The Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF) is back for its tenth run, and it has picked an ambitious theme: 'In My End Is My Beginning', a line from T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, written as the poet's career drew to a close. The festival frames it as more than a literary nod — the idea is that every ending holds the possibility of another beginning, a fitting note for a biennial photography event hitting double digits. It runs from now until the end of January.
SIPF is organised by DECK Photography Art Centre, a non-profit art organisation dedicated to image-based practice, and acts as a friendly platform where photographers choose how their work is shown. More than 100 artists take part, with programming that charts photography's evolution, examines colonial legacies, probes the city, and explores personal experience across seven different venues.
The centrepiece is 'Shifting Images: Photography from Singapore (2000–2025)', a survey of 25 years of local photographic practice through the work of 48 artists. Among the highlights is Tan Pin Pin's 'Singapore Index', a rare archive of 76 photographs from the early 1990s. The filmmaker, who left Singapore at 22 and returned after living abroad, spent 12 months shooting with a wide-angle lens and direct flash, capturing 2,800 black-and-white negatives of rituals, social customs and fabrics that collectively form the city's fabric. Her reason is disarmingly simple: when she came back as a young adult, she wanted to see what Singapore was like for herself.
The international showcase narrows a competitive field — 88 applications from 37 countries — down to just 14 entries. It's a look at how photographers around the world are using the medium to confront personal, political and cultural concerns, and the festival sees it as a reminder of the photo book's quiet power in a digital-saturated age, inviting viewers into unhurried storytelling. Works on show include pieces by Chia-Chi Sunny Ou, Hidayah Badaruddin and Ong Chan Hao.
Beyond the galleries, there's a working industry layer: the Asia Meet Symposium brings professionals from China, France, Italy, South Korea, Switzerland and Thailand to Singapore for dialogue, alongside portfolio reviews, a photo market and talks.
For travellers, this is a solid reason to plan a Singapore trip in the coming weeks, or to add an afternoon of gallery-hopping to one already booked. The multi-venue format means you'll see parts of the city you might otherwise skip, and the mix of local archive work and international entries makes it appeal equally to art lovers and anyone curious about how Singapore has changed over 25 years. Bring comfortable shoes and a bit of patience — photography festivals reward slow looking.
