We often think we have seen it all.

Jaded by repetitive news reports, our perspective of the world tends to be narrow and fearful. We live by stereotypes and cliches because it is easier to understand the world through a simple lens.

The Photo Essay aims to change all that.

The images you see here may surprise you, touch you, and I hope, engage you to think about the world in a new way. I have focused on stories from and about Asia, and I want these photo essays to show you an unexpected Asia.

Some stories may be new, and a few others may not be. Whatever the case, these images will bring you new perspectives. These are the personal stories of photographers who live and work in Asia.

The Photo Essay is proud to launch with two bodies of work: InsideOut is a project that puts cameras in the hands of foreign workers in Singapore and allows us to see the world through their eyes; the second, Day Off, by six Singapore-based photographers, documents how domestic workers in Singapore spend their day off.

Day Off is the brainchild of The Working Committee 2 (then named but which has since been formally registered as Transient Workers Count Too), a civil society initiative based in Singapore. The InsideOut project is spearheaded by an independant group of photographers and volunteers, in conjunction with the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival.

Forget the exotica and palm trees. This is Asia, as you have never seen it before.

Rethink Asian Photography.

Dorothy Ho
Editor, The Photo Essay
November 2005
www.dorothyho.com