ST review

A whimsical wisp of a book, LIGHT IS LIKE WATER is like the anti-coffee table book - its pictures and text evoke an unvarnished everyday world that becomes accidentally poetic in unguarded moments.

Created by Singaporeans Jasmine Seah and Jennifer Koh, the book features poetry by the former and photographs by the latter.

The visuals, of which many are casual polaroids, are wistful, evocative and often romantic. Clear summer skies and grainy void decks; rolling English fields and Singaporean bougainvillea blooming on overhead bridges - both the local and the foreign are captured with a dreamy tenderness.

Seah's poetry is inspired by Koh's pictures, and their sensibilities fit together well.
In the poem titled Leaving, for instance, the mood is both curious and contemplative: "I noticed for the first time / the grave latitude of trees / persisting in the fading light".

Throughout the book, there is a sense of both the photographer and the poet searching for ways to capture new worlds, and their sense of wonder is a quietly thrilling thing.

Review by Hong Xinyi, Straits Times, 1 Apr 2007