Eighty-four-year-old Mr Lui Hock Seng is seldom seen without his Nikon camera.

Even when he goes to the hospital for medical appointments, the camera is nestled inside his red backpack.

When his son voices his concern about Mr Lui lugging a heavy bag around to see the doctor, he replies: "What if I miss a shot?"

His dedication to turning ordinary moments into something special spans decades of passion. A sprightly pace belies his age.

A former mechanic by profession and a photographer by vocation, Mr Lui has been unassumingly documenting Singapore for more than half a century.

Since 2012, he has been working as a cleaner at Singapore Press Holdings.

The son of a tailor and a housewife, his interest in photography started in his youth in the 1950s, when his older brother brought a German-made Rolleiflex camera home.

Back then, he did not have access to a darkroom to make prints, so he improvised by using black cloth to cover the windows in the bathroom or kitchen of the zinc-roofed house he shared with his parents and five siblings.

He was a member of the South-east Asia Photographic Society for a few years, during which he honed his photography skills. His subjects ranged widely from streetscapes to portraits to architecture.

Even an accident at work in his early 40s that resulted in partial loss of vision did not deter him. A metal splinter struck his right eye when he was repairing a car, so he put his left eye to the camera instead.

Although Mr Lui never pursued photography professionally, he has picked up awards in several photo competitions over the years, and was even accepted as an Associate of The Royal Photographic Society (ARPS) of Great Britain (1963).

In 2016, he won third prize in the colour category in the Kampong Glam Community Club photography competition.

His black-and-white photographs of Singapore, taken in the 1960s and 1970s, have gained recognition in recent years.

In 2018, at the age of 81, the self-taught photographer held his first solo exhibition at Objectifs, a centre for photography and film. He also released Passing Time, his first photo book, which captured scenes of Singapore from days gone by.

The same year, he was diagnosed with lymphoma and underwent several rounds of chemotherapy.

Shortly after he finished his last round of treatment and was discharged in March last year, his wife, who had used a wheelchair and resided in an old folks' home, died.

He has three sons and lives in a Housing Board flat in Bishan with a son in his 50s whose mobility is impaired because of a cycling accident. His youngest son, Mr Roger Lui, 46, returned to Singapore to help care for Mr Lui after working in the oil and gas industry in Thailand for about eight years.

"Family outings in the past occasionally turned into my father's photography excursions, much to my mother's chagrin," mused the younger man.

Touched by Mr Lui's passion for photography despite his medical condition, Nikon gave him a Coolpix P1000 last August.

An introvert, he used to spend almost every weekend out capturing scenes of Singapore, but the Covid-19 pandemic has forced the active senior to pace himself.

He now heads out twice a month, mask on and staying away from crowds, while doing what he loves.

"I'm restless, so I like to move about. Photography brings me happiness," he says.

While he laments nostalgically about the places he used to photograph that no longer exist, he continues to capture memories of nature and people in colour today.

Nothing has dampened his passion over the years, not a bad eye, not cancer, not even a pandemic.

• Mr Lui Hock Seng's book and prints of his black-and-white photos can be purchased at www.objectifs.com.sg