The internet was recently abuzz with pretty, pastel-colored photographs of Singapore's HDBs, emblazoned with giant numbers as they often are. The man behind them, American photographer Peter Steinhauer, has lived in Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam since 1993, taking striking images of buildings and nature. He will be exhibiting his work at RedSea Gallery next month and here tell us about taking some of the images.

What's your favorite building in Singapore?

My favorite building is an old shop house on the corner of Jalan Besar and Veerasamy Road—painted a light pastel blue, accented with emerald green small square tiles with pink roses and with an emerald green roof trim and terracotta tiles. The detailing of the glass-tiled windowed doors and the ornate carvings are something that I look at every time I pass it. No one makes houses like this any longer. 

Why did HDBs interest you more than some of the more iconic Singapore buildings?

I am not at all into the new modern buildings of Singapore. They are the same everywhere world-wide.They serve as a business and show modernism, but say nothing about where Singapore has come from. The colonial structures are restored but need that in order to survive and to be up to code and functional. HDB blocks and their large numbers are what interested me.That is what this project is about.

Other than HDBs, what were some of your favorite subjects in Singapore?

I like driving around the west coast and Tuas in the ship building area. This is not what people would imagine as Singapore but ironically it is an important part of it. Food is a favorite subject of mine in Singapore—not photographing it, though, but eating it!

Your exhibition will also feature some dramatic images you took in Hong Kong. Tell us about those.

These images are part of my Cocoons project. The structures are encased in bamboo scaffolding, then the colored material is draped around the bamboo to stop debris and other things from falling onto the streets below. I first started the interest in these on my first trip to Hong Kong in 1994. Outside of the old Kai Tak airport, I saw this massive building across the street and it was covered with bamboo and yellow material. I thought it was the environmental artist Christo and his wife Jean Claude wrapping buildings—as is their art—in Hong Kong. I quickly realized, after seeing others on the way to my hotel, that this was a construction process. I found them extremely interesting as they look like giant colored wrapped packages within a mono chromatic, dense concrete urban environment.

What's the craziest thing you did to get a shot?

I didn’t know that roof access in Singapore is not allowed. I was used to it being allowed in Hong Kong where by law all roofs must be unlocked and accessible for safety reasons. I was in a block on Tanjong Pagar and the roof was open with a ladder coming out of it. I went up and was walking around looking for a view to photograph from. An engineer was climbing back down the ladder and just happened to see me and called me over to him. Had he not seen me, I would have been locked on the roof and ironically, I didn’t have my mobile with me.  I would have been in quite a predicament had that happened.

Peter Steinhauer's exhibition at RedSea Gallery runs Nov 18-Dec 31.