The Tim Tan Tell-All
Perspecgifs creator speaks out
Follow Tim on @imtimtan.

Who are you?
Visual, conceptual artist. I do documentary photography. Partner at BLU Management.
3-time school dropout. Openly argued with lecturers, never handed in work. Thankfully my Head of Fine Arts was fired, she’s a close-minded bully. Left to explore art: painted wall murals under a pseudonym, travelled, had fun.
Girlfriend cheated on me. Gave me the necessary despair: being nothing I needed to do something. I believe you need to be uncomfortable to be motivated.
It upset me I didn’t get to do art; in a perfect world, you can’t grade it. You can only nurture it and hope it grows.
I’m rebellious. I want to move overseas and become so big that when The Straits Times asks me for a quote, I’ll go, “I’m sorry, I don’t recognise Singapore as a place that helps nurture my art.”
When you start you think you know a lot, as you learn you realise you know very little, but eventually you come around and master your craft.
Instagram.
I don’t believe in it, have little respect for a lot of people who are over-reliant on the platform for creativity. It’s about who you know and meaningless numbers, the death of creativity and originality. I understand how it can bring up unrecognised creatives, but it’s a game. Everything is about the aesthetic.
I approach my work in an anti-aesthetic way, leave my film raw.
What has been done? How can I do it differently?
I want to capture the “uncapturable”. I’m astute, sharp. As a party trick I used to go up to girls saying I could read them. I like to dissect.

Perspecgifs.
Perspecgifs is the more known project among my work at the moment, I don’t use Instagram. [Thanks Tim for checking your DMs when I reached out!]
Worked on painting based on concepts I’ve been playing with for 7 years: perception, how brains fill in information that’s lacking, depth in 2D. Discovered scientific techniques in cameras used to film 3D movies. Learnt to do it well because I’ve a lot of photographic knowledge and photography is not that hard.
I don’t shoot people posed. I want to coin “hyperrealistic photograph”. Started photography on film, never learnt digital. When I started, Photoshop was in boom; it goes against what I believe it. Film is painting with light on the spot.
Singapore is sterile; I ended up taking similar photos of the same people shot between years. Documented my friends: raw, real emotion. Shooting celebrities was out of the support of friends who believed in my work.

Inspiration.
I don’t talk about technique because of plagiarism, lack of creativity in Singapore. You know who you are. A lot of them used to follow me on Instagram, not anymore.
I study a lot, read every day, have spent thousands of dollars worth of photo-books at home. I admire people, but I don’t glean inspiration from anyone; my pursuit is the pure original, it’s possible.
Explore, challenge what you’ve never done before.
What’s Next?
Been working on a big body of work documenting asian culture for 3 years: people in their homes with their families before and now that they’re rich and famous, muses around me. I’m done seeing asians through white people culture.
Have an upcoming exhibition for Perspecgifs.
I’m still stuck because of a lack resources, lack of portfolio. Miracles, reaching out to people take time.
