Tan Ngiap Heng - Art Loft

Tan Ngiap Heng
Follow Artist
Artist Story
Tan Ngiap Heng has a Bachelor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and a Doctorate in Nonlinear Dynamics from University College London. His first significant move into the arts was a one-year certificate in Dance from the London Contemporary Dance School.

Tan Ngiap Heng began his photographic career through his love of dance. Despite his engineering degrees, he returned to Singapore and started working for The Singapore Arts Centre, where he started photographing performing arts groups for The Arts Magazine. This spurred his career as a full-time photographer as his clients expanded to other reputable arts groups and organizations.

Ngiap Heng eventually expanded his business to wedding photography and was widely sought after by couples who were looking for his documentary style of black and white photography. After six years in wedding photography, Ngiap Heng moved into commercial portrait photography and has been photographing for major commercial clients including Deutsche Bank, NTUC Income and The National University of Singapore. In 2009, Ngiap Heng became a freelance photographer so that he has more time to focus on personal work.

Ngiap Heng has always retained his close relationship with the arts scene and continues to photographs the performing arts groups. He was the resident photographer for Singapore Dance Theatre in 2007 and 2008. He also exhibits his own photographic work. His latest personal exhibition entitled 'Journeys', featuring photos from his a five and a half month journey in 2010, was held at Objectifs.

In 2012 Ngiap Heng helped to found Photovoice SG, an organization that runs participatory photographic workshops for fringe communities.

Ngiap Heng's work has been gaining international recognition. In 2007 he won an international photography award and one of his photographs for Singapore Dance Theatre was on the cover of Dance Europe. In 2008, his dance photography for Keppel Corporation's calendar was accepted for the Photo District News Annual. Some of his dance photography was also be exhibited in the Fotoseptiembre Photo Festival in San Antonio, Texas. He was the Early Entry award winner of the One Life: International Photography competition 2012. He was a nominee for Singapore's prestigious Icon De Martell Cordon Bleu award in 2013.
Location
Singapore
SEE MORE

Artist CV

Artist CV

EDUCATION
Electronics (B.Eng.) and Nonlinear Dynamics (D.Phil) at University College London (1995) The London Contemporary Dance School (1996)

WORK EXPERIENCE
Photographer, The Pond Photography (1999-Present)
Lecturer, Studio Portrait Lighting, Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film-making (2005-Present) Resident photographer, Singapore Dance Theatre (2007/8)
Programmer, The Esplanade (1996-98)
Webmaster, staff writer and photographer for The Arts Magazine, The Esplanade (1996-98)

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
“SNAP! CLICK! OOOOHH! LOOK, OUT SHINING STARS!”
Photographs taken for the Singapore Symphony Orchestra during their children’s concerts in 1999
18-19 March 2000, Victoria Concert Hall

DARK LIGHT
A photographic exhibition of work by Tan Ngiap Heng for the theatre group, Drama Box
24-30 November 2000, The Substation Gallery

STATIC
An exhibition of digital documentary still images
12 September-16 October 2002, City Link Mall

EYES WIDE OPEN
An exhibition of panoramic images of London, Venice and America.
17-30 April 2003, Galérie Société Générale, Alliançe Française

SKIN
A photographic exhibition of nudes 25 June-8 July 2004
Objectifs

ROMANCE
A photographic exhibition exploring romance and the relationship between Singaporean couples
1 July 2004-3 January 2005, City Link Mall

THE ADVENTURES OF ELLA AND ZUL
A charity exhibition in support of The Rainbow Centre
11 December 2004-5 January 2005, The Arts House

TÊTE-Â-TÈTE
Photographic conversations with Tan Ngiap Heng 16 September
7 October 2005, Objectifs

DANCE ME THROUGH THE DARK
A photographic exhibition of Dance Portraits by Tan Ngiap Heng
13 - 28 Februay 2008, The Arts House

EUROPEAN SKETCHBOOK
An exhibition of black and white photographs taken in Europe.
6th – 18th May 2008, 2902 Gallery

DANCE STAGES
An exhibition of photos of dance performances in Singapore. The exhibition was commissioned by The Esplanade as part of its Da:ns Festival 2008.
9 Oct - 19 Oct 08, MRT link from Esplanade to Cityhall

JOURNEYS
An exhibition of photographs and videos from an overland journey from Singapore to London taken in 2010
16 Mar – 6 April 2013, Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film making

NIGHT SONGS
An exhibition of photographs exploring desire and loneliness.
20 – 23 Mar, University Cultural Centre, National University of Singapore

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
DONATION FOUNDATION NSM-VIE & YOUNG SINGAPOREAN PHOTOGRAPHERS
Studio photos of dancers, part of Month of Photography
29 May-29 June 2002, ARTrium and Sorbin Art Gallery, MITA building

MONTH OF PHOTOGRAPHY 2004 - POPULAR PLEASURES THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHY
4-20 June 2004, SG Private Banking Gallery, Alliance Francaise de Singapour

HYPE SINGAPORE
8 July-3 August 2005, The Arts House

PHOTOGRAPHY EDGE!
30 March-15 April 2007, NLB National Library
Organised by PPAS and supported by DesignSingapore

FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA 2008
Textures Of Life
The Mini Series | Curated by Michael Mehl
September 6 - October 26,2008 Instituto Cultural De Mexico

2008 ARTFUL NUDE PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION
Curated by Kim Weston
July 11th - August 9th, 2008
The Center for Fine Art Photography

THE RELENTLESS EYE
Curated by Eirik Johnson September 25 – November 28 2009
Helen Day Art Centre

LIT UP 2012
Portraits as Archaeology
Curated by Marc Nair
22 - 29 July 2012, Telok Ayer Performing Arts Centre

CAMPAIGN CITY: LIFE IN POSTERS
9 January – 3 July, 2013
Level 11, Lee Kong Chian Reference Library
National Library Building

GOING WHERE AH?
19 July – 30 September, 2013 ShanghART Singapore
ICON DE MARTELL CORDON BLEU 2013 6 – 15 September 2013
Chan Hampe Gallery

PUBLICATIONS
The Force of Choice – The Guard’s Silver Jubilee
Published November 2003 ISBN 981-3065-78-8

Special Moments
Celebrating 30 Years of Special Education - Association of People with Special Needs 30th Anniversary commemorative book
Published 2006
ISBN 981-05-5395-1

Dance Me Through The Dark
Dance Portraits by Tan Ngiap Heng
Published 2008

AWARDS / RECOGNITION
Digital Art Against AIDS 2006 by Action for AIDS, Singapore Merit Prize, Photography Category
Toscana Photographic Workshop 2007 Photographer of the Month (July 2007)

International Photography Awards 2007
3rd Prize for Nudes, Professional Fine Arts Category

Communication Arts Photography Annual 2008

PDN Photography Annual 2008

One Life: International Photography competition 2012
Early Entry Award Winner

ICON de Martell Cordon Bleu 2013
Nominee

(More of Dr Tan’s photographic work can be viewed on the Internet at http://www.thepond.com.sg)

BACK TO ARTWORK