10th Singapore International Photography Festival

DECK Photography Art Centre celebrates 18 years of SIPF

Tan Pin Pin, Singapore Index (School Funfair), 1992. Image courtesy of the artist and DECK Photography Art Centre.

The 10th Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF) will run from 16 October 2026 to 31 January 2027 at multiple venues. Gwen Lee, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of SIPF has taken its theme from Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot. “In My End is My Beginning” is a reflection on photography as a medium in motion, between memory and forgetting, document and fiction, and evidence and interpretation. 

SIPF was founded in 2008, and is a key event organised by DECK Photography Art Centre. Reflecting on nearly two decades of SIPF, Lee says, ““Every photograph is both an arrival and a departure; every exhibition is both a reflection and an invitation. As SIPF enters its second decade, “In My End, My Beginning” is less a statement of closure than an affirmation that every ending carries within it the possibility of another beginning.” She elaborates, “Photography remains a practice of continual return, acquiring new meanings with every encounter and every generation that comes back to look”. 

In this preview article, we look at the anchor exhibition Shifting Images: Photography from Singapore 2000 – 2025, Singapore Index featuring never-before-seen photographs by Tan Pin Pin, taken between 1991 and 1992, and catch a glimpse of what to expect from the 10th Open Call Portfolio Showcase and 10th Open Call Photobook Showcase. We also see what the Asia Meet Symposium has to offer as Singapore becomes a site for international exchange during SIPF. 

Shifting Images: Photography from Singapore 2000 – 2025

Shifting Images: Photography from Singapore 2000–2025 is a multi-venue survey presenting the works of 48 local artists. Resisting a linear, chronological timeline, Shifting Images unfolds as a constellation of thematic group exhibitions at the core of SIPF.

At Gillman Barracks, Mizuma Gallery will host Image After Image: Material, Memory, Machine, charting the transitions that photography has made, from analog prints and silver nitrate to screen data and generative AI systems. It features works by Aik Beng Chia, Chow Chee Yong, Ernest Wu, Gilles Massot, and Jonathan Liu. At ShanghART Gallery, Systems of Seeing: Where Images Gather examines how individual frames accumulate into collective networks, urban inventories and taxonomies. This exhibition spotlights the work of Bob Lee, Chow and Lin, Chua Chye Teck, Geraldine Kang, John Clang, Lai Yutong, Robert Zhao Renhui, and Zen Teh.

George Wong Yung Choon, Fall in, Fall in (Fall in, Fall in. - 03), 2025. Image courtesy of the artist & DECK Photography Art Centre.

Ong Chan Hao, Sorry for the Inconvenience (#5), 2023. Image courtesy of the artist & DECK Photography Art Centre.

Over at the Guoco Midtown Public Art Wall along Beach Road, Where We Stand probes rapid urbanisation, nightscapes and built environments. The exhibition spotlights the works of Darren Soh, George Wong Yung Choon, Kathy Anne Lim, Nguan, Oh Soon Hwa, Zinkie Aw, Kevin WY Lee, Gilles Massot, Ang Song Nian, John Clang and Goh Chun Aik. On view will be works such as Wong’s Fall in, Fall in (2025) and Ong’s Sorry for the inconvenience (2023).

Donna Chiu, We Do Not Part 等着你回来 (Journey 1) , 2026. Image courtesy of the artist & DECK Photography Art Centre.

Stephanie Lee, Your Favourite Disappointment |真的是白疼你了 (00:00), 2025. Image courtesy of the artist & DECK Photography Art Centre.

Most of the Shifting Images exhibitions will be in Geylang. After the Archive at Figment Club House critically dissects colonial records, classification systems, and historical omissions through the works of Elizabeth Gabrielle Lee, Marvin Tang, Sean Cham and Green Zeng. 

The Stories We Carry will be in two segments at Geylang East Library and STORIES Joo Chiat, a Hotel by Cove respectively. The Stories We Carry features photography examined through its own conditions. Donna Chiu will show We Do Not Part (2026) and Stephanie Lee will present Your Favourite Disappointment |真的是白疼你了, created from 2019 to 2025. Other exhibited works are The Abeyant Nursery (2020) by Quinn Lum and Gurkha Photography Museum (2016) by Zakaria Zainal. In What We Carry Forward, works by Alecia Neo, Mintio and Budi Agung Kuswara, as well as Noor Iskandar examine photography as a system for organising knowledge and memory.

A further two exhibitions will be hosted at SingPost Geylang Post Office: States of Becoming uses portraiture and performance to contest gender, intimacy and belonging; and In Circles explores photography as a space for speculation, imagination and circulation. The former will showcase works by Charmaine Poh, Genevive Chua, Jay Lim, Jing Quek, Liana Yang, Lisa Peh and Sean Lee Puay Yang. The latter is also a significant group show, gathering the works of Adar Ng & Dave Lim, Alvin Ng, Robert Zhao Renhui, Sebastian Mary Tay, Syahrul Anuar, Woong Soak Teng, Ong Chan Hao, Hu Qiren, George Wong Yung Choon and Green Zeng.

Singapore Index by Tan Pin Pin: Photos from 1991 and 1992

A highlight of SIPF2026 is the solo exhibition Singapore Index by artist and documentary filmmaker Tan Pin Pin, presented at Shop-House by DECK. On display will be a tight selection of close to 70 black-and-white photographs taken from an archive of 2,800 negatives taken from 1991 to 1992 that Tan rediscovered in recent years. 

Tan Pin Pin, Singapore Index (Bus Stop, Opposite World Trade Centre), 1992. Image courtesy of the artist and DECK Photography Art Centre

Returning to Singapore at age 22 after studying abroad, Tan spent twelve months systematically navigating the country to reacquaint herself with it. “I call this series Singapore Index because I was systematically documenting Singapore through her events and rituals,” says Tan. “I went all over the country to funerals, weddings, school excursions, the void deck… I had been a school girl when I left, and came back as a young adult, and I wanted to be in those spaces to see what Singapore was like for myself.” Her unvarnished street imagery, sometimes without immediate context, captures habits and rituals at a particular time. Viewed 36 years later, Singapore Index resists nostalgic sentimentality, revealing the raw observational eye that laid the groundwork for her iconic documentaries. 

Open Call Portfolio Showcase & Open Call Photobook Showcase

While Shifting Images and Singapore Index interrogates local histories, SIPF’s Open Call Showcase reinforces its position as an international node for lens-based exchange. Since the launch of SIPF, the Open Call Portfolio Showcase and the Open Call Photobook Showcase have jointly presented over 700 projects from 56 countries. 

The 10th edition features 20 shortlisted international portfolios at the SingPost Geylang Post Office and Esplanade Tunnel, evaluated by an international jury. The are Monica Allende, Independent Creative Director & Curator, United Kingdom; He Yining, Independent Researcher & Curator, China; Miyuki Endo, Senior Curator, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Japan; Goh Sze Ying, Curator, National Gallery Singapore; and Gwen Lee, Co-Founder & Director, SIPF/DECK, Singapore. 

Ore Huiying, We Were Farmers, 2020. Courtesy of the artist & DECK Photography Art Centre. 

Hidhir Badaruddin, Drills & Desire (Boys at rest), 2025. Courtesy of the artist & DECK Photography Art Centre.

The 10th SIPF Open Call Portfolio Showcase features 20 portfolios from 16 countries, each one showing a distinct vantage point into preoccupations and imaginative reach of contemporary image-making. Selected portfolios include those by Bienyl Huelgas, Hidhir Badaruddin, Ore Huiying, Youqine Lefèvre and more.

Yufan Lu, Make Me Beautiful, 2026. Courtesy of the artist & DECK Photography Art Centre.

Chia-Cheng Ou, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, 2025. Courtesy of the artist & DECK Photography Art Centre.

In parallel, the 10th SIPF Open Call Photobook Showcase celebrates the photobook as a living platform for image-makers, a medium where personal, political, and cultural anecdotes find their voice through the intimate turn of a page. The jury includes Jeong Eun Kim, Founder & Director, The Reference Seoul/Founder of IANNBOOKS / Fair Director, T3 Photo Asia Tokyo, Korea; Ruben Lundgren, Senior Curator, Nederlands Fotomuseum, The Netherlands; Berny Tan, Artist & Curator, Singapore Art Museum; Pahparn Sirima Chaipreechawit, Creative Entrepreneur & Gallery Founder, HOP/GroundControl, Thailand; and Gwen Lee, Co-Founder & Director, SIPF/DECK, Singapore. Together, they have selected 41 shortlisted entries from a total of 188 applications from over 36 countries, which will be showcased at Shop-House by DECK. They include the works of Janine Bächle, Olga Steinepreis, Yufan Lu, Chia-Cheng Ou and more.

Singapore International Photography Festival 2026. Image courtesy of DECK Photography Art Centre.

Critical Discourse

Beyond exhibitions, SIPF2026 serves as a discursive hub through its Asia Meet Symposium and masterclasses. Addressing the shifts in digital visual culture, Berlin-based artist Boris Eldagsen will deliver a keynote address, RIVALS – Photography vs. Promptography, alongside a specialised masterclass exploring generative AI models and visual direction.

Local scholars will also lead critical seminar-workshops: artist and curator Zulkhairi Zulkiflee examines "image equity" and representation within the Singaporean context, while Dr. Lydia Wong-Plain presents Between Tongues: A Glossary of Ghosts, exploring spectral methodologies and untranslatable vocabularies within Southeast Asian visual culture. 

The 10th Singapore International Photography Festival launches on 16 October 2026. For more information and to purchase your passes and tickets to SIPF2026, visit sipf.sg. These can be purchased with the SG Culture Pass credits.