SAMUEL HE
likes his classrooms to be spaces for curiousity and innovation. He works with students to express all of that in photo essays, documentary films, books, websites, data stories and exhibitions.
       








TEACHING PORTFOLIO



CS2044 - Photojournalism
Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University
2015 - Present


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This course is run as a practical landing pad for students to learn how to tell stories with photographs. Over 13 weeks, students work on documentary photo projects on issues like sexuality, gig-economy workers and fast-fashion.

We typically end the semester with a community exhibition. A particular memorable one was a two-day exhibition at the void-deck of the soon-to-be-demolished Rochor Centre.




CS4090 - Going Overseas For Advanced Reporting
Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University
2012 - Present

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Probably the most gruelling journalism course at the school. Every summer, we select 14 students, do two weeks of intense prep, then fly off to work on a collective project on an issue(eg. Post-Tsunami Ishinomaki(2015), or the Ukrainian refugee situation in Germany(2022).

Students work on stories across different mediums. I help supervise the visual projects(films, photo essays, infographics, book design).

Our best stories have been published in The Straits Times, South China Morning Post ,Nepali Times and more. Some of the films also do decent runs at topical film festivals. 


My co-instructor is Hedwig Alfred. 




DP3011 - Documentary Practices
School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University
2023 - Present




DP3011 is my teaching debut in an art school. Students in the course will learn to strike a balance between the ethical and operational boundaries of press-style documentary work and the infinite possibilities and interpretations of documentary practice. Watch this space!



CS4023 - Advanced Photojournalism
Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University
2016 - Present


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One of my favourite courses to teach. We get a small classroom (10+ senior-year students) where we work on journalism/story-telling experiments.

Through the years, we have worked on weird and wonderful things like a VR game that tells a story about the Oxley Road-Lee Family Feud and an NFT project about internet addiction.

The now wildly-popular social media publisher Our Grandfather Story was founded as a class project in the first run of this course.




Final Year Projects
Nanyang Technological University
2017 - Present


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I have supervised seven final-year journalism and film projects. My students have worked on stories about green architecture, power lifters, gambling addiction and sucide care, etc.

The students produce books, feature journalism articles and documentaries after a year-long journey.       



The Astronauts Collective
Non-Profit
2017 - Present
My wife, Pearl Lee, and I volunteer regularly for TAC’s mentorship programmes -- which brings us into secondary school classrooms to conduct journalism/storytelling workshops for teenagers.






SELECTED STUDENT PROJECTS


no ragrets
Documentary Film
2022

A skeleton on a skateboard or a fat pigeon farting – Why would anyone get these quirky and ‘doodle’ looking scribbles on their skin forever? A daring new-age tattoo style has been steadily growing popular these past few years, and is starting to make a wave in Singapore. What is the meaning behind these absurd tattoos?

no ragrets
is a documentary that explore why youths are so smitten with nonsensical or ‘ignorant’ tattoos. The film was produced as a Final Year Project in 2022. 

Watch the film’s trailer here

The film beat 26 other nominees to pick up the “Best Editing” award at the National Youth Film Awards 2023

Producers: Nicole Ong &
Nivani Elangovan 
Director/Editor: Ryan Goh
DP: Ashley Wong 

Supervised by: Samuel He



Fighting Demons
Book
2022

This Final Year Project took a lot of courage and care to make. 

Li Xuan made sincere connections with her subject - waiting during mundane moments and worrying during life-threatening ones.  

The resulting book is a rare intimate look at a teenager and her family’s struggle with suicide and the national mental health system.

The story was published in the national broadsheet(with an accompanying microsite). Li Xuan was also given the Objectifs Documentary Award in 2022 for her work here. 



Photographs and Reportage: Yong Li Xuan
Supervised by: Samuel He




Last Weeks with Rochor
Exhibition
2016

As part of a graded class assignment to document the stories at the soon-to-demolished Rochor Centre, our students knocked on doors, helped moved old furniture and of course, made lovely photographs. 

They ended the semester with a bang - working beyond class requirements to secure funding to hold a full-fledged exhibition at the void-deck of the apartment complex. 

The event was covered by every major press outlet (with Lianhe Wanbao running a daily story from their collection for an entire week!). 

More importantly, residents came down to join the fun, laugh at own portraits and trade stories with neighbours for the very last time. 


Exhibition Design + Photography: CS2044 Class of 2016
Supervised by: Samuel He