Father’s Day Photography & Illustration Contest: A Chat With The Winners | By Ashley Tan Jeyin
In celebration of Father’s Day, Etc. Magazine and Taylor’s Design School teamed up to organize a contest that showcased the creativity of students. On 23 June, the winners were announced! Teh Su Mynn won Best Photo, while Low Tze Yen won Best Illustration.
This past week, I had the chance to chat with them.
Su Mynn, 19, is studying for a Bachelor of Mass Communication. Drawing inspiration from vintage photos, she took this picture of her dad and brother when they were out camping during New Year’s Day. It was a casual shot snapped on her cellphone to show her mum what they were up to. Upon reviewing it later on, she realised it was a good photo, so she proceeded to edit the colours to make it appear vintage-esque and nostalgic.
The catalyst that made her interested in photography was when she joined her secondary school’s magazine club. She became the club’s photographer and constantly developed her skills through YouTube tutorials. Like any other hobby, passion is what drives us. Su Mynn views photography as a stress-relieving activity that refreshes her mind after boring day-to-day tasks. Her favourite part of the process is the editing stage, usually done on the apps in her phone such as VSCO.
Out of the vast array of photography styles, Su Mynn enjoys shooting close-up images of miniscule subjects and night scenery illuminated by LED lights. For anyone interested in this hobby, this is her advice: “Take many pictures. Experiment to find your style. Don’t delete photos immediately. Instead, review them later on because your perception of it may change.” Remember, anyone can be great at photography, as long as you have the interest, patience and willingness to learn!
Likewise, design is another rewarding hobby you may want to pick up. Low Tze Yen, also 19, drew a beautiful illustration of the elements that represent Father’s Day. Currently studying for a Bachelor of Food Science, she expresses her deep thoughts through design.
When asked about her inspiration for this illustration, she described it as the feeling of fear—fear of the death of her parents. At a young age, she was terrified of this but over time, her fear subsided. However, these feelings bubbled to the surface once again when two of her relatives passed away. Seeing as death is such a heavy topic you don’t bring up over breakfast, she channeled her feelings through this contest.
To put simply, her illustration is about acceptance. Tze Yen was eager to express the acceptance stage that follows after the passing of a cherished one. Father’s Day is a celebration of fathers everywhere so she didn’t want to ignore such a momentous day due to her own fears of the future.
Tze Yen is no beginner to design as she has been practicing since she was a child. Starting off by designing clothes, she has drawn countless sketches in her notepad ever since. Though she lost touch with it for a while due to her hectic schedule recently, she still loves designing. Her passion has stemmed from the influence of social media as she generates ideas from watching fashion shows and scrolling through architecture accounts. When faced with a creative block, she would gain inspiration from her surroundings and draw whatever comes to mind.
According to her, creativity is perhaps one of the most important qualities of a good designer. Design involves a great deal of thinking and often brings out the thoughts in the recesses of someone’s mind. And so I asked, “Is design more so talent or hard work?”
“A mixture of both. Without hard work, it’s difficult to get inspiration. Maybe some people are born with talent, but it’s mostly due to hard work,” Tze Yen said.
Once again, a huge congratulations to the winners Teh Su Mynn and Low Tze Yen for your artistic, beautiful artworks!
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