Floating Along the Singapore Skyline
by Myles Little
The image of the apartment with an infinity pool is from a project that photographs tax havens all around the world, which are legal; places where the wealthy corporations and individuals can stash their money to avoid the taxes. And Singapore is one of the capitals for this and that’s the Singapore skyline in the background. And what I find interesting about it is that there are a couple of layers in this. It is just simply beautiful and luxurious — infinity pools have sort of become one of the markers of luxury for whatever reason — and for the second layer, it evokes the tax haven element. A third layer, in my reading of it, is a sense of complacency in the face of impending doom, or catastrophe.
This sort of strong diagonal line created by the edge of the pool gives a sense of motion, gives a sense of the flow of this water as it’s about to cascade over, seemingly over the side of a river, with the man in it. Of course that’s not going to happen but within the logic of the image, there is risk. The sense of complacency in this guy enjoying himself and easily floating, when put within the context of finance, takes on a new meaning.
Myles Little is the curator of the book “1%: Privilege in a Time of Global Inequality,” which uses the work of many photographers to examine extreme wealth. Read our full interview here.
