A Lighter Side of History: Photographing Singapore's rich heritage and culture by Jimmy Lam

Jimmy Lam is an award-winning photographer and author of the book, Singapore: Country of Many Faces (published by Marshall Cavendish), who has spent ten years photographing Singapore's rich heritage and vibrant culture. His images capture a country that has maintained a complex racial and religious make-up, while succeeding in creating a successful economy and a peaceful society. In this session, Jimmy will share his motivations behind the book and his experiences working on it, as well as what he identifies with as a Singaporean. He will also discuss his process of creating the images, such as crafting the photo story and working with light and composition, and share tips on how to take better images of people in their environment.

About the Speaker

Jimmy Lam has a deep passion for documentary photography. He is the author of eight photography books, two of which – Lives in the Balance: The Street People of Asia and The Bible Comes Alive: The Christian Church in China – have won international awards. His work has been published in The New York Times, National Geographic, WORLD, Bloomberg, Asian Geographic and others. He has won many international awards, including American Photography awards, International Photography Awards’ "Best of Show", PX3, Photolucida Critical Mass, PDN/National Geographic, US Independent Book Publishers’ Ten Outstanding Books of the Year and the Asian Geographic's Grand Prize. He has also participated in group photography shows worldwide. His images are distributed by the New York-based photo agency, Redux Pictures.

About A Lighter Side of History

A Lighter Side of History celebrates Singapore’s diverse multicultural heritage, from food and dress to the different languages and customs passed down over the years. Featuring a range of fun and engaging hands-on workshops, talks, performances and demonstrations by heritage experts as well as collectors and practitioners, A Lighter Side of History is designed for everyone, from beginners to history enthusiasts.

Over the three weekends of the Singapore Heritage Festival, A Lighter Side of History will shine the spotlight on individual-led and ground-up initiatives that document Singapore’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage.