Staring

Children in the kampong react quite instinctively. Here, we see a child staring at visitors to the kampong with some degree of apprehension. Perhaps, he knows that his kampong days are numbered.

Two playful kampong girls circa 1950s

Kampong life is colourful, to say the least, but it is never complete without the images of playful children. The photographer's forte is child portraiture. He was made famous by his many images of children, some dark, some compelling, some uncannily exhilarating, others still reserved, impenetrable. Again, this range of photography is attributed to the number of hours he spent each time, seeking out the local kampong population, if not focusng entirely on children, whatever they were doing. His photographs of children do not so much show his technical skill in developing black and white photos, as his true nature. That soul, an inner yearning, to think all the thoughts in the world and dream all the possibilities unbound. The depth of Yip's perception is as much about the children as it is about himself. If we read a burden of anxiety upon a face, we understand full well that Yip's childhood was not an unblemished one. If we read the light of innocence and imagination upon a face, then we know Yip's experences bore the same if not as a child himself. If we catch the outbreak of happiness through smiles and laughter, we know that this kind of joy is not limited to heady childhood but lives on well into old age. ( *Bibliography: NLB publication - An ingenious reverie: The Photography of Yip Cheong Fun)

A kampong house by the sea - a reverie or dream

A simple kampong house by the sea - but what a beautiful life for young and old. I, too, have a dream, a kampong dream - of kampong houses on stilts - black, brown and beautiful. Was it yesterday that we ran across the wooden planking linking the kampong houses on stilts? Before sundown, we waited outside the houses to look out for the fishing boats returning with dozens of half-naked fishermen untangling their nets. It was in this setting that the photographer was able to capture images of little children running up and down the wooden planking or bridge, with reflections of the kampong houses on the glass-like sea and the returning boats in their pensive journeys buoyant across the calm waterways.

Take time to dance in the sun

This is a picture of social life within a kampong settlement. This picture by Yip Cheong Fun, like all his kampong pictures in the old days, is not just a mundane record of the past; as a documentary photographer, his passion is to record life and measure the minutest transformation of the social scene and fabric of life. Here is an unusual and rather informal social gathering for dancing and merriment at Tanah Merah in the late 1950s. It's not for a special occasion like weddings - it's just some kampong folks relaxing on a Sunday morning. Such events existed. They represented the harmonious social mingling amongst kampong people of whatever origins - a symbol of relaxed and peaceful lives in our Singapore kampongs in days gone by.

The kampong and the sea (Reality and Reflections)

In the 1940s, the coastal areas at Changi were dotted with kampong settlements like this. It is an idyllic setting for a Singapore kampong. All the elements of beauty are there - attap houses under the shade of tall coconut trees, casting their reflections on the face of the sea. Its beauty is subtle - a sort of freshness and glory. We knew it was real, and yet the experience was like a dream. Perhaps, many in Singapore still have kampong dreams.

(Photo by Yip Cheong Fun The kampong and the sea - circa 1940s )

Security in the kampong

Kampong Friend - Man's best friend in a typical kampong setting at Kallang in Singapore, adds colour and life to the rural environment. The old kampong scene is never complete without other lives revolving around the people who lived, loved and died in the kampongs. Imagine you were there early in the morning, listening to the birds chirping, dogs woefing, cows mooing, chickens clucking and duck kwaking, and watching other animals frolicking in the first glow of sunlight peeping through the morning mist or verdant haze that covered the branches and leaves of trees and shrubs. It is an enchantment that somehow eludes us, as urbanisation and modernisation set in and Singapore kampongs vanished into oblivion .