SINGAPORE – As a photographer, Chua Soo Bin is not one to state the obvious. This is clear even in the early photographs he took in the 1950s and 1960s. One particular photograph of the Bukit Ho Swee fire in 1961 shows only five remaining charred and smoking coconut palms. There was no need to show the devastated villagers who lost their homes. There is pathos without the drama.

The photograph is included in the recently launched biography of the photographer, gallerist, art dealer and patron of the arts, who turned 90 in December.