Today we completed SG61 Photowalk No. 10.
Ten walks. More than 61 kilometres. Many thousands of photographs. And, more importantly, ten weeks of walking, learning, talking, laughing and photographing Singapore together.
When I first thought about SG61 Photowalk, the idea was quite simple.
Singapore was celebrating its 61st birthday, so why not walk 61 kilometres together and photograph our city along the way?
I wanted it to be open to everyone. Camera or phone, beginner or experienced photographer, it didn’t matter.
Looking back after Walk No. 10 today, I realise SG61 became something much bigger than the original idea.
It Was Never Really About 61 Kilometres
The distance gave us a target.
But the distance wasn’t what kept people coming back.
Every week we met somewhere different. Sometimes in familiar neighbourhoods, sometimes somewhere we rarely explored on foot.
We walked through the city, heritage areas, parks, railway corridors, waterfronts, neighbourhoods, festival lights and finally Punggol and Coney Island.
Walking slowly with a camera changes how we see Singapore.
Places that we normally pass without thinking suddenly become interesting.
A doorway.
Someone standing under a patch of light.
A reflection.
Two strangers crossing at exactly the right moment.
A repeating pattern on a building.
A shadow.
A frame within another frame.
Photography gave us a reason to pay attention.
And walking gave us the time to notice.
Two Challenges Every Week
One thing I particularly enjoyed during SG61 was introducing two photography ideas for each walk.
They were never meant to be rules.
They were simply something to look for when someone asked the familiar question.
“What should I photograph?”
Instead of walking around waiting for an interesting picture to appear, we gave ourselves a small mission.
Leading lines and framing.
Layers, light and shadow.
Reflections and colour.
Patterns and simplicity.
Texture and movement.
Silhouettes and blue hour.
Juxtaposition and the decisive moment.
Frame within a frame and visual balance.
Different walks encouraged us to look differently.
Some challenges were easy.
Others made us struggle.
And that was exactly the point.
A photography exercise shouldn’t always produce a great photograph. Sometimes its job is simply to make us notice something we previously ignored.
Over ten walks, these little challenges slowly built a bigger visual vocabulary.
The more visual ideas we understand, the more possibilities we begin to see.
Photographing Together Changes the Experience
One of my biggest observations from SG61 is how different photography feels when we do it together.
Photography can be a very individual activity.
We look through our own viewfinder. We make our own decisions. We press the shutter alone.
But during a photowalk, something interesting happens.
Someone notices a reflection and suddenly five other photographers start seeing reflections.
Someone finds an unusual angle and another person asks, “What are you shooting?”
Someone waits patiently at one location and eventually everyone understands why.
We learn simply by watching each other.
Not through lectures.
Not through complicated technical explanations.
Just by being together and seeing how another photographer sees the same place differently.
Ten photographers can stand at exactly the same location and produce ten completely different photographs.
That remains one of the most fascinating things about photography.
The Photographs Were Only Part of It
Some of my favourite SG61 moments had nothing to do with photographs.
It was seeing familiar faces arriving every week.
People waiting for one another.
Sharing food and snacks.
Helping someone with a camera setting.
Talking while walking.
Having supper or brunch afterwards.
Laughing about photographs that didn’t quite work.
And occasionally walking much further than the planned 6.1 kilometres.
Friendships grow quietly during activities like these.
You might arrive at Walk No. 1 knowing only one or two people.
By Walk No. 10, the group feels very different.
That sense of community is something I appreciate most about this project.
SG61 reminded me that a photography club shouldn’t only be about producing better photographs.
It should also create reasons for people to meet, explore and enjoy photography together.
The Red SG61 T-Shirt Became Part of Our Identity
A special thank you also goes to everyone who supported SG61 by buying the red SG61 Photowalk T-shirt.
It was wonderful seeing so many of you wearing it during the walks, and some of you wore it almost every single week.
Over time, that red shirt became more than just something we wore.
It became part of our identity.
When we arrived at a meeting point and saw a group of red SG61 shirts, there was an immediate feeling that we belonged to something together.
It also made our group easy to recognise and created a strong visual identity in all our group photographs.
Years from now, that T-shirt may no longer be something we wear every week.
But I hope when we see it hanging in the cupboard, it brings back memories of these ten walks.
The places we explored.
The photographs we made.
The people we met.
The conversations, laughter, tired legs, late dinners and early mornings.
Sometimes a simple T-shirt becomes a souvenir of a much bigger experience.
Thank you for wearing SG61 proudly.
Our Thursday Discussions Completed the Learning
The walk itself was only half of the experience.
Looking at photographs afterwards gave us another opportunity to learn.
During our Zoom discussions, we could slow down and ask different questions.
Why does this photograph work?
What attracted the photographer?
Could the composition be simpler?
Would moving slightly left or right make a difference?
Is there something distracting in the frame?
What happens if we crop differently?
Most importantly, we saw how everybody interpreted the same challenge differently.
That reflection is important.
Taking photographs develops instinct.
Reviewing photographs develops understanding.
We need both.
What SG61 Taught Me
SG61 taught me several things that I want to carry forward.
Keep photography simple.
A small challenge is often more useful than a long list of instructions.
Give people a reason to look.
“Find three examples of juxtaposition” is much easier to practise than “take better street photographs”.
Different locations need different challenges.
A quiet park requires a different way of seeing from Little India or the Singapore Night Festival.
Allow time to wander.
Sometimes the best photographs happen between our planned stops.
And perhaps most importantly, don’t measure the success of a photowalk only by photographs.
Measure it by whether people want to come back next week.
What Can We Do Better for SG62?
SG61 was an experiment.
SG62 can build on everything we learned.
Next year I would like the challenges to become even more structured.
Every walk could continue having two main photography ideas, but we can perhaps introduce three levels.
A simple challenge for beginners.
A more deliberate composition challenge for regular photographers.
And an optional creative challenge for anyone wanting to push themselves further.
This would allow everyone to participate at their own level without making the walk feel like a class.
I would also like us to create a stronger visual record of the whole journey.
Not only individual photographs, but photographs of the photographers themselves.
Group photographs.
Behind-the-scenes moments.
Small stories from each walk.
Perhaps SG62 could eventually become a proper collective photo essay or exhibition rather than simply ten separate outings.
We can also improve the post-walk sharing.
Instead of only asking for favourite photographs, we could occasionally ask participants to explain why they made a particular frame or what they discovered while attempting that week’s challenge.
That thought process can sometimes teach us more than the finished photograph.
And of course, we can improve the routes, timing, group management and experience based on everything that worked and didn’t work during SG61.
SG62 shouldn’t simply be SG61 with a different number.
It should be the next chapter.
Thank You
The biggest thank you goes to everyone who joined us.
Whether you completed one walk or all ten, you became part of SG61.
Thank you to those who helped guide groups.
Thank you to those who waited for slower walkers.
Thank you to those who shared knowledge.
Thank you to those who brought food and snacks.
Thank you to those who joined our Zoom discussions.
Thank you to everyone who bought the SG61 T-shirt and wore it proudly during our walks.
And thank you to the friends who kept turning up week after week.
A project like this only works because people decide that it is worth spending an evening or morning together.
Today at the end of Walk No. 10, I feel less interested in counting how many kilometres we covered.
What matters more is what those kilometres gave us.
We explored Singapore.
We trained our eyes.
We made photographs.
We learned from one another.
We made new friends.
We created memories.
And somewhere along those 61 kilometres, SG61 Photowalk became a small photography community of its own.
That is something worth continuing.
SG61 ends here.
But SG PhotoWalk continues.
And when Singapore turns 62 next year, perhaps we will lace up our shoes, put on our shirts, pick up our cameras and begin another chapter together.
See you on the next walk.
