Visual Archivist Aik Beng Chia On Being A Photographer In The Era Of Social Media
He’s amassed close to 40K followers on his namesake Instagram account with his street photography shot mostly on his iPhone (fun fact: he started with the iPhone 2G). Surely, the Singapore visual archivist popularly known as ABC knows a thing or two about being a photographer in a social media-obsessed world.
“When I first started using Instagram as a photographer around 2012, my growth on the platform was – and remains – very organic. I wasn’t posting the kind of images that were trending. A lot of people were shooting landscapes, fireworks, birds and so on, but I wasn’t attracted to all those things. I was more interested in capturing what I saw every day: the real side of Singapore – not its picturesque, postcard-perfect side. And somehow, people started noticing and re-sharing my photos, which created a domino effect.
Aik Beng Chia's works offer a vignette into the "real side of Singapore."
I’ve never used the likes of SEO (search engine optimization) or whatever to cultivate more likes and followers, and I usually post only when I have materials to post. I see social media platforms like Instagram as a visual diary. I’m not concerned about whether whatever I share will go viral or get a lot of ‘likes’. My primary objective has always been simply to share what I see and do – that’s literally it. I’m mostly using social media to tell stories and it’s up to people whether they like it or not. My world won’t collapse if they don’t."
Chia’s photo of a Chinese opera troupe member, shot last year for his long-running series Waiting In The Wings. For Chia, who grew up in a kampung in the 1960s and ’70s, Chinese opera was his main form of entertainment and he has always been fascinated by its elaborate rituals. Now, as a photographer, he relishes capturing its artistes in the process of getting ready.
"In fact, I used to regularly wipe out everything on my Instagram account then slowly re-populate it because I saw that as a form of curation. Furthermore with such short attention these days, who would comb through the entire account to see old posts? Most people see one or two posts, and move on. The only reason why I stopped doing so is because I’ve had friends scold me for it. Perhaps they had wanted to share my work with clients and visited the account only to find it empty.
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An image shot of a passer-by in Hong Kong in 2023 on an iPhone, one of his main tools for photography.
I know a lot of people these days are trying to find a formula to gain more traction on social media… There’s nothing wrong with wanting to build a big following. In fact, this probably helps younger, emerging photographers get jobs. My advice is to not get overly hung up on building a big following so much so that you lose a sense of who you are. Instead, focus on honing your craft and eventually, brands or people might commission you a job. And even if they don’t, just continue doing your own thing and let your development be organic."
Chia enjoys photographing people in transit areas, as reflected in this photo that was shot in Singapore’s Changi Airport for his series While You Were Sleeping. The 56-year-old Chia struggles with insomnia and says he admires people who can nap anywhere.
"The biggest way in which social media has influenced my journey as a photographer over the years is not through what and how I photograph, but the formats in which I present my work. In the past I used to show single images, but now with features such as Instagram Reels, I can show more images at a go. I do have a TikTok account (@aikbengchia), but I’m not active on it. I shared a few BTS videos on it when I first joined the platform a few years ago, but I wasn’t interested in continuing that. I don’t want to be endlessly creating content for different platforms. I’m lazy and I cannot multi-task, so I prefer to stick to having just one main platform. Pacing things out is also important for my audience – everyone is overloaded with content as it is – as well as myself.
Aik Beng Chia experimented with the artificial intelligence tool Midjourney for this series titled 'Return to Bugis Street', which saw him reimagining the iconic drag queens that used to be in the area.
After photographing for more than 10 years, I’ve realised that even though I’ve been passionate about documenting, I’ve not had much time for other things such as spending time by myself or with friends, family, colleagues and so on. The pandemic really got me looking back and while there’s still a lot I want to do as a photographer, there’s no rush. I’ve decided to take things more chill and live my life more slowly. With more time to myself these days though, who knows? I might give TikTok a go again.”
AS TOLD TO KENG YANG SHUEN
This article first appeared in the April 2024 Art Book edition of FEMALE