PORTRAIT OF HOME by Lim Kwong Ling

Portrait of Home is a collection of black and white photographs of post-independence Singapore in the pictorialist and modernist style by 87-year-old Lim Kwong Ling, a veteran of the local salon and art photography scene. The images depict different facets of home through the photographer’s eyes, from landscapes, to various occupations and industries of the time, to family photos. The book features previously unseen images, in addition to images from the Portrait of Home exhibition held at Objectifs in 2019. The book also includes essays by heritage blogger Jerome Lim, writer Zhuang Wubin, visual artist Charles Lim, Portrait of Home exhibition curator Ryan Chua and Lim’s grandson Maximilian Lim.

“As a young child, grandfather’s photos left in me a palpable sense of unease. Their monochrome nature lent them a certain historical heaviness, a weight that conveyed the value of tradition and of the home. A window into the mysterious childhood of my father. They gave me something that was never talked about in the family. They seemed as grand a project as the national morphing of Singaporean sociocultural identities they documented. Looking at the photos today, I am still gripped by their extraordinary timelessness and resonance – by how they juxtapose candid and posed family life, while tying those same scenes to a spatial portrayal of Singapore’s pivotal years. These dreamy scenes of kinship and childhood, that seem so fleeting, yet are indelibly captured, draw the viewer into their own intimately personal moments, some remembered and others imagined, impossible to ever physically return to. They present a historical portrait of home: of the project of nation-building, mirrored in the project of raising a family that lead us to think about the transience of identity, inspiration, and passion.” – Maximilian Lim, grandson of Lim Kwong Ling

About Mr Lim Kwong Ling

Mr Lim Kwong Ling (b.1932) has been an active member of the photographic community in Singapore, leading and promoting exchanges between photographers from Singapore, China, and Southeast Asia. He is one of the founders of the Photo-Art Association of Singapore and has also led the Federation of Asia Photographic Art (FAPA) Conference in Singapore. Mr Lim himself has exhibited at the Singapore Empress Place Museum and the Cultural Palace of Nationalities, Beijing, to high acclaim. Many of his works are also permanently archived in the Singapore National Gallery.