OBJECTIFS DOCUMENTARY AWARD RECIPIENTS 2020
The Objectifs Documentary Award champions Objectifs’ mission to broaden perspectives through image making, by supporting original voices in visual storytelling in Singapore and the wider region. The Award enables photographers …
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PORTRAIT OF HOME by Lim Kwong Ling
Portrait of Home is a collection of black and white photographs of post-independence Singapore in the pictorialist and modernist style by 87-year-old Lim Kwong Ling, a veteran of the local salon and art photography scene. The images depict different facets of home through the photographer’s eyes, from landscapes, to various occupations and industries of the time, to family photos. The book features previously unseen images, in addition to images from the Portrait of Home exhibition held at Objectifs in 2019. The book also includes essays by heritage blogger Jerome Lim, writer Zhuang Wubin, visual artist Charles Lim, Portrait of Home exhibition curator Ryan Chua and Lim’s grandson Maximilian Lim.
“As a young child, grandfather’s photos left in me a palpable sense of unease. Their monochrome nature lent them a certain historical heaviness, a weight that conveyed the value of tradition and of the home. A window into the mysterious childhood of my father. They gave me something that was never talked about in the family. They seemed as grand a project as the national morphing of Singaporean sociocultural identities they documented. Looking at the photos today, I am still gripped by their extraordinary timelessness and resonance – by how they juxtapose candid and posed family life, while tying those same scenes to a spatial portrayal of Singapore’s pivotal years. These dreamy scenes of kinship and childhood, that seem so fleeting, yet are indelibly captured, draw the viewer into their own intimately personal moments, some remembered and others imagined, impossible to ever physically return to. They present a historical portrait of home: of the project of nation-building, mirrored in the project of raising a family that lead us to think about the transience of identity, inspiration, and passion.” – Maximilian Lim, grandson of Lim Kwong Ling
About Mr Lim Kwong Ling
Mr Lim Kwong Ling (b.1932) has been an active member of the photographic community in Singapore, leading and promoting exchanges between photographers from Singapore, China, and Southeast Asia. He is one of the founders of the Photo-Art Association of Singapore and has also led the Federation of Asia Photographic Art (FAPA) Conference in Singapore. Mr Lim himself has exhibited at the Singapore Empress Place Museum and the Cultural Palace of Nationalities, Beijing, to high acclaim. Many of his works are also permanently archived in the Singapore National Gallery.
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HEAR FROM THE JURY: TAN GUO-LIANG
Guo-Liang Tan (b. 1980, Singapore) is a visual artist working primarily in the field of painting, from which works in other mediums such as text, collage and video sometimes emerge. …
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HEAR FROM THE JURY: VEEJAY VILLAFRANCA
Veejay Villafranca was born in Manila. He started out in journalism as a staff photographer for the national news magazine Philippines Graphic, covering socio-political events in the Philippines. After …
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Objectifs Stories That Matter
Stories That Matter is an annual programme at Objectifs, that looks at critical issues and trends in non-fiction visual storytelling. Over the last few years, we’ve explored different themes such …
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