8 Women by Grace Baey [2015]
[17.09.15 — 17.10.15]
To coincide with the annual Indignation Festival this September, Grey Projects presents 8 Women, a portrait series by social researcher and photographer Grace Baey.
Back in the 1960s and 70s, Bugis Street in Singapore was renowned for its nightly gatherings of flamboyantly dressed trans women. These parades slowly dwindled during the mid-1980s, after major urban redevelopment in the area.
In this series, Baey seeks to recreate the sense of glamour characterised by the Bugis Street era, by photographing trans women in the Rowell and Desker Road vicinity where a substantial portion of the community has since shifted. To capture the women in their environment, Baey invited them to present and pose themselves at street corners that were just a stone’s throw away from where they typically hang out.
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Grace Baey (b. 1985) is a Singapore-based photographer with an interest in social issues. A human geographer by training, she turned to photography as a way of engaging with these issues through a more intimate lens. Of interest to her are questions of place, identity, and belonging. Her work deals with issues of social marginalisation, with particular focus on low-waged migrant workers and the transgender community in Singapore. Earlier in 2015, she participated in Objectifs’ annual Shooting Home mentorship programme, as well as the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Bali.