承风启雨渡九年 A Perseverance of Nine Years

承风启雨渡九年

汪忠良

缘起与发展

我不是摄影人，也不是文化人。2003年在机缘巧合之下获知2002年开始主办的“城市的眼睛”活动，当年感怀新加坡很多值得保留的景物都被拆迁，社会也有很多的变迁，便拿起傻瓜相机参与了这项活动，希望能为我们的城市留下一些值得回忆的影像。后来知道这活动不办下去，便联合李子民先生在2004年一起接手主办策划活动，后来陆续的又增加了一些成员，并在公司机构的赞助、社会各界和义工的支持下，每年持续主办这项岁末活动。

先前参与策划活动的大多是艺文界人士，而后来我们接手后的大多是草根较强的社会人士或者是业余摄影人士，所以前后策划者关注的事物和看待事物都有些出入。大致上来说，前者关注的是保留文化记忆，后者是以关怀社会为主调。其间，我们面对了专业摄影对我们活动照片代表性的挑战，还有摄影技术与文字描述与照片内容之间重要性的拉扯。虽说风风雨雨，我们坚持了每年岁末24小时，不设立奖金奖品，没有主题，不以比赛的方式，一年年的坚持下去。

这几年的活动，我们接受很多参与者的意见，作出不少的改变和调整。为了让学生可以参与活动，我们把年龄限制调整至13岁；为了让活动容纳更多的内容，我们也接受手机拍摄的影像、增加了摄影组照 (Eye Essays) 和年度挑战 (Eye Challenge)。

城市的眼睛是一项社会人文运动

有很多人建议城市的眼睛应该设立奖金奖品、每年设立主题、或者以电邮的方式收集照片。这些建议能够更快捷方便，增加参与的人数与作品，而且也能因为有特定主题，更能够符合特定机构的捐款目的。但是我们认为城市的眼睛是一项人文活动，人和人之间的关系、沟通、了解，也是活动重要的构成。我们希望大家亲自报名、选择照片、和我们的会员交换心得，建立起人和人的关系。我们也看到很多参与者在参加活动或者参观展览的同时，也通过谈论照片的内容，加强了与家人和朋友之间的交流，甚至对于新加坡这城市的社会人文发展更加关切。

城市的眼睛也不是为了宣扬某一个文化、思想、价值观，或者是肯定或否定它们；我们强调的是社会的多元性和包容性。遴选出来的照片是代表当年参与者的共同回忆，没有被选的照片也不表示他们是不重要的，或者是没有纪念价值；而只是在活动在展览和出版数量和内容上的限制。我们相信所有的照片对于参与者都有他个人的价值，每个人因为个自的生活背景和经历，对于同样的照片也有可能也不一样的体会，而这照片带给人们的记忆或回忆不能够用数字或者金钱来衡量其价值。

从这个角度来看，城市的眼睛事实上是一个社会人文运动。我们希望借着活动的推展，从大家对于记忆与回忆的讨论，加强人与人之间的交流与沟通，并且关爱我们生活的城市。从更长远的眼光来说，我们希望成为一个相互平等尊重讨论议题的平台，让参与者能够相互分享自身拥有的信念以及拥有这些信念的理由，并且帮助他人了解自身的观点；并且能以各自的方式共同建立这城市的人文景观。

集合大家的力量，圆满今年的活动

有人说，城市的眼睛有一般活动没有的流动魅力。因为没有特定主题，很多时候，我们是在遴选过后才知道当年照片的组合与氛围，以及可能带出来的整体的内涵动力。当年的作品的内容其实是代表了参与者当年对于发生在新加坡的一个集体的记忆。但是在这个非敌既友的世代，活动有时候不能符合赞助机构商家的特定目的，而无形的人文价值和意义，对于很多人来说是没有投资回报价值的。但是吊诡的是，组织筹办活动还是要回到这有形的世界里，需要靠资金来推动的。由于缺少能为活动筹款的义工，今年我们向参与活动的朋友们筹款，并获得了$1,418.50的捐款，加上其他单位个人的捐款协助方才能圆满今天的结果。

此外，我们还要感谢以各种方式协助我们的个人、公司与单位，尤其是新加坡知新馆(Singapore Discovery Centre)协办与支持今年的展览。

今后的挑战

社会趋势和科技的发展对于主办城市的眼睛有相当大的影响。当年，数码相机没有今天普遍流行，大部分摄影都是以底片为主，如今大家只要拿起相机，都能不用迟疑的捕捉他们想纪录的影像。当年，分享资讯不像现在社会网络和电子书这样方便，所以当年出版书籍和展览相对还是主要的影像传播媒介。当年，“集体记忆”这字眼几乎是不存在的，也不像今天在商业与政治带动下，被重点地推上社会舞台。无论官方机构，或者私人机构都一把抓地把大家的集体回忆收罗起来，放在手中。

最近火车站的搬迁，更是被媒体、社会网络和政治人物炒得沸沸扬扬，成为城市的焦点。城市的眼睛如何在这新媒体蓬勃、商业介入和政治热闹的新局面下，避免集体记忆的探索流于表面，而能进入更深层文化和心灵层面的思考，将是今后我们主办人的一个挑战。

转载自《城市的眼睛--2010 岁末24小时人文影像纪录》，新加坡。城市的眼睛出版，2011年10月，pp10-11。

A Perseverance of Nine Years

Ang Chong Leong

Beginning and Development

I am neither a photographer nor an intellectual. By coincidence in 2003, I got to know “Eye é City”. The demolition of many historical and culturally-rich buildings and sites coupled with the social changes happening at that time moved me to pick up my compact camera to capture a moment of the city. In 2004, together with Mr Lee Chee Ming, I took over the reins of organising the annual year-end event which started in 2002, after the previous organisers decided not to continue. Since then, joined by more organising team members and with strong support from volunteers, corporate sponsors and the public, we managed to carry on the annual year end activity through the years.

As the previous organisers were mainly from the arts and literary circle, the focus was on preserving history and culture. After taking over, the organising team was made up largely by people with close connection to the community as well as amateur photographers. More emphasis was placed on expressing care and concern on social issues. In the meantime, we faced much criticism from professional photographers on our photos’ representation as well as our continuous dilemma to balance between participants’ write-ups, content and technical skills of the photos. Despite these, we persevered year after year, 

persisting with photo-taking in the last 24 hours of each year not turning the movement into a competition by giving away prizes and establishing specific themes. However, for the past years, we have also accepted suggestions from participants and made many changes. These include lowering the age criteria to 13 years old to allow more student participation; accepting photos taken by mobile phones; and introducing Eye essays as well as Eye Challenge to enhance greater photo content.

Eye  é City  is a social-cultural movement

Many also suggested giving away prizes, allowing online photo submission as well as setting themes to help attract certain corporate sponsorships, in the hope to increase participants and photo images in the fastest and easiest manner. However, we feel that Eye é City is a community movement. The relationship, communication and understanding between people are important part of the movement. Participants are encouraged to be involved personally from the point of registration to selecting their final photos and in the process share their experiences and the stories behind their photos with our facilitators and volunteers.  Through such interaction and discussion, participants sometimes not only strengthen their ties with their family and friends, but also develop a greater awareness of their surroundings and society.

Eye é City does not advocate any specific culture, values and beliefs, or comment on their negativity or positivity. We emphasize both diversity and inclusion of society. Selected photos represent the participants’ collective memories for that year. Unselected photos do not mean they are unimportant or of no memory values. It is simply due to the limitations of exhibition and publication space that choices have to be made. We believe that all photos hold personal values to its owners. Due to the differences in life experience and background, different individuals may view and react differently to each photo. Yet, the memories that it evokes cannot be measured in monetary terms or numbers.

As such, Eye é City is indeed a social-cultural movement. We hope the annual activity will encourage and motivate more discussions and exchanges on our memories, we can enhance interaction and communication between people as well as show concerns for this city we live in. We envision Eye é City to be a platform for participants to share their ideas, thoughts and motivations freely based on mutual respect and equality and in their own way, contribute to Singapore’s social-cultural diversity.

 

Gathering Strength for 2010

Some say the uniqueness of Eye é City is in its fluid nature and unpredictability. As there is no specific themes, often times, we are not able to determine the dynamism of the photo collections till after the photo selection. The collection for a particular year represents the collective memory of participants for that said year. In this world of absolutes, it is unsettling for some sponsors seeking specific projects that can meet their contribution objectives and purposes. To many, there is no tangible returns in nurturing social-cultural values. However, the paradox of the situation is that funds are still required to run our activities. Due to a lack of volunteers able to solicit sponsorship, we sought donations from participants this year, who generously helped to raise $1,418.50. Together with other solicited donations in cash and kind, we managed to pull through to completion. We wish to thank all contributors, whether individuals or organisations who has helped us in their own way this year, in particular, Singapore Discovery Centre for co-organising and supporting the 2010 exhibition.

Future Challenges

Social trends and technological developments have had a huge impact on the organization of Eye é City. In the past, film cameras used to take precedence. But nowadays, digital cameras make it so easy for everyone to snap their desired image without hesitation. Back then, when e-book and the social network were not so popular, book publications and exhibitions were the main outreach medium for images. Even the term “collective memories” was virtually non-existent when the movement first started. Today, motivated by commercial and political interests, collective memories have been pushed into the social limelight. Public and private organisations alike are scrambling to gather everyone’s memories. Recently, media, cyber space and even politicians were abuzz with the moving of the railway station, making it the focus of the city. 

It is definitely challenging for Eye é City to avoid the superficial and to develop a deeper cultural and spiritual understanding of collective memories in this new landscape of vigorous new media development and increased commercial involvement and political activity.

 

Translated by Karen Kan & Tan Siang Bee

extracted from "Eye é City -- A Visual Account of the Last 24 hours of 2010", Eye é City, October 2011, pp 8-9.