Swee Choo Oh
Swee Oh is an internationally acclaimed photographer specializing in fine art and commercial architectural photography. Originally from Malaysia, Swee is based in San Francisco, California.
Swee has a professional background as an architect, bringing her unique artistic eye to create stunning architectural photographs, for which she has won many prestigious awards. Additionally, Swee has developed a passion for street photography in her travels due to her deep
The visual world of Swee Oh is defined by her use of light, form, shadows and textures. Whether architectural or street, her photographs tell visual stories that stir emotions and capture a viewer’s attention. Her career in architecture influences how she interprets a building through photography. When designing, her thoughts are of space, lines, volumes, positive/negative space, and the experience when one moves around and through the building. These intuitions help Swee better understand a building, enabling her to reveal its essence through the images she produces.
Her pictures combine both the artistic and the technical. Photographing details and textures. They often play with scale and perspective. Studying different angles that capture Swee’s attention. Making use of light, contrast and shadows to create depth. Framing and composing each piece in ways that provoke emotions.
In 2016 Swee won the prestigious Hasselblad Masters Award in the Architecture Category, and in the same year won 1st Place Sony World Photography Award in the Open Category of Arts & Culture. In 2020 she was named a Hasselblad Heroine. Over the course of her 10-year photography journey she has also won top honors at the International Photography Awards (Lucies), Prix de la Photographie, Paris (Px3), Siena International Photography Award, Julia Margaret Cameron Awards, Black and White Spider Awards and the Epson International Pano Awards.
In this exhibition, Swee shows a handful of retrospective pieces and introduces her new work: “Transformation of Narcissus”. What we see here is the initial release in a year-long series that gives an iconic structure a new presentation. Also included are three select pieces from upcoming collections in the series. The first collection is a study of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, in Los Angeles, designed by Frank Gehry, in five captivating images. Swee manages to take a familiar subject, photographed by many talented artists and discovers a completely fresh way to enjoy it, unlocking a mythological beauty.
Swee’s photography has been featured in fine art and online magazines both locally and internationally, including the Hasselblad Masters book, Dodho Magazine, Luxurious Magazine, Popular Photography, Medium Format Magazine, ND Magazine and Camerapixo. Her work has been exhibited in Somerset House, London, EyeEm Studio, San Francisco, Black Box Gallery, Oregon, Portland and various LUMAS galleries in Europe and the United States. Alongside private commissions, Swee’s pieces have been collected worldwide, and she has conducted photo walks and educational presentations for Hasselblad in San Francisco, New York and Shenzhen.
