Through the Looking Glass

The thirteenth in a series of thirty-six photos for Singapore's Eye e City 2005 competition, Through the Looking Glass captures the essence of watching, and the watcher, all through the cracks in a stained glass window at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd.

The dichotomy of worlds and ideas, the notion of the secular and the religious warring with each other, with the window the only intervening space, was stunning. The interior of the Cathedral was something ancient, something sacred, and just right outside, through the cracks, I could spy the guttural, crass car park, the machines in the construction yard where they were building the Circle railway line.

It was a distraction, a temptation, the curious light of Plato's Cave, and I half wondered if all too often, humble priests too, would be swayed by the world outside the window.