Resident Artist

Meet the Photographer of This Issue's Cover Photo

by Jennifer Williams

Christi Elflein

Photography has always been a part of Christi Elflein’s life. She credits her dad. During his own childhood, Christi’s dad even set up an at-home dark room, and she still has boxes of his slides that she’ll transfer to digital one day. Led by his example, Christi is a lifelong camera enthusiast.

Christi moved to Singapore from Florida with her husband and two children in 2019. She is an active member of the AWA Magazine team and the AWA running group. Her photos grace the cover of several AWA Magazine, and she writes the magazine’s Family Fun Adventures column. In the United States, she earned her Master’s in urban planning from Georgia Tech and developed her career as an urban planner. She does some remote consulting planning work from here, and her passion for good planning and design is a highlight of her photography.

Podi and Poriyal, Serangoon Road

Streetscapes and Urban Planning

Christi quickly responded “streetscapes,” when I asked her about her favourite subject to photograph. “I’m happiest when a project brings together writing, photography and urban planning.” Christi’s enthusiasm for urban planning and great street design is catching, but she had me thinking it could be a challenging topic to mix with photography. But Christi has found the perfect project and is currently creating a book with the working title of “Great Streets of Singapore.” She explained to me that “In my photos, I aim to communicate the life of the street: the activity on the street and the ways people use it. I capture people biking, strolling, or sitting in a café. I can’t overlook the construction workers or garbage collectors; I photograph everyone that makes the street come alive.”

Shopping on Haji Lane

She says a great street has balance and allows everyone to thrive. Urban design contributes to this balance in the geometry of a street. The ratio of building heights to their width on a street is a main factor in whether it's comfortable for people (up to 1:3 height to width ratio) or dead and without activity where streets are too wide (recall big box stores surrounded by seas of parking lots and streets without pedestrian life). Good urban planning takes into account lane widths, curbs, drainage, sidewalks and even street furniture, like benches. In “Great Streets of Singapore,” Christi is creating a reference/tour book that looks at various Singapore neighbourhoods and dissects the streets using photography, capturing moments in the lives of Singaporeans on the streets of their city.

Purvis Street at night

Top Photography Tips

As a fledgling photographer, I asked Christi for advice. She suggested joining activities with other photographers. Christi lists the AWA photography group and several classes, including one on architectural photography, as helpful to her development. “My pictures have improved here in Singapore because I have more time to try new things.” Her top tip for street photography? Ensure that horizontal and vertical lines in the photo are straight. “It’s best to get them straight in the original. But if I need to tweak them, I use Adobe Lightroom.”

Evolution

As so many people have had to, Christi has adjusted her ambitions and expectations to meet the demands of expat life and Covid. Her initial plan was to photograph great streets of the American South. Her theme morphed with her family’s move to Singapore, to become great streets in South East Asia. Restrictions refined her focus to the streets of Singapore. These changes have given her fresh ideas and she envisions a Great Streets photo series from around the world. I’ll be keeping an eye out to follow Christi’s unique perspective on streetscapes. Follow her on Instagram @thegreatstreets.

Jennifer moved to Singapore with her husband and three boys in 2019. A life-long lover of books and writing, she became Editor-in-Chief of the AWA Magazine in 2021.