When Singapore-based photographer Sean Lee was 17 years old, a classmate of his, Esther, passed away after a short struggle with an illness. Today, as a part-time teacher of photography in a new media school, Lee thinks often of the days of his youth and Esther, who never had the chance to grow up. These recollections became the impetus for his series and subsequent self-published photobook, “Young Love.” Featuring young people in pairs, either best friends or lovers, with no distinctions, Lee’s photographs freeze time, capturing his subjects in the midst of their fleeting adolescence.

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Sean Lee Puay Yang’s Young Love is presented at the 10th Singapore International Photography Festival as part of Shifting Images: Photography from Singapore 2000–2025, under States of Becoming.