Why photograph a void deck?
It is easy to walk past one. The concrete columns, fluorescent lights, tiled floors, and rows of plastic chairs seem too ordinary to deserve a camera. But spend enough time beneath a block of flats and the place begins to change. You notice the uncle reading the newspaper, children cutting across the open space after school, or an elderly neighbour sitting alone as afternoon light slips between the buildings.
These are not grand scenes. That is precisely why I photograph them.
Void decks are some of Singapore’s most honest spaces. They are neither entirely public nor private. People pass through them, wait in them, celebrate in them, and sometimes simply exist there. For a photographer, that makes them rich with quiet interactions.
I prefer to photograph with a small setup and little interruption. A 35mm or 50mm lens is often enough. The wider view lets the architecture remain part of the story, while a tighter frame can isolate a gesture or expression. More important than the lens is where you stand.
Wait.
Light changes quickly beneath housing blocks. A patch of afternoon sun might fall across a corridor for only a few minutes. Someone will eventually walk into it. The photograph often appears when architecture, light, and human movement briefly agree.
Look for repetition too: columns framing figures, bicycles against walls, laundry moving above, shadows dividing the floor. These details give structure to photographs that might otherwise feel visually quiet.
I also try not to photograph people as decoration. A void deck is someone’s everyday life. There is a difference between observing and taking. Patience helps you find the former.
This is something I return to often with SG Nomad Photographer: the photographs worth keeping are not always the ones that announce themselves immediately.
Sometimes, they are simply records of a place we thought we knew, much like what the camera saw beyond the attractions when attention shifts away from landmarks and toward ordinary life.
And sometimes, Singapore becomes most recognisable when nothing extraordinary is happening.