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STUDIO SHOWCASE
53
January15
Where is home now for you and
your children?
Max was four years old, Isabella was
two and William was just four months
old when we came to Singapore, so this
is really the only home my kids know.
As for me, I’m a true TCK. It doesn’t
matter to me where I live. I have family in
Germany, and I have a British passport.
Two of my children have US passports,
while the third – who, like me, has never
lived in England – has a British passport.
To confuse things further, they attend the
Canadian International School and are
studying Mandarin!
How did you become a
photographer?
It was a hobby for some time, but in
a sort of epiphany 10 years ago, I felt
strongly inspired to photograph my
mixed martial arts trainer. He looked like
a Buddhist monk to me, and I wanted to
shoot him in a Zen position. So I bought
a Hasselblad from a friend, took the
shot, and that’s where it all began; the
commissions started coming in.
Before long, I felt I needed a studio.
With a tiny inheritance, I rented, gutted
and painted a 2,000-square-foot loft in
Tan Boon Liat Building. Then I bought
lighting and other equipment and
started renting it out for photo shoots
– mainly for magazines like
Elle
and
Harper’s Bazaar
. I called my business
Havoc, and enjoyed running it for eight
years. When the rent became too much,
I closed that business down three years
ago and decided to work from home.
What does it take to succeed in
your profession?
To become a photographer, the most
important thing is to ask questions and
to practise, practise, practise. Also, it’s
24/7: I work over the weekends and I