Priceless Memories...: Sunday at the National Museum

Lately my mum's been the one actively looking for interesting things to go to or check out over the weekends. It just so happened that she came across news of the "WE: Defining Stories" exhibition which was happening at the National Museum. Being very much attracted to all things nostalgic, she wanted to go check out the photographs of old Singapore and since today was the very last day of the exhibition, we both went there to check it out.

Upon reaching the museum and making our way to the exhibition, we came across another exhibition showcasing the winners of the 5th CDL Singapore Young Photographer Award (some of whom were from my school!) It was great seeing them getting recognised for their hard work. Hope they continue getting into many more exhibitions to come in the future and letting their works receive some well-deserved exposure!

The "WE: Defining Stories" exhibition presented a whole mixture of documentation for visitors to peruse. From full front page headlines from select events, to film stills and negatives, visitors had the luxury of seeing all of them presented in a chronological order and split into various sections under different themes. This made for an almost seamless navigation of information when moving from one space to another. The very thing that caught my eye once I entered the exhibiton space was the presence of this really old bicycle and strapped onto it's back were a large bundle of newspapers dating back to the old days.

A close up view of the description of the exhibiton written on the wall.

As I walked through the exhibition space, I found myself stopping every few steps to take a look at an article pinned up on a panel, reading it and just trying to take in how much Singapore has changed and grown over the years. I enjoyed reading the articles the most, especially the ones which documented the political aura of yesteryear. Those must have been really interesting times...

Ah yes, these newspapers were super popular with the attendees!

The English and Tamil copies had already run out unfortunately.

There were also some QR code related interactive sections scattered about accompanying some of the exhibits on display. Should the curious visitor be inclined to know more, they'd just have to scan the code to access the extra interactive content on their phones.

One of my favourite photographs from the exhibit. I just found that gigantic warning sign telling patrons that it's an offence to litter inside the cinema hall strangely hilarious, especially when right next to it is the cinema screen showing an army mobilisation message.

This one seemed pretty popular, with lots of people stopping by to read through the article showing one of the election campaign results from yesteryear. Also, I couldn't help getting distracted by the advertisment sections in the article which were just beautiful in their own retro way.

There was a little corner with chairs for people to sit down and watch a slideshow showing a variety of colourful and memorable snaps from the old days to modern times.

Just as we finished exploring this exhibition, there was yet another one waiting to be discovered just literally right in the gallery next door. On display were the photographs by Sebastiao Salgado. A Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist, Salgado's works seem interested in presenting Nature in all it's ethereal beauty. I really enjoyed looking at some of his landscape works featuring volcanoes and long winding valleys leading into paths unknown. My camera snaps below don't do his works justice.

Took me a while before I spotted the climber dwarfed by the trees around him.

Wonder how high up he must have been...

His book was also on sale at the National Museum, which just about covers all of the works exhibited together with writeups. There were also notebooks being sold bearing some of his photographs on the cover. Beautiful stuff.