Description
Praise
About the Photographer

Look inside the book
Do all Singaporeans have a particular "look"—is there a unique quality to our faces that transcends our ethnic differences and immediately identifies us as Singaporeans? What does it mean to look Singaporean? In 100 Singaporeans, award-winning photographer Wesley Loh Kar-Wai documents Singaporeans from all walks of life in this collection of stark black-and-white close-ups. The result is a stunning collection of intimate portraits whose subjects bravely invite us to meet their unwavering, direct gaze—and we begin to discover commonalities that can be conveyed without words.
“In a few years, it is very likely that this series will be considered a milestone in the history of Singapore photography.”
—from the introduction by Raphaël Millet

“A book of portraits created as a keepsake of the Singaporean face-scape as we know it today before it inevitably disappears with the changing demographic of the Lion City...flipping through its pages will be akin to sifting through a forgotten family album and in that way, rekindles memories of our own identity.”
—Esquire Singapore

“The faces cut across age groups and races. They are both individual and reminiscent of a certain Uniquely Singaporean stereotype. The slightly stressed-looking Chinese salaryman with a thickly knotted tie. The elderly woman who could be anyone's grandmother. The princely Sikh man in a turban. And one for the art lovers: Yugoslavia-born artist Milenko Prvacki, Singaporean for more than 10 years, with his resplendent moustache. These pink IC holders are as diverse as they come.”
—Adeline Chia, ARTINFO Southeast Asia
Wesley Loh Kar-Wai is the principal photographer and owner of Memphis West Pictures. His career has focused on eliciting honest and illuminating portraits of individuals. Since returning to Singapore in 2009 after a four-year sojourn in Paris, Loh has worked primarily in black-and-white photography. He has showcased his work in solo exhibitions in Paris and at the National University of Singapore Centre for the Arts and in a group show at the National Museum of Singapore. In 2012, he was shortlisted for the prestigious ICON de Martell Cordon Bleu photography award and won the inaugural Eternal Discovery Prize.

Authors

100 Singaporeans