Congratulatory messages

RAdm (NS) Lui Tuck Yew

This book chronicles the evolution in Mr. Tan Lip Seng’s artistic style over each decade since 1959. Through his lenses, 50 years of cultural heritage have been recorded and preserved. Evolving with new developments, he has also displayed the influence the digital age has on his creative output with new artistic works.

I am hopeful that “Light & Shadow – A 50-Year Chronicle” will promote photography as an innovative and readily accessible form of visual art in Singapore. Significantly, this book will also help Mr. Tan impart knowledge and experience to Singapore’s younger generations of photographers, as well as inspire them to greater heights in photographic achievement and creativity.

Cross-societal involvement plays an important role in forging greater community engagement in arts and culture, adding greatly to the vibrancy and diversity of our local arts scene. I would like to offer my heartiest congratulations to Mr. Tan Lip Seng for his efforts in promoting interest in photography.

Dr Lim Kee Meng

As a major sponsor of the arts in Singapore, Ngee Ann Kongsi has constantly lent support by providing both funds and facilities to promote awareness of Chinese culture. The Ngee Ann Cultural Centre organises exhibitions and allows artists to use its premises to showcase their works. Since the centre was established in 1998, it has held exhibitions ranging from paintings to pottery as well as opera performances.

In the recent few years, the Ngee Ann Cultural Centre has also successfully extended its support to artistic photography, organising in 2005 the inaugural Ngee Ann Photographic Exhibition (NAPE). The NAPE has since been subsequently repeated annually with resounding success, eventually culminating in the 1st Ngee Ann Photography Competition Cum Exhibition in 2009.

Mr Tan Lip Seng and his photographic works are no strangers to the Ngee Ann Cultural Centre. As the first-ever “Photographer of the Year” honoured in the inaugural NAPE in 2005, his works are also being showcased in a permanent collection kept by the Ngee Ann Kongsi Collections gallery.

We have great pleasure in collaborating with Mr Tan once again this time in organising “Painting With Light & Shadow: A 50-year Chronicle”, a showcase of close to 400 of his photographic artworks spanning half a century of creativity. A photographic exhibition on this scale, by a single photographer, is unprecedented in Singapore. I believe that these works will serve to enrich the cultural life of Singapore and help inspire future generations of Singaporean photographers in their creative endeavours.

I congratulate Mr Tan and his organizing committee for their groundbreaking effort.

Mr Ang Hoon Seng

Since the inaugural Ngee Ann Photographic Exhibition (NAPE) in 2005, Ngee Ann Cultural Centre (NACC) has continued to make waves in the Singapore photographic scene, successfully organising annual NAPEs which eventually evolved into the first Ngee Ann Photography Competition Cum Exhibition in 2009.

As the very first Photographer Of The Year named at the inaugural NAPE, Mr Tan Lip Seng is well-known both locally and internationally for his work in promoting photography as an art-form. NACC has had the pleasure of housing twenty of Mr Tan’s excellent works in its Permanent Collection previously. As a cultural centre committed to the development of the visual arts, NACC did not hesitate to agree when Mr Tan eventually approached us to collaborate on his first solo photographic exhibition in 50 years of photography.

With photography in a renaissance brought about by the digital revolution, we hope to give photography the exposure and visibility it rightly deserves and inspire current and future generations of photographers to greater excellence.

I would like to congratulate Mr Tan on his achievement and acknowledge all who have helped in making this event possible.