Archive - Zachary Tang

Finding Softness in a Place: A Portrait of Jalan Hang Jebat is a photo essay I made about one of the few remaining places where people can still live close to nature, in a kampung-like setting, in the tiny city of Singapore.

It is a row of military houses leftover from the British colonial era, owned and rented out by the Singapore Land Authority to folks who are open to an alternative form of housing (compared to our usual flats and condominiums).

I first came across this place when I read in the news that its tenants were facing potential eviction, as there were "grander" plans for the land their homes stood on. Amidst repeated visits and meeting its inhabitants, I became spellbound by the place – it contained a stillness rarely found in my busy home city, and represented an almost utopic vision of peaceful co-existence with nature. Of course, that only meant that it would soon be gone.

This is a photo essay that hopes to immortalise a little bit of that idyllic beauty I once witnessed in a place.

Read the full essay here.

The back view of one of the thirty-odd black-and-white houses nestled in Jalan Hang Jebat. Entrances to second-floor apartments are through a staircase at the back, while first-floor apartment doors are found at the front.