What makes a place feel like home? It might be a familiar neighbourhood, the quiet traces of someone who has left, the routines that shape our days or the relationships that continue to anchor us as we grow. For Singapore’s young photographers, these everyday details become ways of exploring a question that is both deeply personal and universally understood.

The 10th Singapore Young Photographer Award (SYPA) returns this October with Echoes of Home, bringing together works by emerging image-makers aged 13 to 25. Presented by City Developments Limited (CDL) and organised by DECK Photography Art Centre, the winning showcase runs from 8 October to 22 November 2026 at *SCAPE Whitespace, offering audiences a glimpse into how a new generation sees, remembers and interprets the world around them.

The milestone edition attracted more than 540 submissions, a 28 per cent increase from the previous edition in 2024. The winning works will be exhibited as part of the 10th Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF), which runs from 16 October 2026 to 31 January 2027.

Now approaching two decades of supporting Singapore’s emerging photographic talent, SYPA remains a platform dedicated to young image-makers, giving them room to experiment with photography as a means of expression and storytelling.

This year’s theme, Echoes of Home, invites participants to consider the places, people and experiences that shape their sense of belonging. The resulting works span the Junior, Youth and Photo Club categories, each offering a different perspective on the theme.

Among the Junior Category winners, 18-year-old Wayne Koh took first place with The Fabric of a Neighbourhood. In the Youth Category, 25-year-old Ng Xin Lui won first place for Scent-imental Value. Their titles alone suggest the different ways photographers might approach home: through the character of a shared environment, or through the sensory details and memories that make a place meaningful.

Other winning works bring their own interpretations to the theme. Lim Ye Kai’s Echoes of the Past, which won second place in the Youth Category, looks back through the language of its title, while third-place winner Seah Zi Keane’s Hands that move; minds longing to idle points towards the rhythms of work, rest and everyday life. Fourth-place winner Muhammad Rafi Adzikra Sujai asks a more unsettled question with i have left, but will i ever arrive?, capturing the tension between departure and belonging.

This year also introduces the Snap for Sustainability Award, supported by CDL, recognising young photographers whose work reflects environmental awareness and our shared responsibility for the future.

The Junior award goes to 16-year-old Kok Zak Yau for Untitled, while 22-year-old Lee Zhi Heng wins the Youth award for Coexistence. The new category extends the exhibition’s exploration of home beyond personal memory to the environments and ecosystems we share.

The addition is particularly fitting for a theme that asks how people relate to the places around them. Home is not only an intimate or domestic space; it can also be a neighbourhood, a natural environment or a wider world that future generations will inherit.

The Photo Club category, meanwhile, recognises collective participation in photography. This year’s winner is Media Makers Club from ITE College Central, which had 68 students participating in the award, an encouraging sign of interest in image-making among young people.

The 10th edition is supported by two new partners: Nikon Singapore and *SCAPE. Nikon joins as Youth Ambassador and contributes to the judging process through its Nikon Creators, while *SCAPE provides Whitespace as the venue for the winning showcase.

The judging panel brings together practitioners from photography and the visual arts. The Junior Category jury comprises visual artist Quinn Lum, photographer Lawrence Pang and artist Aik Beng Chia. The Youth Category is judged by artist Marvin Tang, photographer Andrew JK Tan and visual artist Lavender Chang. Both Pang and Tan are Nikon Creators supported by Nikon Singapore.

Beyond the prizes, the award offers young photographers an opportunity to have their work seen in a public exhibition and to take their ideas beyond the camera or screen. With participation up by 28 per cent from 2024, this edition reflects a growing community of young people using photography to examine their surroundings and express their perspectives.

The award ceremony takes place on 8 October at 7pm at *SCAPE Treetop, where prizes include S$9,500 in cash, S$900 in vouchers and seven cameras: two Nikon Z50II cameras and five Nikon Z30 cameras. A youth programme, From Snap to Scroll-Stop: A Nikon Creator Workshop, will also extend the learning opportunities surrounding the award.

Organised by DECK Photography Art Centre, SYPA forms part of a broader effort to nurture photography in Singapore through exhibitions, education, residencies and public programmes. As organiser of SIPF, DECK also connects local image-makers with wider conversations about photography across Southeast Asia and beyond.

For visitors, the winning showcase offers an opportunity to encounter home through the eyes of young photographers at different stages of their lives. The works invite us to reconsider familiar spaces and seemingly ordinary details, and to recognise how much of our identity is shaped by the places we inhabit and the memories we leave behind.

The 10th SYPA Winning Showcase runs from 8 October to 22 November 2026 at *SCAPE Whitespace, Level 3, 2 Orchard Link, Singapore 237978. Opening hours are Tuesday to Sunday, 1pm to 8.30pm. For more information, visit DECK’s SYPA 2026 page.