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Showing posts from March, 2018

Exciting Life Updates

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I know I haven’t been updating this blog because I’m too lazy. Years 2 and 3 have been an exciting flurry of business (both work and busy-ness). I constantly spew bite-sized thoughts that stream into my mind on Instagram Stories anyway, and I am remarkably easily bored and excitable, so longer, more considered pieces on Blogger aren’t sustainable. I digress. Many exciting life updates! I’m now officially done with my undergraduate PPE programme at King’s College London. I loved every bit of it: the depth, rigour and intellectual intensity of the course, the international student community, the bustling city of London and all the travel opportunities around Europe. Words can’t do justice to the profundity of the experience. In typical Quincean fashion, I milked everything I could out of the three years: went to Cumberland Lodge (for free) as a photographer with the Philosophy Department in Years 1 and 3, clinched the Principal’s Global Leadership Award (PGLA) in my second year (spending
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Freedom and Self

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The Self , © 2015 Quince Pan I have struggled with the concept of self for quite a while. It is an amusing coincidence that "The Mind and Self in Literature" has come back to bite me at the A Levels. What is the self? Here, I wish to focus not on the physical self, but the mental self. Essence, not existence. Hence, by "self", I mean "personal identity". (Allow me to use these two terms interchangeably because "self" is much shorter and thus more convenient to use than "personal identity".) Common wisdom says that the value of the self stems from its authenticity. "Stay true to yourself," or so they say. But what is a true self? Can we ever know who we are? This view assumes that the self is foundational and constant, so that we can make decisions based on this unchanging standard. This problem can be circumvented by ditching authenticity altogether. "Stay true to your beliefs about yourself." In thi
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H2 Knowledge and Inquiry (KI): Should You Take It?

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Choosing your A Level subject combination can be quite a nerve-racking experience, especially if you don't have any strong interest in particular subjects. The stakes are high too: it's the A Levels, the culmination of 12 years of formal education. No one wants to screw up and pick the wrong combination that will lead to 2 years of extra suffering. I faced the same problem after I graduated from the High School section. Physics, Math, Literature and KI was the combination of my dreams, but it wasn't a standard combination the College section offered. I made a compromise and chose the closest combination on the standard list: KI, Literature, Math and Economics (KILME). When I tell people I take KILME, they usually respond with confusion or shock. "Harh, simi combi is that?" "You take KI?!?!?!" These reactions are basically caused by the mystery that is KI. It's a phantom subject: one that has no textbook, no published notes,
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Preliminary Thoughts on Meaning in Photojournalism

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If we break down the process of photojournalism, we find that there are essentially three stages: Pre-Photo, Photo and Post-Photo. Pre-Photo involves the photojournalist's brief and his conceptualisation of photographs. Photo refers to the finished photographs themselves. Post-Photo involves the selection and distribution of photographs to a wide audience. This provides a convenient framework that we can use to figure out where and how a photograph’s meaning is created. In our examination of the photograph’s meaning, it is also important to note the dual nature of the photograph — as both a piece of evidence and a work of art. Before the photograph, there is the photographer. The creation of the photograph necessitates the active intervention of the photographer, who must choose what settings to use, what scenes to capture, the angle of the shot, et cetera. These choices, literally, make the photograph. Hence, if we are to investigate the origin of meaning in photojournalism
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