David Tan,photographer,critic,& standard bearer for Singapore Fashion Photography


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mattlock

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Feb 28, 2004
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Let us hear about the amazing skills and thoughts of David Tan in today's Life!

"A self-taught photographer, he returned home with a law degree from the University of Melbourne in 1996 and was appalled by fashion photography standards here.
So, he tried to life them by holding several solo exhibitions from 1996 to show how it could be done.
...."I wish they would be just a bit more creative and fresh.""


Let us hear his revolutionary concept of beauty

""It's not easy being beautiful. Some have a slight advantage with good cheekbones and low BMI, but you still need discipline to be beautiful". As for why his body of work has been dominated by Caucasians with few Asian faces, he says:"That is what the culture of beauty tends to be about. You can't run away from models and beautiful people...that's my aesthetic universe""

I am going down to the Photographer's Gallery tomorrow to see how much I want to hate this guy
 

neither have I
maybe someone who knows can tell us where he's been published?
Apart from today's issue of Life!
 

Never heard of him.
 

mattlock said:
Let us hear about the amazing skills and thoughts of David Tan in today's Life!

"A self-taught photographer, he returned home with a law degree from the University of Melbourne in 1996 and was appalled by fashion photography standards here.
So, he tried to life them by holding several solo exhibitions from 1996 to show how it could be done.
...."I wish they would be just a bit more creative and fresh.""


Let us hear his revolutionary concept of beauty

""It's not easy being beautiful. Some have a slight advantage with good cheekbones and low BMI, but you still need discipline to be beautiful". As for why his body of work has been dominated by Caucasians with few Asian faces, he says:"That is what the culture of beauty tends to be about. You can't run away from models and beautiful people...that's my aesthetic universe""

I am going down to the Photographer's Gallery tomorrow to see how much I want to hate this guy
Each of us set our own standards and the ultimate in Photography is a single photo that will invoke the senses of each and every being on Planet Earth, literate or illterate. Photography expert or outright noob. Will make the heavens open and rain heavily. Will turn the sunny to torrential rain. Will reverse the polarities of all the planets in the solar system and cause the entire Universe to be destroyed.

Ok, a little exaggerating. But to label an individual as a 'standard bearer for Singapore Fashion Photography' is a little too far out methinks. Kinda like praising an individual to high heavens when he's at the peak of his performance. :think:

Each of us have our standards. The universe's the limit. There shld not be a single standard claimed by an individual where art is concerned.
 

yqt said:
Thanks.

OT, anyone notice we have a new mod here?
Ninja, care to intro yourself? I'm sure we would like to know you better. Anyway, welcome to CS.

Thanks for your welcome. I'm not new, just very low profile only. I've been CS moderator since 2002.....quietly moderating our Minolta forum since the beginning.
 

Ninja said:
Thanks for your welcome. I'm not new, just very low profile only. I've been CS moderator since 2002.....quietly moderating our Minolta forum since the beginning.
I thought there's ghost in that forum. ;p
 

Ninja said:
Thanks for your welcome. I'm not new, just very low profile only. I've been CS moderator since 2002.....quietly moderating our Minolta forum since the beginning.

Thanks.
 

jsbn said:
Each of us set our own standards and the ultimate in Photography is a single photo that will invoke the senses of each and every being on Planet Earth, literate or illterate. Photography expert or outright noob. Will make the heavens open and rain heavily. Will turn the sunny to torrential rain. Will reverse the polarities of all the planets in the solar system and cause the entire Universe to be destroyed.

Ok, a little exaggerating. But to label an individual as a 'standard bearer for Singapore Fashion Photography' is a little too far out methinks. Kinda like praising an individual to high heavens when he's at the peak of his performance. :think:

Each of us have our standards. The universe's the limit. There shld not be a single standard claimed by an individual where art is concerned.

did you notice I was being sarcastic in the title
heh heh
but what he said in Life! really irked the hell out of me.
 

mattlock said:
did you notice I was being sarcastic in the title
heh heh
but what he said in Life! really irked the hell out of me.


2nd that!
 

Ninja said:
Thanks for your welcome. I'm not new, just very low profile only. I've been CS moderator since 2002.....quietly moderating our Minolta forum since the beginning.

Ninja's invisible trick?
 

mattlock said:
Let us hear about the amazing skills and thoughts of David Tan in today's Life!

"A self-taught photographer, he returned home with a law degree from the University of Melbourne in 1996 and was appalled by fashion photography standards here.
So, he tried to life them by holding several solo exhibitions from 1996 to show how it could be done.
...."I wish they would be just a bit more creative and fresh.""


Let us hear his revolutionary concept of beauty

""It's not easy being beautiful. Some have a slight advantage with good cheekbones and low BMI, but you still need discipline to be beautiful". As for why his body of work has been dominated by Caucasians with few Asian faces, he says:"That is what the culture of beauty tends to be about. You can't run away from models and beautiful people...that's my aesthetic universe""

I am going down to the Photographer's Gallery tomorrow to see how much I want to hate this guy


this comments are such turn off when i read my papers today, what an S! the pictures on the papers soso only, shallow photog...
 

If there are not too many David Tans in S'pore who are also photographers, then I believe that this David has at least 1 book published some years ago.

If I remember correctly, it was a book on celebrity portraits, both of Asians and Caucasians, some in the nude (including 1 local Asian I think). It was a compilation of works in black-and-white (although there may be colour, I can't remember).

I can't remember the title but the book was on display at RGB photo lab in Bugis. It could still be there.
 

agree :thumbsup:
jsbn said:
Each of us set our own standards and the ultimate in Photography is a single photo that will invoke the senses of each and every being on Planet Earth, literate or illterate. Photography expert or outright noob. Will make the heavens open and rain heavily. Will turn the sunny to torrential rain. Will reverse the polarities of all the planets in the solar system and cause the entire Universe to be destroyed.

Ok, a little exaggerating. But to label an individual as a 'standard bearer for Singapore Fashion Photography' is a little too far out methinks. Kinda like praising an individual to high heavens when he's at the peak of his performance. :think:

Each of us have our standards. The universe's the limit. There shld not be a single standard claimed by an individual where art is concerned.
 

Be careful what u write about this man. He has a law degree from the University of Melbourne and is also a LKY Scholar with a Master's degree in Law from Harvard University. How can a person of such brilliance be wrong? Don't pray-pray ah!

Even when he was fresh out of uni in 1996, he was "appalled by fashion photography standards here". Very sorry to all those old uncle photographer's, you don't meet the mark.

He said, "I wish they would be just a bit more creative and fresh. I haven't seen enough new ideas originating locally that I haven't seen in a foreign magazine."

So he went ahead and shot an image of a model in a Gucci dress exposing her left breast, which echoes the 1968 black-and-white one (Richard) Avedon shot of Lauren Hutton baring her left bosom in a Van Raalte sweater. :bsmilie:
 

jsbn said:
Photography expert or outright noob. Will make the heavens open and rain heavily. Will turn the sunny to torrential rain. Will reverse the polarities of all the planets in the solar system and cause the entire Universe to be destroyed.

You're confusing photography experts with rain makers?

Send them here. We need more rain in New South Wales.
 

keke...

folks, as an aside - has anyone ever met an artist (which way u wish to interpret) who isn't 'appalled' by the standards of their arts (be it painting, music, or in this case photography) and wished to do something abt it? :bsmilie:

watever he said in the papers today (which i found a bit pompous, coming from a self-confessed untrained photographer), lets just take it as marketing talk for his exhibition. not really fair to heap scorn of this chap without actually visiting the gallery to see his pics, rite? i, for one, am going to take mattlock's suggestion of going to see the pics for myself and then decide whether to like or dun like him. ;)

u know, all these comments remind me of the hubris over john clang's exhibition last yr (IIRC)... :bsmilie:
 

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