Titled Our Study Spaces, this photography exhibition seeks to make you think and reconsider what goes behind the spaces in which students study in.

This exhibition was held during the Community in Review (CIR) seminar by the Association of Muslim Professionals and Centre for Research on Islamic and Malay Affairs (RIMA).

The seminar is held annually to discuss contemporary issues affecting Singaporeans and the Malay/Muslim community in Singapore.

This year's seminar focused on education, speaking on strategies for a new era and how the education industry will respond to forthcoming challenges such as education pathways, how success will be defined in the future, abilities that would be valued and how those in the lower income strata will cope.

Diverse Backgrounds

Created by Verkur Photo, photographer Diana exhibits her work accompanied with text by Nuraliah Norasid.

Our Study Spaces illustrates the stories of various students across the social-economic spectrum, from a cafe at Changi Airport to the humble dining table at home, to demonstrate the different experiences in the seemingly simple act of studying, which may influence the academic outcomes of the students involved.

While this exhibition ended on the day of the seminar, Diana has uploaded all of them onto a Facebook album for public viewing.

Here are some of the photos featured, and their sublime, poignant stories.

Bukit Batok West Avenue 5, 4-room HDB flat, Living Room dining table

“Ever since my mother passed away, my father has not been able to work. He is always sad and has gotten into accidents. So we told him to stop,” reveals the 47-year- old housewife.

Her husband works as a driver of private buses, sending workers to their places of occupation. The couple has 3 children, aged 17, 16 and 8. The youngest goes to a local madrasah, while his two sisters are both in ITE West. The older sister is in a culinary (baking) course, while the younger is pursuing a course in business.

The sisters’ goal is to join forces and improve upon their mother’s home catering micro-business through their passions and expertise. The boy typically comes home from school at 7 p.m. His sisters will help him with his homework at the table while their mother work on completing her orders also at the table.

She used to work as a cashier before deciding to quit to care for her father. The laptop featured is on loan from Daughters of Tomorrow (DOT). It is for her younger daughter’s business assignments and her son’s e-learning homework.

Montreal Drive, 4-room HDB flat, Bedroom study desk

“It is okay if you are not good academically, but you still have to work hard at what you are good at,” is the advice that the 17-year-old student of this room constantly hears from his eldest sister.

As the only boy of three siblings, he has his own room. It is a small space but it is the only one he can have to be alone. He spends his quiet hours sketching in the sketchbooks pictured in the photograph above. He is currently pursuing a course in Digital Animation in an Institute of Technical Education (ITE). There is another table outside which is accessible to his parents, two older sisters and three adult cats.

His mother worked as a nurse but quit her job to take care of the house and pay more attention to her children. His father works as a company driver for a Japanese company, however, with the advent of disruptive technologies such as Grab and Uber, fewer assignments are coming his way.

Republic Polytechnic, Outdoor study area table

This is where a pair of sisters, then in secondary school, would meet their tutor for their bi-weekly tuition sessions in English and Mathematics, and where they would go to study before returning to their Johor home after their mother ended her shift at KFC.

The family, comprising of 3 sisters, their parents and grandparents, moved to the grandparents’ Johor home when their father, already in his 50s, lost his job as a technical engineer during a retrenchment exercise. He is currently working as a taxi driver.

They shared that the study tables in Woodlands Library were often crowded. Cafés provided no alternative as they could not afford to buy anything from there. Their tutor charged them cheaply and accepted late or partial payments at no penalty.

The older of the pair is completing her polytechnic course in Visual Communications and hopes to further her education at Lasalle, College of the Arts. The younger hopes to continue on to Higher Nitec once she completes her Nitec course, also in Visual Communications.

Changi Airport, Table at O Coffee Club

Apart from being a world class airport, Singapore’s Changi Airport also proves to be a world class spot for students to go and do their work at almost any hour of the day. Tables occupied by students range from the positively upper class such as O Coffee Club (pictured) to the more commercial such as Starbucks, Krispy Kreme and McDonald’s.

The main draw for many students who frequent the airport to study is the fact that it is quiet and accessible 24 hours a day, offering a wide range of places for them to choose from. It is especially popular with students living in eastern Singapore.

“I work better at night and into the wee hours of the morning,” shares one tertiary student. She also shares that she finds it difficult to focus at home where she lives with 3 other siblings and her parents. Two of her siblings are married, so their spouses are staying in their 4-room flat as well. One of her married siblings recently gave birth, bringing up the household total to 9. For another student, going to Changi Airport to study helps her get away from her verbally abusive mother.

Study breaks can also be spent in the viewing gallery, watching planes take off for faraway destinations.

Tampines Street 22, 2-room rental flat, Living room desk

For the single mother and her two daughters aged 9 and 8, living in a rental flat following a painful divorce was a difficult experience at first. The block has both security and sanitation issues. However, she shares that the social services available are excellent, providing child-minding services as well as safe spaces for the families to retreat to in times of need.

The girls share the table with her. Much of the furniture pictured are either donations or on loan from self-help organisations. At the time the photograph was taken, the family was trying to figure out how to arrange a bed that has been donated to them in the tiny bedroom.

The mother holds a full-time job with DOT and provides beauty services at home to supplement her income. The girls are motivated students ― independent, empathetic and brave ― qualities their mother takes care to nurture in them. They adhere to their own study schedules. The older girl loves animals and aspires to be a veterinarian, while the younger, a free spirit, wishes to be a teacher, taxi- and bus- driver, and an artist all at once.

“They never complain,” their grandmother proudly shares “not even when all we have to give them for food is spinach cooked in water”.