Visual Culture is an exhibition in print project by the Singapore Art Museum published twice yearly. As part of SAM's shift towards contemporary art, this publication project acknowledges the rise of predominantly visual forms of media, communication and information exchange in recent years. It is an emergent field of inquiry that combines aspects of art history, cultural anthropology, critical theory, philosophy as well as media and performance. The inaugural issue explores the theme of portraiture in photography. The dual nature that resides within the medium, of what is 'real' and what is 'represented', is a source of inquiry that is examined through photographic composition. By looking at the plethora of photographic images constructed, from early 20th-century ethnological photographs to contemporaneous ones made digitally, Visual Culture 01 aims to provide possible ways of looking at the medium in order to make its readers think more intently about photography and its place within contemporary art.