar.
Captain America t-shirts!
Family portraits such as these were popular then, still popular now.
One of the many photographs we have collected that suggests that the Chinese Garden was a very popular destination for families during their free time. What a lovely picture indeed.
Ms Stella was a teacher for the deaf. She has a nice collection of photographs with her students. This is one of her more unusual photographs featuring ducks in the park… toy ducks of course.
During one of her lessons, the class she was teaching was visited by ex-President Wee Kim Wee.
Ms Stella is seen here standing in front of her HDB home. Take a look at her door… it has no grills! She shared with the team that there was a time when homes were “open” – no grills, no security cameras!
Weddings, like births, were a common occasion that inspired photo taking. The difference in the type photography of these two occasions is that wedding photos are usually taken in a studio, while babies are usually subjects of more candid and casual photography.
Wedding photos in the past usually featured the bride in a traditional western type bridal gown, with the couple standing against a simple solid colour background. This photography style is a far cry from the wedding photography style of today!
That’s it for this week’s seat of featured stories and photographs. Look out for a new set new week!