Turning Strangers into Models
ANG YI NING talks to a TikTok photographer on the difficulty of approaching head turners to take their portraits.
Mr Ong (left), believes that photographing strangers like Benjamin (right) with another person is difficult, as they need to be as determined as him in his work.
PHOTO CREDITS: MR ONG WAI KIT
Imagine walking on the streets of Orchard Road. A young man comes up to you with a camera, and asks to take your pictures. There’s a high chance he’s Mr Ong Wai Kit, 23, a TikTok photographer and creator of the ‘Strangers Turned Models’ series.
Mr Ong is a Malaysian Chinese working three to four days a week as an office worker in Singapore. For the remaining days, he goes on the streets to scout for strangers that he can take photos of. These strangers are then featured on his TikTok and Instagram.
Mr Ong started his journey in November 2020. His first viral video, featuring a Vietnamese girl, was posted on TikTok on Dec 7, 2020. As of November 2021, it has 306,000 views and around 33,700 likes.
However, making a video is not as easy as it seems. It takes Mr Ong around six to seven hours each time he heads out to film for the series.
“Singaporeans are more conservative, so I got rejected a lot of times,” he says in Mandarin.
When he does find good-looking people and approaches them, their initial reactions are either shock or fear.
Then, he shows them his TikTok account.
“They usually say, ‘It’s nice, [but] can it really be shot in 10 minutes? And I don’t know how to pose, you have to teach me.’,” he says.
What Mr Ong looks for in a model is “an ordinary stranger” whom he can help so that they can showcase their “extraordinary side”.
“I want to capture that in my camera,” he says. “And share it with everybody.”
The responses can be overwhelming when a video goes viral.
Benjamin Ong, 26, is one of the most popular models in his series. He was even invited back for a planned shoot in a second video.
The duo first met at Bugis. Initially, Benjamin was apprehensive. He also had no prior experience with modeling.
“I felt it was strange to be approached by a stranger that wanted to take photos of me, [I] wasn't comfortable with it," Benjamin says.
But he eventually agreed as he was impressed by Mr Ong’s photography skills. When Benjamin's video was posted, tons of fans gushed over the stranger who became a model with Mr Ong’s help.
Screenshot of comments under the video Benjamin first appeared in on Mr Ong’s Tik Tok account. It motivated Mr Ong to shoot with him again.
PHOTO CREDITS: MR ONG WAI KIT
“He didn’t like taking photos at first,” Mr Ong says. “But after I took those photos, he actually told me … he was approached by hair salons for sponsorships. Recently, there’s also a modeling company who wanted to sign him.”
Mr Ong does the series for free, hoping that he can bring opportunities to both the strangers and himself. The only income he gets from photography comes from inquiries in his Instagram inbox, where people can pay for a photoshoot session with him.
Mr Ong aspires to become like famous getai singer, Wang Lei, who is now a popular live streamer. He is determined to work towards this dream although he knows that the road ahead will be full of rejections.
Many netizens might wonder about the true nature of his videos – is any of it scripted?
“Only one,” he says. “Two girls, and they’ve been following me on TikTok for a while.”
One of the girls, Mai Zhi Qi, 22, is an artiste under Catwalk Asia. She collaborated with Mr Ong after seeing his videos on TikTok.
“It was slightly awkward that we had to pretend as if we didn’t know him when he approached us,” she says.
Zhi Qi thinks that the series might be challenging to do in Singapore as Singaporeans “usually live a very fast-paced lifestyle and might not be willing to stop for a random photoshoot”.
Benjamin (on the left) and Zhi Qi (on the right), photographed by Mr Ong.
PHOTO CREDITS: MR ONG WAI KIT
Due to real-life incidents of scammers who pretend to recruit young women to be models, Zhi Qi admits Mr Ong faces an uphill challenge.
”Some girls may be alarmed by stories they have heard of photographers taking advantage of their models, but this was not a problem I had with Mr Ong,” Zhi Qi says.
She also has a message for those who might be approached by Ong in the future:
“I would say just go for it! Take this chance to explore and maybe see another side of yourself.”