THE SOCIAL CIRCUS

250212 / Photographer: Nicholas Xav. Low, Ian Ho, Art/Creative Direction: Nicholas Xav. Low, Keith Premchand, Lighting: Nicholas Xav. Low, Ian Ho, Keith Premchand, Khaw Yee Jek, Models: Keith Premchand, Jon Sean, Toh Yue Feng, Khaw Yee Jek, Nicholas Xav. Low

Recognition: 3rd prize for the PhotoStory Category of MONTAGE2013 organised by NUSPS

Featured in the Photography Open Category of NOISESG 2013.

	Consumed in the ecstasy of the present, we lead lives surrounded by people, but are so isolated at the same time. We forget to be human, and a macabre trance sets in, caught up in our own lives and consumed by the delirious distractions of the present. Why are we so comfortable in our loneliness?	The idealism in us today takes the form of what we call "drive" - a determination to seek more things, defined by the tastes and preferences of our social circles and the media. We expose ourselves to these images, and drive our lives to that state, without relating it back to ourselves, and what we live for. This, is how we lose ourselves. What has become of our society?
Our eyes are blinded by the vibrant delirium of distractions everywhere, at every moment. So blinded that we are corrupted, to the core of our senses, by the things that we see, that subsequently affect the way we think. Are we losing our senses to the ecstasy of now? Can we still see?	Because we are blind, we are prone to bouts of irrationality, driven by the greed the propagates this delirium we live in today. We kill, backstab, become selfish beings, to become the people that we want to be. Is this who we are supposed to become?	We live in a world where our wants come and go faster than our means to acquire it. We always are on the prowl for something bigger, better to upgrade our status and social image. We do this to an almost laughable extent for which it becomes so crass, that nothing else seems to matter anymore. Has our definition of what are important to us in life changed?

What do we live for in our lives?

In such a simple question lies an answer unsought by many in today's day and age. Today, we live by the standards others and society sets for us, defined by social circles, refined by notions gleaned the mass media.

This series seeks to explore the aspects of materialism that have consumed every aspect of modern life, leading to an unprecedented, complex wave of corruption and gaudy sleaze that is characteristic of modern urban life. The raucous madness of life today resembles a circus - an experiential overload that challenges all senses for attention, but yet we regard none seriously.

Driven by individualism, we have never been more selfish, trancedly corrupted by the lure and glamour of rich things and the insignificant symbols these things bring. These artefacts drive greed into the core of our behaviours, and shape a mindless quest to live for the moment.

In the ecstasy of now, we forget…

THE SOCIAL CIRCUS

Consumed in the ecstasy of the present, we lead lives surrounded by people, but are so isolated at the same time. We forget to be human, and a macabre trance sets in, caught up in our own lives and consumed by the delirious distractions of the present. Why are we so comfortable in our loneliness?

Our eyes are blinded by the vibrant delirium of distractions everywhere, at every moment. So blinded that we are corrupted, to the core of our senses, by the things that we see, that subsequently affect the way we think. Are we losing our senses to the ecstasy of now? Can we still see?

Because we are blind, we are prone to bouts of irrationality, driven by the greed the propagates this delirium we live in today. We kill, backstab, become selfish beings, to become the people that we want to be. Is this who we are supposed to become?