There is a certain irony for a girl who hasn't been through National Service to be writing about a set of photographs about our Singaporean sons' experience in everyday life, but we feel these are worth showing anyway, for the statement they make.

This photo essay, titled "The Soldiers Among Us", started as a visual communications assignment by four first-year communication students at Nanyang Technological University. Their class was assigned to submit eight photographs on a selected social issue — the one they chose: the public portrayals of soldiers.

The team was then inspired to take their project further, adding one more photo (the one above) to the series.

"I think this really came about from a personal experience of this sense of disparity we felt while we were in service," says 23-year-old Ho Kai Feng, one of the group members. "The idea that in public, we almost wanted to be unseen and as small as possible while at the same time being proud of defending the nation on a day to day basis. The idea came around rather organically, while there were other social issues being discussed — when this was put forth, it created a strong response within the four of us."

1. Knock It Down

The photos, taken by the group in March, feature an NSF in different day-to-day scenarios, dramatised to convey what they believe is the tussle every soldier experiences between being a teenager and dealing with societal expectations of what "the perfect soldier" should do.

2. On The Outside

"We also want to show the importance of NSF in our daily life," adds Jeline Chia, 20. "Their presence may or may not be felt, but because of the NSFs, we are able to enjoy the safety and security. We also want to show that, no matter how the public perceives the NSF, they are still proud to represent the nation and willing to fight for their country."

3. The Lion Spirit

"The conceptualisation came rather easily, we drew again from our personal experiences which led to the photos with that portrayed the invisible person causing us to always look over our shoulder while out in public and other experiences we face such as MRT or the lift photo (number 6)," Ho says.

4. Reserved Seat I

5. Reserved Seat II

6. Eyes At The Back Of My Head

The group hopes these photos will trigger thought about how people react and behave toward our servicemen. Chia describes this as "(the general public's) mindless responses and actions towards" them:

"These are the people who are protecting our country — they are serving the nation, but they are not our servants. So please do not expect them to give up everything for you. Most of the time, the public’s voice is louder than the NSFs, as such we hope these photos can lend a voice to the NSFs, as a portrayal of their inner struggles."

Ho adds, "A lot of the time we are not aware of subtle actions like moving our finger up to our nostril that convey a strong message to the NSF. That’s what the NSF is doing — sitting in a train, taking a lift are perfectly normal things but our reaction to them is not."

7. I'm Always Protecting You

For group member Kyle Malinda-White, 23, discrimination against our soldiers continues today, despite previous condemnation of posts from STOMP or other websites that attempt to shame soldiers in uniform who sit down on train or bus seats.

"We should never subject our men to unrealistic expectations and ridicule and instead be grateful that they are sacrificing their time to defend our country, willingly or not. It is a responsibility which every Singaporean son has answered, and for that the best we should do is not make life any more harder than it already is for them."

8. Marching on

9. Fight For Our Land

The series of images can also be viewed here.

Top image from series.

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