We made an impromptu visit to the official Leica Store, Singapore which opened today at Raffles Hotel Arcade. Coinciding with the store launch is a beautiful exhibition ‘Of Legends and Beliefs’ by Yang Yan Kang, a China-based photographer and member of French agency VU. Yang Yan Kang was present so we had a little chat.

Yang Yan Kang shot the stunning black and white images of Tibet featured in the exhibition with a Leica M6 with a pre-asph Summilux 35mm F/1.4 lens. Ironically, Yang prefers film, and in particular Kodak TRI-X, rather than the digital Leica M9 rangefinder he had strapped across his shoulder (we assume as a store opening prop :-)). Yang likes the Leica MP film camera too.

‘Of Legends and Beliefs’ is still an on-going project. He has been shooting Tibet for three years in 4 months sprees, and expects a few more years before completion. In case you’re curious as we were, Yang shoots about 200 rolls per visit to Tibet. Yang previously also shot images of ‘Catholicism’ in China.

The exhibition features his self-developed and hand-printed silver gelatin prints on fibre paper. Beautiful, classic and surreal – his exhibition alone is worth a visit to the Leica Store.

The store will also have the Walter de’Silva designed Leica M9 Titanium on display, but we doubt Yang Yan Kang will be queuing anytime soon for a glimpse.

The Leica Store @ Raffles Hotel Arcade, Singapore is located at 328 North Bridge Road #01-18 Raffles Hotel Arcade, Singapore 188719. Telephone: +65 6336 9555. Website: www.leica-store.sg Email: info@leica-store.sg