Opening Act.
Kickstarts. Even as the nation of Singapore has been in a state of a flurry of preparations for the upcoming opening celebrations for the Games, the average citizen gears up in preparation to extend the usual warm Singaporean hospitality to the World. The opening acts – the extravagant display of fireworks, colourful performances and excited fanfare served up portrayed Singapore as a Modernised Urban City playing host to the World’s first ever-groundbreaking Youth Olympic Games. The colourful splashes of light were to the recurring theme of the elements fire and water, which are represented by the mascots Leo and Merly. The entire opening ceremony was segmented in different chapters, which tell the Singapore Story of prosperity and progress that Singapore has achieved thus far since its early days as a tiny, insignificant fishing village.
At the crackling of the fireworks, the resplendent display of colourful costumes, I couldn’t help but feel a genuine swell of pride for Singapore, my country that had the privilege to play host nation to the first ever Youth Olympics. The atmosphere there at the Marina floating platform was one that could be described as exuberant, triumphant, and festive. The world converging in our little small red dot for such a momentous event as the Games is by no means any small feat for Singapore. It would be the event that would go down in history, breaking new ground for the Olympics.
The entire experience of documenting the opening ceremony through the lens of my canon was a rather thrilling one. To capture the colour, the expression, the triumph of the faces in the crowd is one that I feel very honoured to have been granted with. The entire splendor and grandeur of the event simply blew me away. The youths dancing away to popular music such as the Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feeling”, the fantastical props that the performers had just showed the painstaking preparation that Singaporeans had gone through to welcome the foreign athletes to Singapore for the Games. What impressed me too was the constant fusion of fire and water, the intense colour of fire and the cool calm of aqua marine, which was a magnificent visual spectacle of which I truly felt electrified capturing such moments on the canvas of my photographs. All in all, the experience of the ceremony conveyed a sense of solemnity combined with festive gaiety that I’m sure will be much talked about for many months to come.
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