A Short History of Documenting in Southeast Asia
06:30 pm – 08 pm, Fri 01 Mar 2024
Matca Space for Photography
48 Ngoc Ha, Ba Dinh, Hanoi
From the organizer:
The basic function of a camera is to create a document. Since the inception of photography, photographers across Southeast Asia have understood and utilised the act of documenting in different ways. The different ways in which they approached the act of documenting have been shaped by the social milieu and the desires of individual photographers and those of the state and other institutions. In this sharing session, Singaporean writer, researcher Zhuang Wubin will share examples of how documenting was used by the elites during the colonial period, how it was understood by the salon photographers, and how it has been deployed during decolonisation and the making of the nation.
* Language: English with Vietnamese interpretation
About the speaker
Zhuang Wubin is a writer who makes photographs, publications and exhibitions. He received his PhD by Published Work (Research–Photography) from University of Westminster, London.
Zhuang is the major grantee of Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Greater China Research Grant 2018 and a recipient of the Prince Claus Fund research grant (2010). In Singapore, Zhuang is the recipient of the National Library (NL) Digital Fellowship 2023 and the Lee Kong Chian Research Fellowship 2017 at the NL. He has been invited to research residency programmes at Institute Technology of Bandung (2013), Asia Art Archive (AAA), Hong Kong (2015), Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan (2017) and the Ha Bik Chuen Archive Project at AAA (2018). He is the contributing curator of the Chiang Mai Photo Festival (2015, 2017, 2020).
Published by NUS Press, Photography in Southeast Asia: A Survey (2016) is his fourth book. Zhuang has made presentations, exhibited work, curated shows, and taught classes and workshops in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, amongst others.
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