Article snippet: Last year, at age 21, I was far from my native Bhutan in Singapore studying film and searching for a topic for my thesis documentary before graduating. I scoured the city and encountered an article about a photo studio in the city’s sprawling Little India neighborhood that catered to the thousands of migrant workers in Singapore, mostly young men from India and Bangladesh who form the low-paid backbone of the city’s work force. Remarkably, the studio boasted that it had a 100 percent success rate for helping its clients find brides, often from the suitors’ home countries, simply by taking flattering portraits (the sons’ parents either use the photos to find a bride themselves or hire a matchmaking service). It seemed like an old-fashioned dating app, a manual Tinder. I was intrigued and went across town to find the photo studio. It turned out to be a quirky little shop full of pictures featuring Photoshopped babies on flowers — its message was not subtle. But even more fascinating were its impressive walls and ceilings, which were covered with hundreds of portraits of smiling men. Each photo represented a client who had sought out the studio for assistance in his search for a wife, as he sought to put his best face forward. The number of portraits reinforced for me just how critical this studio was in so many people’s lives. So I struck up a conversation with the owners, Sajeev and Seeja, who like many of their clients are of South Indian descent, and I inadverte... Link to the full article to read more