I/LAND Selection Jury
Jessica Lim
Jessica Lim is the director of Angkor Photo Festival & Workshops (APFW), a non-profit association based in Cambodia which focuses on the nurturing and promotion of the region’s visual storytellers. For the past 14 years, and for most of her professional career, she has worked towards supporting visual storytellers from the majority world. She is currently based in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Prior to being appointed director by APFW’s organizing committee, she was the key coordinator of the association’s events after first joining them as a volunteer in 2010. Her move to Cambodia built on her previous experience with Drik in Dhaka, Bangladesh, a media organisation renowned for challenging social inequality and injustices through its work.
Whilst at Drik, Lim served as a photo and news editor as well as a liaison for photographers with Majority World, an agency which advocates for equal opportunities and representation in response to Western hegemony over global media.
Lim graduated in 2006 with a degree in communications studies from the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore and worked briefly as a writer and photographer for local news and editorial publications.
Ng Swan Ti
Ng Swan Ti is the managing director of PannaFoto Institute, a non-profit organization committed to fostering an open-minded community through education in photography and visual storytelling.
Over the past 12 years, she has managed several programs nurturing young photographers throughout Indonesia. Alongside Cristian Rahadiansyah, she co-founded the Jakarta International Photo Festival (JIPFest) in 2019, with the goal of elevating Indonesian photographers onto the global stage.
She started her photography career in 2002, utilizing her personal work as a means of self-discovery and addressing religious and identity issues in Indonesia. Her works have been showcased at international exhibitions and photo festivals. In 2014, she published her first photobook, titled Illusion.
Ng also engages in various photography initiatives, contributing as mentor, curator, juror and guest speaker. Notably, she co-curated exhibitions such as Vision 20/20: Community exhibition at Jakopič Gallery, Slovenia, in 2020; Space, at the Jakarta International Photo Festival, in 2021; Tracing Inherited History at the Hong Kong International Photo Festival, in 2021; and Revival, at the Jakarta International Photo Festival, in 2022. She also serves as a mentor for the Women Photograph Mentorship Class (2022) and the Objectifs Documentary Award (2023).
Chelsea Chua
Chelsea Chua oversees programs and exhibitions at the Objectifs Centre of Photography and Film. Chelsea also frequently works directly with artists, photographers, curators and filmmakers across Southeast Asia to develop projects such as exhibitions, talks, and mentorships. She is the curator of Stories That Matter, Objectifs’ annual documentary program, and leads developmental platforms such as the Objectifs Documentary Awards, Curator Open Call and the centre’s residency program. She has also led collaborations such as Personally Speaking: The Art of Caregiving, a visual arts project produced for the Lien Foundation. She was previously Marketing Manager at The Substation (2012 to 2015), where she managed the centre’s marketing and communication initiatives. Chelsea graduated from the University of Western Australia with a B.A. (Hons) in Literature and Political Science.
Neal Oshima
Neal Masao Oshima is a commercial, editorial, and fine art photographer based in Manila, Philippines. He began his photographic career as a laboratory and field photographer at the Bishop Museum in Hawaii and fine art photographer in San Francisco, CA. His editorial work includes books such as Dreamweavers, a documentation of the T’nalak weavers of the T’boli tribe in Lake Sebu, Mindanao; Treasures of the Philippine National Museum published by Bookmark; Philippine Ancestral Houses by Dr. Fernando Zialcita. Other published work includes Flavors of the Philippines by Glenda Barretto, Beyond Rice and Bamboo by Maria Elena Paterno, and Philippine Forests by Karla Prieto Delgado; Museum Exhibitions of Mr. Oshima’s work include Personal Visions: A Survey of Contemporary Photography at the Ayala Museum in 1999; Barot, a solo exhibit of photograms of traditional Philippine garments that opened the Sepia International Gallery in Soho, NYC; and Lovelock, an exhibit of hair landscapes at the Alliance Francaise, Manila in 2001. He has worked extensively with traditional silver-based print techniques. His platinum prints are part of major corporate and private collections in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Two of his large photograms sold at auction at Sotheby’s HK.
Photo by Royal Pineda.
Tom Epperson
Tom Epperson grew up in California, lived in Australia for ten years, and has been based in the Philippines since 1985. In 1989, he established his first photography studio in Manila, focusing on editorials, portraits, and ad campaigns, before transitioning to architecture and fine art. In addition to his career, Tom's exceptional talent as a photographer has been showcased in numerous prestigious art exhibitions. His debut exhibit, "One Light," featured 55 portraits and was a historic event as the first photo exhibit hosted at the renowned Ayala Museum. His creative vision was further evident in the "Frozen" series, inspired by a month-long journey to Mongolia. This two-part series received sponsorship and recognition from industry leaders, including BMW Philippines and the Shangri-La Philippines. In 2009, Tom achieved a significant milestone by becoming the first Manila-based photographer to be invited for an exhibit at the Tyler Rollins Gallery in the Chelsea district of New York. The exhibition, titled "12 BELOW," presented the poignant story of a Filipino family's memorabilia, both physically frozen in blocks of ice and metaphorically frozen in time. Tom’s artistry continues to bloom. His muse is the ever-changing beauty of nature, the stories of people, and the vivid canvas of life.
Wawi Navarroza
Wawi Navarroza is an award-winning Filipina contemporary artist known for her works in photography shown in major galleries and cultural institutions internationally. Her works navigate self and surrounding as seen in her self-portraits, landscapes, and installations. She is informed by tropicality within the dynamics of post-colonial dialogue, globalization, and the artist as a transnational agent. As a female artist, Southeast Asian and Filipino, her works transmute lived experience to the symbolic using material and studio techniques; creating images that explore the hybridity of identity, photography, and place. Navarroza is a recipient of the Philippines’ most important awards such as the Cultural Center of the Philippines 13 Artists Awards and the Ateneo Art Awards. She has also been awarded with the Asian Cultural Council Fellowship Grant (New York), Istituto Europeo di Design Masters Scholarship (Madrid), Lucas Artists Fellowship Award for Visual Arts (San Francisco) and a number of other grants and residencies abroad. In 2023, she was nominated to the prestigious Leica Oskar Barnack Awards. Her works are in the collection of the Central Bank of the Philippines, Metropolitan Museum of the Philippines, Menarco Vertical Museum, Stora Enso Finland, Ayala Group, and private collectors worldwide.
Lourdes Abela Samson
Lourdes Samson is an independent curator and co-founder of the Monsoon Southeast Asia Collection.
Her interest in curation and the artistic practices of contemporary Southeast Asian artists led her to pursue an MA in Asian Art History at Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore. This interest was honed by years of collecting artworks from the region, a passion that she shares with her husband, Michelangelo. She divides her time between Manila and Singapore.