We Were Farmers is a 12-year photographic project documenting my family’s journey as farmers in Singapore, from the 1960s until the closure of their farm in June 2020. It is both a personal archive and a commentary on the economic, political and urban forces that have reshaped agricultural life and multi-generational families in Singapore.

The project began in 2008 as an exploration of my family’s resilience and eventual succumbence to urbanisation. But as I photographed them, it evolved into something more reflective, a meditation on identity, relationships, and my dual role as both a family member and a documentary photographer. My family became more than subjects; they became a medium through which I examine the interplay of personal and collective histories.

The work also questions the idea of objectivity in documentary practice and challenges viewers to read beyond the visible to consider the familial bond between the image-maker and the subject. Drawing on archival family photographs alongside new work, the series charts the crossroads of memory, tradition and belonging.

Ultimately, We Were Farmers asks why family-run businesses and multi-generational communities, once common in Singapore, are disappearing, and what is lost when they do.