Marina Sunset 2013 - Fong Qi Wei

Photographing in the fourth dimension

Fong Qi Wei invites you to time travel within the frame of a single photograph

We’ve seen unusual time-lapse photography and films where tides move in and out and the sun rises and sets at record speeds and stars streak across the sky but we’ve not seen time-lapse quite like this before.

Fong Qi Wei’s project Time is a Dimension presents landscapes shot over a set period of time (usually between two and four hours) then  'sliced up' to show the differences in light and atmosphere.

 

Changi Beach Sunset 2013 - Fong Qi Wei
Changi Beach Sunset 2013 - Fong Qi Wei

"I work in the confines of a photographic print, because I like to do so," Fong Qi says. "But in a way, I wanted to break out of this restriction of a single slice of time in photography. Our experience of a scene is more than a snapshot. We often remember a sequence of events rather than a still frame full of details."

 

Fullerton-bay Hotel Sunset 2013 - Fong Qi Wei
Fullerton-bay Hotel Sunset 2013 - Fong Qi Wei

If you’ve worked in a darkroom on your own prints, you’ll perhaps be familiar with the stripes Fong Qi produces in his images, they’re reminiscent of the gradation produced when first working out how much to expose dark room paper for the first time. Fong’s images however, are completely created using a digital camera and reference former technologies (not unlike Instagram’s Polaroid filters, in fact).

 

Kite Flying At West Coast Sunset 2013 - Fong Qi Wei
Kite Flying At West Coast Sunset 2013 - Fong Qi Wei

The photographer uses not only straight lines for effect but occasionally concentric circles to 'pull' the viewer through time, into the frame or towards the focal point: be it fireworks or, more often than not, a sunset in the distance.

 

National Day Preview 2013 - Fong Qi Wei
National Day Preview 2013 - Fong Qi Wei

If you're interested in the way the changes of light or nature's seasons can spark incredible photographic images you really must check out our forthcoming book EarthArt. The images in it cover the entire colour spectrum as found in nature, and each photograph is accompanied by a short caption explaining how, where and why these spectacular colours occur: from tropical turquoise seas to icy blue glaciers; from lush green forests to rivers turned green by microscopically small algae.