‘Imagine taking a nap below an olive tree and being transported into a dream world, waking up to gods and goddesses, ancient beings,’ says the Singapore-based photographer Alvin Ng. He has an archaeologist’s interest in notions of time: the fluidity of its passing, the constantly shifting nature of past and present, that endless stream of existence that enfolds and engulfs us all. Time, as such, emerges as the central theme of Ng’s project Book of Days, a title derived from the English translation of Fasti, a six-book poem written in AD 8 by the Classical Roman poet Ovid.  

In Fasti, Ovid charts the Roman calendar through descriptions of religious festivals, rituals, myths, and astronomical events. Full of tales of gods and demigods, mythical encounters between the human, natural and supernatural worlds, it became a fount of inspiration for Ng, whose childhood attraction to archaeology has morphed into a deep engagement with ancient texts, scriptures, mythologies and philosophies. He weaves his hunger for the ancient into his artistic practice, searching for discoveries of essence and presence, and for a more expansive and profound understanding of the world as one interconnected sphere of life.  

‘My photographs encapsulate how I experience the past, present and future,’ says Ng. ‘I see the photograph as a time capsule onto which I imprint a duality: human action and ancient wisdom.’ This human action manifests in his hands: he meticulously manipulates and re-photographs his prints to create imaginative, entrancing visions – punching holes in the paper to let light through, or layering bounties from the natural world onto a base image.  

Each of the photographs bears a title drawn from the Fasti, often the name of a (demi)god (for example, Luna, the goddess of the moon; Faunus, the god of the forest; Jupiter, the Supreme God) and is accompanied by Ovid’s verse. ‘On the ninth day, with weeping Achilles by his side, [Chiron] surrounded himself with twice seven stars,’ reads the poetic caption of a portal-like view upwards through ancient ruins, which opens onto a deep blue sky of stars. A second image, titled Vestalia Nefastus, casts the gaze down towards the earth, into a cave-like space punctuated with a constellation of lights. ‘I felt a divine presence,’ the verse reads, ‘and the joyful ground glowed with sacred light.’ 

ALVIN NG is a Singapore-based photographic artist and educator whose practice interweaves antiquity and modernity. Working primarily with photography, he hand-manipulates prints alongside mythic and philosophical narratives to construct imaginative, non-linear stories that move across time. Straddling reality and fantasy, his works carry an intimate, dreamlike quality, inviting reflection on relationships between humankind, nature, and time. His work has been recognised internationally, with presentations at institutions and festivals such as the Royal Geographical Society and BJP OpenWalls Arles, and featured in The New York Times, Die Zeit, and Harper’s Magazine, among others. 

JILKE GOLBACH is Curator & Artistic Team Lead at Foam, Amsterdam, where she curates exhibitions of historic and contemporary photographs, including Martin Parr: Very Modern and Rather Ugly (2026), Verena Blok: Love Shit (2026) and Augusta Curiel (2025). She previously held curatorial positions at the London Museum, Barbican Art Gallery, and Rijksmuseum. She has published widely on art and photography, including in titles such as Great Women Photographers (2026), Vitamin V: Video and the Moving Image in Contemporary Art (2025), Fracture: Ecology. Time. Humanity (2023), and or 1000Words and Foam magazine. She holds a PhD from University College London, and has a specific interest in art and photography at the intersection of personal narratives and systemic critique.