Ways Done in the Past - Portrait Photography

A photo taken at MacRitchie Reservoir in 1900.
A Lunar New Year of the Dragon greeting blog to wish everyone, Singaporean or non-Singaporean, Chinese Singaporean or non-Chinese Singaporean, best wishes for a Happy, Healthy, Peace of mind, Prosperous for year 2012.

I discovered a treasure of antique photos donated by Mr Lee Hin Ming and contributed his personal archive photos to our National Archives of Singapore with thanks and acknowledgement.

Its wonderful to share these precious "memory aids", the photos to share Singapore memory for all of us.

What is portrait photography taken in a photo studio in Singapore in the 1900s to 1930s?

The collection of personal portraits of customers over the decades by Mr Lee which were fortunately not destroyed and never seen to his descendants.

Portrait photography or portraiture is the capture by means of photography of the likeness of a person or a small group of people (a group portrait), in which the face and expression is predominant. In those days, the photos were commonly developed in black and white.

The objective is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the subject. Like other types of portraiture, the focus of the photograph is the person's face, although the entire body and the background may be included. A portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the camera. Storytelling photography conveys emotion, mood and ideas in which expressions are captured and the person will not need to be looking directly into camera.

Nobody could imagine a century later, that photos and handphones was as common as everything, everybody are found and instantly uploaded to the Facebook.

The Lee Brothers Photo Studio c 1900

Memories photos of building, monuments and scenaries

The Arcade at southeast end of Raffles Place, Singapore. The building was a "den" for rubber share brokers in 1910.

What can we discover the ways done in the past in Singapore from these photos?

Find out more to discover from the photography treasure boxes of Mr Lee later on...