A self-taught photographer, Tan Lip Seng went on to become one of the world’s top photographers working in colour. He was the first Singaporean to be listed as The World’s Top Ten Colour Slide Exhibitors by the Photographic Society of America in 1969 and was also the first Singaporean to be awarded a fellowship by the Royal Photographic Society of the United Kingdom in 1970. Conferred the Cultural Medallion in 1985, Tan recently published a retrospective of his works, ‘Light & Shadow: Tan Lip Seng’s 50 Years of Photography’ in 2009. An exhibition was held concurrently to mark the book’s launch.
