Biography

Tay Kay Chin, a Singapore-based photographer, spent more than a decade in newspapers in Singapore and USA, and held positions from Photographer to Presentation editor.

Since leaving his last full-time newspaper job in 2001, he splits his time between lecturing, consulting, writing, and working on selected commercial as well as personal projects.

A 1992 photojournalism graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia, he exhibits widely and his photographs are collected by Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European House of Photography in Paris, the Lez Amis Group, and private collectors.

A vocal advocate of photography in Singapore, he co-founded, together with Objectifs Centre For Photography & Filmmaking, one of Southeast Asia’s first photography workshops, Shooting Home; coordinated the exchange program for Sunderland-based International Photography Research Network; and curated Out of Focus, a series of exhibitions for Month of Photography Singapore 2006.

His other curatorial experiences include being picture editor for the Singapore History Museum SARS exhibition; director of photography for Mercy Relief’s Glimpses of Light exhibitions; and most recently, project manager and curator for the 2011 National Day Parade traveling exhibition.

He writes regularly on photography and that includes the introduction essay for Henri Cartier-Bresson’s Early Works exhibition, which was shown in Singapore in June 2006.

From 2003-2008, as a member of the Resource Panel for Photography for Singapore’s National Arts Council, he sat on several selection committees for the Cultural Medallion and Young Artist awards, the highest arts accolades in Singapore.

In 2003, Hasselblad named him one of 12 Hasselblad Masters of the world, in recognition of his Panoramic Singapore series; and that was followed by professional partnerships with Epson and Olympus.

His editorial works have appeared in L’Equipe, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Saveur Magazine, Time Asia, Newsweek, Hasselblad Forum, Searay Living, Meridian Lines, Brutus, The New York Times, Asahi Weekly, Asian Geographic, Skylines, Silverkris, and Asia Business.

He has also done corporate works for Shell UK, Singapore Technologies, National Heritage Board Singapore, Kraft Asia, Burson-Marstellar, GlaxoSmithKline, Lez Amis Group, Daimler, Singapore Petroleum Company, DBS, United Overseas Bank, MTV Asia, Singapore Tourism Board, WingTai, Land Transport Authority of Singapore, Singapore Youth Flying Club, Biopolis Singapore, Urban Renewal Authority of Singapore, Port of Singapore Authority, Nike, Erco and Goodrich.

A co-founder of Platform, a volunteer group that promotes documentary work and photojournalism, he currently teaches photojournalism at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication & Information at Nanyang Technological University.

In 2007, Becoming Capa, a short story he wrote in university was adapted and released as a full-length feature film, Becoming Royston; and in 2008, a photographic novella based on that short story was published.