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Despite, being one of the factors of uniquely Singapore, the job of a Karang Guni man (rag and bone man) doesn’t seem to be appreciated by most Singaporeans due to the nature of the job; the sounding of horns. Once, I came across a forum where someone started a topic on the various ways to get rid of the annoying Karang Guni men. It was such a disappointment. The job of a Karang Guni man is actually friendly to the environment and embraces a conscientious mindset to the current global warming situation. However, there are yet people who are thinking of ways to get rid of them. Since the last generation, the sounding of horns used by these collectors had already played a significant role and had become their trademark. Hence, I’d decided to work with this current situation as I think that there is a necessity to let Singaporeans have a better knowledge on the nature of the job. Through my photographs, one will be able to see how hectic this job is and without the glamour.

I embarked on this project with little knowledge of what the Karang Guni men do. I was taken aback after going through the astonishing experience; documenting them for days. For this project, I had the opportunity to document two different generations of local Karang Guni men. One works with a traditional aged freight tricycle, while another with a modern lorry, accompanied by his wife. The former has 30 odd years of experience while the latter has only 6 years on this job. Recently, there had been an increase of illegal Karang Guni men. These people are usually from China or Indonesia and are harboured by a local person running the trade. This was because the foreign workers thought that this was a good way to be able to make quick money within a short time. Some of them even started trading illegal alcohol transactions while dealing with the newspapers, which seriously ruined the image of the nature of the job.

These civic-minded people are just trying to make a living from stacks of newspapers, clothes to electronic devices collected daily. Let us start to show our respect and appreciation to them.