Charting Singapore’s modern photography history from 1950s — 80s

In Singapore, the ocean comes to photographers. Shorelines, fisher livelihoods, or quayside trade are common leitmotifs. Trends and Influences, be it local or regional, ebb and flow.

Adopting a chronological approach with thematic zones, this showcase dives into the period of the 1950s to 80s in Singapore to surface a coherent account of photography modernism. Focusing on the works of five key photographers—Tan Lip Seng, Chua Soo Bin, Foo Tee Jun, Yip Cheong Fun and Loke Hong Seng, it studies the aesthetics and styles that each individual has contributed to the overarching spirit of transformation in those crucial decades of national development.

But what is considered the modern? How did photographers experiment and contest with the confines of the photographic frame? How does photography’s modernism differ from that of visual arts or the west?

Also brought into conversation are the wider sociocultural environment as well as personal and institutional memories revolving around the development of photography from vocation to art.

Curator: Kong Yen Lin

Photographers: Tan Lip Seng, Chua Soo Bin, Foo Tee Jun, Yip Cheong Fun and Loke Hong Seng