Yu Heng Lim - The Uncanny
Inspired by his father’s large collection of cameras, Yu Heng Lim, who tends to go by his alias “Mazterz,” first picked up photography at 17 years old. Originally from Singapore, he’s now an architectural designer and photographer based in Tokyo. After what he calls “a gruesome 5 years in architecture school,” he decided that it was time to expand his knowledge beyond Singapore’s architecture and flew to Japan for its craftsmanship and intimate attitude towards design.
Despite long hours spent in the office, Tokyo is a city that continues to inspire Yu Heng. The dynamic moments between the breaths of fast-paced living animate each second. He writes that Japan is especially unique in the cultural perceptions towards space, “probably due to the population density as well as the homogeneity, people here have adjusted to tiny and compact spaces. For example, door widths could be as narrow as 600mm (normally 900mm) and there are doors that are so low that you have to crouch to go through them.” The existence of these design apparatuses changed his perception towards space and the human scale, which is relatively different from where he came from. In this sense, Tokyo provides Yu Heng with a new lens in perceiving spacial opportunities.
Here, the main focus his series Uncanny is to capture the interaction between architecture and human scale. Within these selected series of photographs, Yu Heng attempts to analyze his ordinary, quotidian environment and to abstract geometry in relation to how the spaces are being used.
