WILDLIFE

15/6/2020

THE PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES / WILDLIFE

The last Gen X or the first Gen Y. Whatever it is, it was a tricky period of time.

I was born when this country was on the beginning of technological modernisation. I was alive when the Malay word "Canggih" was invented. It was a very exciting time to be born. And thus, when we were small children, we were seen as the luckiest people to be born in this country ever. Economic stability, peace and prosperity, bright future, no wars, low crime. We were supposed to have a very exciting life ahead of us.

The teachers and older folks looked at us in envy. They call us lucky.

And with that, they told us to have ambitions and dreams and work hard for them and we can achieve.

We can achieve..... we can achieve....

There is something down the road that we can strive for
We are told no dream's too bold that we can't try for
There's a spirit in the air, it's a feeling we all share
We're going to build a better life, for you and me
We can achieve, we can achieve

So I had dreams. I had ambitions. And yes, I worked for them.

I had ambitions to be a traveller, a photographer, a librarian, an astronaut, a researcher, a curator. I wanted to be in the field of History, Geography, Anthropology, Astronomy, Etymology, Archaeology.

But I couldn't be any of them even when I tried. They are all not Singapore jobs. My dreams and ambitions are not supported here. Go look at the jobs list. It's all sales sales sales business business business and more money.

So what happened to dreams and ambitions?

They are all lies.

Not that I didn't try. I did. I had belief.

The only job close enough to my dream that is achievable, is the library. But I cannot be a librarian because I don't have a university degree. Even a few months ago I applied to be an associate librarian, hoping that my age and experiences could be of some help, I got rejected. A clear rejection email.

The only thing I had left was the arts. It wasn't my first choice but it looked achievable. I wanted to become an actor, director, playwright. I worked hard for a good 20 years to master the craft. But now at 40 years old and I cannot even buy a simple 2 room HDB flat, it is obviously a fail. A failed choice. Being too old to change a life choice, I deduce I had a failed life.

So now I am just going to live my remaining life in peace and without ambitions or dreams and wait for my time to end.

And I look back at the things that I dreamt and wanted to achieve.

I shall do them without having any hopes of being successful or making a living out of it.

So here we have the PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES!

I wanted to be a travel photographer and get paid taking photographs of sceneries and animals and architecture and stuff. You know those things. I will take more when I have the time. These photos were taken with my old camera the Nikon D50 and D300. The photo quality is not as good as current cameras. But it doesn't matter. I had fun. I hope you will have fun too.

Here are some photographs of animals in Singapore (of course mostly are in the zoo) and as I pretended to be a wildlife photographer.