Camera brand Leica celebrates women in photography with new exhibition

SINGAPORE – German camera brand Leica will pay tribute to women in photography with its new Her Lens, Her Narrative exhibition at Ion Art Gallery in Orchard Turn.

The exhibition, which runs from Nov 18 to 26, will feature the works of five female photographers, including two Singaporeans. 

Rebecca Toh (

@rebecca_toh

on Instagram) has an extensive commercial portfolio, with past clients such as Marina Bay Sands and Singapore Tourism Board. Her work has also appeared in American newspaper The New York Times (NYT).

Meanwhile, Michele Fong (

@michelewfong

) uses macro photography to capture eye-catching perspectives of everyday life. 

The other featured photographers are Nicole Tung from Hong Kong, whose work in conflict zones such as Ukraine makes regular appearances in NYT; Melbourne-based Chinese photographer Teresa Qin, who specialises in travel photography and particularly in capturing landscapes; and Russian photographer Daria Troitskaia, whose expertise is in fine art and aerial photography. 

In total, there will be more than 60 photographs on display.

Over the exhibition period, Leica will be conducting workshops and panels with the five photographers and other experts. Visitors will also get a preview of new Leica products, including the award-winning Cine 1 cinema TV, the Sofort 2 Hybrid instant camera – which prints as well as saves images – and the new ZM11 sports watch. 

The exhibition is free and open to the public. Go to

str.sg/ixiC

for details.

Rebecca Toh

Rebecca Toh, now 37, first picked up photography when she was 20.

“I was browsing (photo-sharing website) Flickr when I saw these film photos taken by amateur photographers that just took my breath away. That was the moment I knew I needed to get my own camera,” she says.

Before she discovered photography, she was struggling to find her calling in life.

The Singaporean says: “I tried and failed at many things – at one point, I was a cafe owner, a marketing executive, a tuition teacher, a part-time radio DJ, an indie magazine publisher, a newspaper columnist, an aspiring freelance writer. Nothing clicked. But everything fell into place when I finally decided to become a photographer at the age of 27.”

In her works, Toh depicts ordinary life through a distinctly cinematic lens.

“I love how the best movies capture the ephemeral, inexpressible parts of life. When you watch a really good film, the visuals – the way the camera lingers on a face, the way it captures light, the way it captures the atmosphere of a place – can sometimes connect us to a higher state of consciousness, and you start to feel more alive and more connected than ever before to the mystery of being alive.

“I think I see like a cinematographer because, to me, life is something worthy of being recorded and remembered,” she says.

Michele Fong

Singaporean Michele Fong immersed herself in macro photography during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

“I looked inwards for ways to express myself... (my exhibition photos) are about getting intimate with what we have at hand, instead of longing for what is unattainable outside,” she says.

The 50-year-old enjoys how it requires a healthy mix of imagination, creativity as well as technical expertise from the photographer.

She adds: “It’s like looking through a magnifying glass. I get to immerse myself in another universe when I want relief from regular life.”

All her exhibition images were taken in Singapore, she says, including one of the Thalia geniculata flower at the Botanic Gardens after a downpour.

“I had decided to go ahead with plans to shoot there even though it was raining, and was rewarded with freshly bathed flowers in sunshine after. Fate deals success and failure randomly, and sometimes making the effort pays off.”

Teresa Qin

Qin, a trained engineer from Shanghai, is now based out of Australia. The vast natural beauty in the state of Victoria – she lives in the state capital of Melbourne – has proven to be fertile ground for her particular brand of travel photography.

Her work often features dramatic and panoramic visuals of natural landscapes such as mountains and beaches.

“The amazing nature in Australia is a constant source of inspiration. I am driven by a desire to capture the beauty of the world and convey its significance,” says Qin, who is in her late 30s.

“Photography is an observation craft, it allows me to showcase a carefully observed world. It helps me to slow down and take notice of details, to see things from a new perspective and to appreciate the everyday beauty of our world.”

Nicole Tung

Tung, 37, is from Hong Kong and started her photography journey at 15. She uses it to document the realities of people living through conflict situations in places such as Ukraine and Syria.

“I continue to do this work despite the risks because I believe in the importance of the role of photojournalism and its ability to inform the public through visuals made by professional photographers. We are witnesses,” she says.

One of her photos featured in the exhibition shows a couple holding hands in an underground hospital bunker in Kyiv, shortly after

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“(The woman) was about to give birth, but because of the bombardments, the maternity ward was moved downstairs. Her husband was counting contractions on his phone. The moment said so much about the fragility of our lives and how everything changed in an instant for this family,” says Tung.

Her exhibition photos also include images from the aftermath of Turkey’s earthquake.

Daria Troitskaia

Daria Troitskaia, a former graphic designer and art director, had always enjoyed photography as a casual hobby. But she began to study it more seriously some seven years ago, when she moved from Russia to Malta.

“On the one hand, photography is accessible to everyone, but it is also incredibly layered and complex. There are so many different genres and you can express or tell many stories through it,” says the 39-year-old, who is now based in Milan.

In Malta, she took up one sub-genre of photography that would become one of her specialities: aerial photography.

“I found a helicopter, tried aerial photography and loved it. I don’t usually have the patience to shoot landscapes as I need movement. The helicopter provides that action for me,” she says.

The technical challenge, she adds, is also a form of creative exhilaration. “It’s always interesting to solve the problem of what kind of photograph I can shoot, and what kind of equipment I need. I like that it’s a creative challenge, but a technical one too. You have to think a lot, but you also have to create.”