Yip Cheong Fun is one of Singapore's most important early photographers. He begun shooting in the late 1930s and started sending his prints for international salons in 1952, subsequently winning a string of top prizes and medals. He was made an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain in 1957, and subsequently a Fellow in 1961, the highest honor awarded to photographers during that time. He was also awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Photographic Society of Singapore in 1974 and the Cultural Medallion in 1984. Finally, he was awarded “Honorary Outstanding Photographer of the Century” by the Photographic Society in New York.Yip judged numerous salon exhibitions and was tremendously influential on photographic practice in Singapore. His practice spanned a wide variety of styles, from sentimental pictorialist scenes and composite photographs to flattened, modernist compositions and candid street shots.
