From August 20 to November 13, over 1,000 photographic works by artists from 19 countries will be displayed in a series of exhibitions across the city (one dedicated to emerging artists will even feature artworks lining the walls of the MRT stations) for the fifth edition of the Singapore International Photography Festival.

As part of the line-up, three solo exhibitions by some of the world’s most important 20th and 21st century photographers will debuting in Southeast Asia. With incredible technical skill and a defining individual style, US-born Roger Ballen, Japan’s Daido Moriyama and China’s Li Zhensheng all break the mould of traditional photography and offer a radically different perspective of the world. If they’re not already on your radar, here’s what you need to know about them and why you should check them out:

#1: Roger Ballen’s Mengerie at Gillman Barracks (Aug 25-Nov 13)

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Threat, 2010 © Courtesy of Roger Ballen and Wei-Ling Gallery, Kuala Lumpur

One of the most important photographers today, US-born, South African-based artist Roger Ballen’s haunting and thought-provoking pictures are dream-like and tread the line between reality and fantasy. Ballen is one of those artists who’s difficult to put into a particular genre. Strange and disconcerting, his works incorporate layers of graffiti, drawings, animals, and found objects, and there’s often a twisted sense of underlying humour. We are meant to feel confronted and slightly challenged, forced to take imaginative leaps and even explore our own psyche at a deeper level.

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The works in the exhibition at DECK span three decades of his career, yet are all instantly recognisable for their square format in stark black and white aesthetic. Ballen is represented by leading New York gallery, Gagosian, and Wei-Ling Gallery in Kuala Lumpur.

 

#2: Daido Moriyama’s Prints & Books 1960s -1980s at DECK (Oct 6-Nov 13)

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Born in 1938, Daido Moriyama is considered the father of street photography and maintains a cult following in the creative scene. The exhibition Daido Moriyama: Prints & Books 1960s -1980s features wallpaper installations, original prints & photo books and some never seen before works. His most famous black-and-white photographs capture the overlooked and the forgotten – in other words, the dark underbelly of Tokyo society.

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© Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation

Shooting with a small hand-held camera, he uses an anti-photographic style – think blurry, high-contrast, grainy, and often unbalanced. The result is distinctly raw. He is currently represented by Simon Lee Gallery in Hong Kong, Hamiltons Gallery, London and Taka Isshi In Tokyo. Grab the chance to see rare works by an artist who received the Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement from New York’s International Center of Photography.

 

#3: Li Zhensheng’s Witness: The Archive of Cultural Revolution at The Arts House (Sep 10-Oct 29)

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People commemorated the one-year anniversary of Mao’s swim in the Yangtze River by holding the portrait of Mao Zedong in Songhua River, 1967 © Li Zhensheng.

Li Zhensheng’s collection of photographs of the Chinese Revolution is the most important pictorial account of the Mao Zedong decade we have today – the only known existing documentation of the revolution. As a photojournalist for the local paper in Harbin, he risked his life to hide some 20,000 negatives in his floorboards and didn’t reveal the pictures until after the revolution ended in the late ‘80s. Witness: The Archive of Cultural Revolution at The Arts House showcases some 80 beautifully composed photographs that shed insight onto this disastrous historical period. It’s a must for anyone interested in the powerful role of photojournalism.

 

Like this? Check out these acts at the Singapore Night Festival8 new jaw-droppping new museums around the world and the Yohji Yamamoto film showing at this year’s Design Film Festival