Latent Encounters: A Photographic Documentary of Civets in Singapore’s Urban Landscape

Latent Encounters is a collection of loose prints that documents the presence of civets in Singapore through film photography and darkroom printing. The choice of analog image-making serves as a meditative process, where the inherent delay of film development allows for deeper observation and introspection. Like a latent image awaiting development, civets in Singapore exist on the periphery of human life—mostly unseen or glimpsed as fleeting shadows, yet always present. Though they share the urban space as fellow inhabitants, man-made boundaries are imposed to keep them out. By tracing these barriers and the civets’ movements through the city, the work challenges the dichotomy between the wild and the urban, revealing an ecosystem shaped not only by human hands but also by the quiet persistence of its non-human residents.