pianomania: PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION: TAN LIP SENG: A LIFE IN COLOUR @ OBJECTIFS CHAPEL / Part 1

Coming to Objectifs - Centre for Photography & Film can be an absorbing habit indeed. If you are anywhere in the Middle Road precinct, a visit to Objectifs is a must. Stumbling onto whatever is on show is part of the discovery. On this occasion, Objectifs Chapel Gallery is home to a lively exhibition of photographs by 1985 Cultural Medallion recipient Tan Lip Seng (1942-2025).

Tan Lip Seng: A Life In Colour is a retrospective, a celebration of his keen eye, patience and work in the darkroom. Those were the days before digital photography, when individual films had to be painstakingly developed and mistakes could just ruin pictures.

I was pleased to learn that Mr Tan had been a medical photographer employed by the University of Singapore's Faculty of Medicine. Joining in 1966, he stayed for over four decades and his work involved photographing people with diseases, pathological organs, dissected specimens as well as cadavers, all for the sake of medical and scientific research and documentation.

The contrast of colours, between light and shade, is fascinating, and favourite subjects seem to have included landscapes with natural bodies of water (reservoirs in particular) and ordinary people at work. Here is a selection of some of his best work.