By Gabrielle Ng (20A01E) and Shervon Lee (19S06A) 
Photographs courtesy of Jensen Huang (20S06T) and Koh Jia Hao (20S06M) of Raffles Photographic Society

The usual hustle and bustle of Bugis Street would have given no hint of a special event to the unsuspecting shopper. The only giveaway was the peppy chatter of fashionably dressed students streaming into the obscure but grand Joyden Hall, nestled right above Bugis+. As students hurried to find a seat in the visibly popular venue, ushers decked in impressive ensembles and flawless makeup greeted them with a photobook documenting the year-long fruition of Raffles Runway’s efforts—‘RISE’.

By Huang Beihua (20A03A) and Ng Jing Ting (20A13A)

It took us all of two minutes to locate the Visual Arts Centre. Located just a stone’s throw away from the entrance of Dhoby Ghaut MRT station, the glasshouse exhibition gallery was this year’s venue for Raffles Photographic Society’s (RPS’s) annual photography exhibition, Kalopsia 2019.

‘Kalopsia’, a rather wistful word referring to ‘the delusion of things being more beautiful than they really are’, aptly, if somewhat mawkishly, encapsulated the evocative sentiments of the exhibition. As chairperson Brendon Loo (19S03H) explained, “the state of delusion” the word captured succinctly reflected the vision behind this exhibition: to showcase photography as “more than just taking aesthetic photos”, but also an art form to “conjure a deeper significance and meaning”.