WHO?
Hello! My name is Betty Goh, born and bred in Singapore. I have been photographing on the streets for about 2-3 years.
My passion is mainly on abstract street photography – focusing on urban streets, colours, graphics, reflections, shadows, silhouettes and lines. Ideally, there should be some human element. I would also like to describe that some of my work contain tinges of surrealism, mystery and imagination. Usually I prefer to give myself some challenges when photographing and would try to view mundane items on the street as interesting subjects. Everything I capture must be genuine at that moment. My photos are taken mainly from my gut feel and analysis about the situation and surroundings. Technicalities are not my thing because in my personal opinion, photography must be a spontaneous visual feeling. The ability to create a good visual composition is the ultimate key to good photography.
I don’t have any formal education in art or photography. In late 2018, I attended a workshop which inspired me. Since then, I started to observe and photograph the streets differently and then I slowly evolved with my own ideas and style. I find it’s important to me to follow my own feelings in photography.
WHAT?
I would like to describe my style in 3 short words – Abstract, Imaginative and Mysterious.
WHERE?
Most of my earlier photos were taken outside of Singapore because I was constantly traveling to other countries for work. In fact, I hardly had the chance to be at home to photograph the streets of Singapore.
It is different this year. Traveling is no longer possible because of the COVID pandemic. It was initially depressing because nobody was on the streets and even where there were crowds, I decided not to be there due to the risk of infection. It became worse when the lockdown started. Fortunately, it was quite soon during those difficult period that I discovered some interesting ‘mundane’ subjects around my house which kept my ‘street’ photography going.
I am happy that Singapore is slowly going back to its usual vibrant life and this has given me the opportunities to be back on the streets. However, I still need to be very careful and avoid high risk areas. I prefer to be in the cool downtown area where I can also enjoy some nice coffee, desserts, and food while doing my street photography.
WHEN?
In real life, my profession has no relation with art or creativity.
I’ve always look forward to the weekends where I can do my street photography. I like to go photographing on my own because it provides me the ability to observe things more closely and intensively.
WHY?
I think I am an artist at heart, but didn’t get the opportunities to work in the creative fields due to the realities of life. It was 2-3 years ago that I discovered street photography as an outlet for me to express my imagination and creativity. I also enjoy street photography as it trains up my observation skills, analysis skills and provides me challenges.