Teaching Portfolio
After doing photography for 5 years, I decided that sharing my knowledge with others was something I wanted to embark on. I started off by teaching courses at Objectifs (all the love in the world to this wonderful organization!!), and eventually had the opportunity to start adjunct lecturing in Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) in 2018. I've also taught 2 visual communications modules in Nanyang Technological University in 2019 and 2021 under the WKW school. More recently, I'm honoured to be teaching at my alma mater, in the NUS College. Listed below are 3 of the modules I'm currently teaching.
NHT 2208 / The Power of Storytelling through Photography
NUS College (2023)
This module is part of the Making Connections Course track, under Creative Practice in NUSC. The first run of this course started in Aug 2023, where students were exposed to basic techniques of photography, operation of the DSLR, before we delved deeper into storytelling. Students were made to step out of their comfort zone tackling personal issues and even approaching strangers for various assignments. They learnt to craft narratives through images and to understand/interpret photographs as well. Through this module, students were also introduced to the future of photography - including open source journalism, and generative images.
It’s been a fun module to teach because I largely get to shape the course according to my strengths and what I think my students might like to learn.
DM 2260 Design for Transformation
NAFA (2022 - present)
From a handful of shortlisted competition briefs (SCB), students are to pick one brief, demonstrate an application of brand archetype and consumer profiling, and come up with design solutions for the project.
In the 14 weeks, my role as a lecturer is to guide students with their selected project where they will go through rounds of pitching, feedback, development and refinement. It is a rigorous course where past students’ design solutions have included a variety of mediums like that of kinetic typography videos, short films, photography zines & books, social media campaigns and websites, amongst others.
DM 2160 Design In Society
NAFA (2018 - present)
I’ve been teaching this module since 2018 and have been assigned to conduct 7-weeks of production lectures for the Year 2 students in NAFA. Students are taught Photography101 - from operating the DSLR, to composition, to mobile phone photography and learning to translate emotions to visuals. We also get to have lots of hands-on lessons in the studio where students get to experiment with light painting, portraits and DIY lightboxes.
Through the lessons, we also work together to make sure the images they shoot answers the brief they’ve chosen to work on. The images are then laid out into a photo publication.
Image on the left by Jordan Lim, who made a photo book of his grandma.