Ian Poh Jin Tze is the author and photographer of the books The Silent Song of the African Savannah and Behind the Scenes: Lives of These Unsung Heroes.
Q: What inspired you to create your photobooks The Silent Song of the African Savannah and Behind the Scenes?
A: For me, photography has never been an act of preservation—it is an act of invocation. A communion of light and emotion that seeks not merely to document, but to awaken. I am drawn to the spaces between what is seen and what is felt, where stories linger in silence and meaning reveals itself slowly, intimately, to the attentive viewer.
Behind the Scenes emerged from a constellation of unanswered questions and half-forgotten myths—urban legends, personal curiosities, quiet observations that coalesced into a journey across continents. For years, I lived in perpetual motion, sustained by immaculate hotel rooms and effortless abundance, failing to see the human constellations that sustained this illusion.
When the pandemic grounded me in Malaysia, solitude sharpened into awareness, and I met the family who managed the serviced residence where I stayed. Through them, I witnessed the extraordinary labour, sacrifice, and devotion required to create spaces of warmth and belonging. Their story demanded articulation.
The Silent Song of the African Savannah was conceived more serendipitously. A leisurely retreat became a transcendent encounter. Gazing through my Leica, I found myself immersed in a dialogue with the wild, beings of immense power and quiet restraint, sovereign participants in an ancient equilibrium.
In that shared stillness, a profound respect blossomed, and I knew I had to translate it into a visual language capable of conveying humility, reverence, and the ineffable poetry of coexistence.
Together, these books form a diptych—one inward-facing, the other expansive—each an invitation to linger, to look beyond surfaces, and to engage with the unseen forces that shape our world. They are meditations on presence, labour, solitude, and communion, crafted for those who approach art not merely to observe, but to feel.
Q: How did you choose the images to include in each book?
A: For Behind The Scenes, the images were chosen not as isolated photographs, but as notes in a symphony of lives. Each sequence was designed to allow viewers to hear the heartbeat of the world I had witnessed.
Travel is often a meticulously choreographed ballet; we flit from scene to scene, obsessed with perfection, missing the unheralded poetry of fleeting gestures and quiet devotion. I sought to capture these hidden moments of grace, honouring the unsung heroes whose work is motivated less by reward than by purpose.
With The Silent Song of the African Savannah, my lens turned outward in reverent curiosity. I was captivated not by spectacle, but by intimacy: a glance, a pause, a subtle tension between predator and prey. I selected images that reflected the creatures’ presence in the ecosystem and their profound resonance with human experience—curiosity, playfulness, familial bonds.
The guiding question was simple: Does this image carry truth? If it spoke to the narrative, to emotion, to the unseen rhythm of life, it stayed. Otherwise, it was set aside. The final selection became more than a collection; it became a dialogue, inviting viewers to linger, to listen, and to dance along with the hidden symphony of the world I had come to love.
Q: In Behind the Scenes, what did you see as the relationship between the images and the text?
A: The dialogue between image and text is rooted in raw, unvarnished emotion. Across industries—from verdant farms to polished hospitality corridors—the throughline was passion. I saw it in the furrowed brows of farmers, in the meticulous gestures of hospitality professionals. My Leica froze these moments; my words articulated their rhythm and poetry.
The images capture what the eye perceives; the text gives voice to what the heart senses. Together, they form a layered portrait of humanity at work—a conversation that invites the viewer not just to see, but to feel the devotion, care, and quiet brilliance of lives often hidden behind the scenes.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the books?
A: I hope readers encounter a profound, unspoken connection.
In Behind the Scenes, I illuminate the quiet grandeur of those whose labour sustains hospitality and agriculture—individuals whose work is relentless, selfless, heroic, and driven by purpose.
In The Silent Song of the African Savannah, I invite readers into the hushed majesty of the wild, where every glance, movement, and pause speaks to a deeper order, and where human reflection mirrors the creatures’ innate grace and tenderness.
Together, the books form a harmonious symphony: the images speak, the text whispers, and the reader is invited to linger, to feel, to perceive the hidden cadences of life—the invisible threads of labour, care, and existence pulsing beneath the surface.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am embarking on a new book, a voyage into the shadows of an ancient civilization, where whispers of forgotten lives linger like echoes in a vast, deserted hall. Secrets buried for centuries beckon, stories waiting to be stirred. It is a dance with ghosts, a conversation with history itself—fragile, relentless, utterly consuming.
Shot entirely with a Hasselblad, this project promises images of startling clarity and provocative depth—photographs that will make viewers hold onto their seats, suspended between awe and discovery. Only fragments can be revealed now; the rest waits to be discovered between the pages, where image and word collide and the past awakens.
Soon, my journey takes me to Paris in May 2026, where my photography will be unveiled in a gallery in the vibrant heart of the city’s artistic soul. These images, born of observation, purpose, and passion, will do more than decorate walls—they will resonate with the lives, moments, and truths I have witnessed.
The exhibition is not a display; it is an invitation, a conversation between viewer and subject, a bridge between captured moments and the soul of the world I seek to immortalize.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I began my journey in journalism and writing five years ago, alongside a 14-year career in the agricultural industry, each path shaping my understanding of the world and the stories I wished to tell. As a freelance writer and photographer, my work has appeared in The Singapore Airlines in-flight magazine, Eater, The Smart Local, the Asian Food Network, and Le Cordon Bleu.
Photography has always been my most intimate medium, evolving from landscapes to introspective monochromatic scenes that reveal the soul rather than the surface.
Inspired by Ted Grant—“If you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls; if you photograph them in colour, you photograph their clothes”—I am drawn to moments suspended in time, where emotion and atmosphere converge.
I seek the delicate balance of architecture, people, and animals, composing scenes that pause life like a dancer mid-leap, reflecting the deepest moods, tensions, and resonances of the human and natural experience.
While techniques may shift, emotion, drama, and passion remain constants.
Among my defining milestones are serving as Global Brand Ambassador for the luxury Singapore tableware brand Luzerne and publishing Behind the Scenes and The Silent Song of the African Savannah. Both books are currently on display and available for purchase at the Singapore Photography Museum (Objectifs), and accessible nationwide through Singapore National Library outlets.
Through these projects, I have fused photography and storytelling into a voice wholly my own—inviting galleries, collectors, and viewers to experience the world with a depth, intensity, and intimacy that lingers long after the gaze has moved on.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
.jpg)
