About

sleeportraitbytakeki2013

Steven V-L Lee

Speciality : Street documentary, people and portraits, fine art.

Steven is a Malaysian photographer based in the UK. He began his photographic career as a documentary and travel photographer in the 90’s and in 2000, published his first coffee-table book ‘Outside Looking In : Kuala Lumpur’, which received the Asian Prize in PhotoCity Sagamihara Festival of the Image, Japan in 2007. This body of work is archived at Sagamihara City’s photography collection and was exhibited at The Nikon Gallery in Shinjuku, Tokyo in 2008.

In 2002, he was approached by AntiSlavery International UK to photograph specially prepared Indian recipes by Chattar Singh of Rajasthan for a fundraiser book titled ‘A Taste for Freedom’. In 2007 he published ‘MALAYSIANS’, and ‘MUSEO’ is now available as a print-on-demand publication, a collection of black & white abstract studies of antiquities, statuary, and architecture in Europe.

In 2008, Steven was involved in portfolio reviews at Cultivate for graduates in Photography to prepare and guide them in portfolio preparation and exhibitions. He has also introduced the basics of photography to inner-city kids in Borough of Camden in a Local Authority regeneration initiative.

Steven is the founder-director of Kuala Lumpur International Photoawards since 2009, an international Contemporary Portrait Photography competition based in Malaysia. With Malaysian photographer Nadirah Zakariya, Steven co-founded KL20X20 and Exposure+Photo festivals in 2020 and 2022, showcasing local and international artists in multiple exhibition spaces in the city of Kuala Lumpur.

He has commissioned photography projects in recent years such as Focus Japan (2016), and Two Mountains Photo Project (2018).

Steven has been a portfolio reviewer at several international photography festivals such as Mt.Rokko International Photo Festival, Auckland Festival of Photography, Photolux, Dodho Magazine, and IWPA.fr and also currently acts as nominator for the 6X6 Global Talent World Press Photo program and the Leica Oskar Barnack Awards.