Capture it, remember it: The Eras Tour Singapore on film

In the eight months leading up to The Eras Tour in Singapore, I sustained my Swiftian anticipation by rewatching videos of the day we secured our tickets. The sheer joy of that moment and what was to come was enough to drive me until we were finally boarding the flight.

I remember a conversation with a friend about how watching The Eras Tour would be unlike any other production of Taylor Swift. Sure, there may be another tour in the future, but to revisit her different eras over the years in parallel to our own growth—that’s an experience hard to come by.

For one night, over 16,000 people would share the joy of seeing Swift command the stage. Multiply by days spent in a country and every city she has visited, and you get a sense of the vastness of this communal experience. Yet despite the scale, it still felt deeply personal.

We braved a heavy downpour on the day of our concert. With a single raincoat to share among three people, we entered the stadium soaked by Singapore’s fickle weather. The novelty of it finally happening in real life didn’t settle in at once. I had seen this moment on my phone, in several TikTok videos, at a cinema in Manila during the tour’s theatrical run in October. With its many iterations in my head, I was in disbelief when I saw Swift emerge in her rhinestone-clad bodysuit in front of me.

Swift, quite literally, moved through her entire discography. The fast-paced nature of the three-hour show left little room for pause, yet amidst the whirlwind, there was always a space for us to look back on what was.

Just as she wrote songs to process the many complexities of relationships and growing up, we turn to her music to make sense of our own lives. Long has it been since you grieved that first love, years have gone by since the demise of a friendship. But as you see her strut the stage and hear the fans fill in any kind of silence with wild cheers, the feelings become palpable as though you’re going through that moment again.

In a way, there was relief: a cathartic exhale from the ache, and a reliving of joy. And it was the kind I didn’t want to end.

A day after our show, we returned to the stadium to meet more fans and trade friendship bracelets—in part because we missed out on this due to rain the day before, but also as an attempt to return to that once-in-a-lifetime feeling.

I had the Lomomatic 110 with me to shoot around. It was handy and easy to carry as I lugged around a bag on each arm. I had my fair share of taking photos with film before but never with 110 films, and playing around with the Lomomatic was almost as easy as any point-and-shoot: turn on the flash, pick the best ISO, and shoot away. The camera’s sliding mechanism was both interesting and frustrating, especially when I wanted to capture things quickly.

Its look was uniquely reminiscent of retro cameras, and it became a conversation starter with strangers around me dressed in cowboy boots and shimmery dresses. As we went about the stadium, I’d catch myself needing to absorb it all: the power a musician holds to move and gather people from different parts of the world, and the opportunity to be among them. So I took photos to remember, and 110 film preserved the magic of that week just right. Its nostalgic format may as well take me back to that exact moment.

Bliss — which to me has always meant a multitude of positive emotions blended into one—was abundant that week. I was surrounded by friends and strangers with shared interests, finding joy in old and new friendships, feeling my own girlhood magnified, and hearing live music from one of the biggest pop stars in the world for her biggest staging yet. 

Going to The Eras Tour just felt like being. It was a reminder that we’re never alone in living and feeling. What a joy to have music and photos to help us remember the many selves we’ve been, all the lives we’ve led—all the bliss and pain, and all the opportunities to feel them again and again.

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Capture your own moments in a timeless format with the Lomomatic 110, now available online at https://shop.lomography.com/ and at Lomography Wholesale Retailers in May 2024. Prices start at P5,480. 110 film is available at Film Folk, Satchmi, and Manila Vintage Primes.