The milestone event explores how the city-state has documented itself through two and a half decades of change.
After an 18-year run, the Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF) returns for its 10th edition, running from October 16, 2026, through January 31, 2027. This year’s festival adopts the introspective theme “In My End Is My Beginning,” borrowed from T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets—a fitting lens for a medium that constantly questions memory, truth, and the passage of time. Organized by DECK, an independent nonprofit dedicated to photography, the biennial event gathers photographers, curators, and creative voices from Singapore, Southeast Asia, and beyond.
A Survey of a Quarter-Century
The festival’s anchor exhibition, Shifting Images: Photography from Singapore (2000–2025), spans seven venues and features 47 artists in a sprawling, non-linear exploration. Instead of marching chronologically through 25 years, the show jumps between themes: analogue film, generative AI, colonial archives, urban development, gender, memory, and the ever-blurring line between fact and fiction. Exhibitions will appear across Mizuma Gallery, ShanghART Gallery, Figment, Geylang East Library, Stories Joo Chiat, SingPost Geylang Post Office, and Guoco Midtown—bringing the art into diverse neighborhood spaces.
One standout is Singapore Index, a throwback showcase at Shop-House by DECK. Filmmaker and artist Tan Pin Pin presents 63 photographs culled from a staggering archive of 2,800 black-and-white negatives she shot in 1991 and 1992, when she was 22 and newly returned to Singapore after living abroad. Her lens captured funerals, weddings, school reunions, society balls, religious gatherings, and school funfairs—candid moments of a city mid-motion. The series offers an early glimpse of the observational eye that later shaped her acclaimed films, including Singapore GaGa.
International Voices and Hands-On Learning
Beyond the galleries, SIPF 2026 brings curators, artists, and publishers from across Asia and Europe into dialogue. The Asia Meet Symposium will feature portfolio reviews, a photo market, and talks. Visiting specialists include creative director and curator Monica Allende, Berlin- and London-based artist and AI expert Boris Eldagsen, and Shi Zhen of La Maison de Z, who will lead masterclasses.
Organizers note that the festival remains a platform for both emerging and established Southeast Asian photographers, reinforcing DECK’s mission to nurture the region’s photographic community.
Broader Context and Next Steps
This edition arrives at a moment when photography’s role in shaping collective memory is under fresh scrutiny—thanks to AI-generated imagery, digital manipulation, and shifting archival practices. SIPF’s reflective theme asks audiences to consider how images preserve the past even as they acquire new meanings over time.
For those looking to dive deeper, the festival also marks DECK’s ongoing commitment to accessible visual culture. Visitors can find full schedules and ticket details on SIPF’s webpage and follow DECK on Instagram for updates.
Related reading: Tanglin is getting a new 1,000-seat performing arts theatre by 2030; the National Museum’s Singapore History Gallery reopens in October after its first major revamp; and Little India is hosting its first street festival this August.