Singapore - Chua Soo Bin, 81, is a man used to being ahead of his time.

In the 1980s, he was the brains behind creative photo concepts for brands such as Singapore Airlines and luxury fashion house Lanvin. But he gave up that glamorous world to spend four years on the road capturing the lives of prominent Chinese ink painters on film.

The self-funded photography book that followed, Portraits Of Excellence, is hailed as a landmark in the documentation of Chinese art history. It put faces and personalities to 14 names including Li Keran and Liu Haisu, immortalising a generation of modern Chinese artists.

Then, in his 60s, the lensman reinvented himself as an art gallery owner.

He was among the first in the 1990s to introduce contemporary Chinese art here and the region, well before it seized the public's imagination and the attention of the art market.

He also spearheaded early instalments of Singapore's first art fair, ARTSingapore, which ran from 2000 to 2010, and paved the way for galleries in warehouses here when he relocated some of the art at his namesake gallery in Old Hill Street Police Station to Ubi Techpark in 2002.

His progressive influence persists. Later this year, his 24-year portrait series of Chinese ink painters will be exhibited at a museum in Shanghai.

True to his forward-looking nature, he refuses to dwell on his past. At Life!'s first meeting with him at Soobin Art International in Ubi Techpark, he hands over a thick stack of magazines and newspaper clippings.

Through his yellow-tinted glasses, he suggests genially that you read what he has said in the past so that you can "chat about something fresh" with him.

You meet him a few weeks later at his bungalow in East Coast Road and his usually amiable tone betrays mild impatience when you try to tease out more details on the portrait series or his switch from being a photographer to gallerist.

Speaking in Mandarin, he says: "These have been mentioned so much before, there is nothing new or fresh about them. Let's talk about other things, about life."

The octogenarian lives life with the zest and appetite of a man three decades younger who is at the top of his game and not quite ready to retire. It shows in the way he actively acquires and surrounds himself with art, music and things that delight his senses.

His home is a lived-in gallery. Every corner has a painting, photograph, piece of vintage furniture or objet d'art. Yet the rooms feel exuberant, not messy. Nor are the pricey works displayed in a too precious way.

A charismatic photograph of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, for example, hangs on a narrow wall between the main staircase and kitchen. The spot is a place Chua passes frequently and it allows him to admire often the work bought at an auction.

The way the picture is hung reflects his pragmatic approach to art and life. "My life is closely related to the arts and it has given me life, vitality. I have always pursued what interests me, from being a hobby photographer to working in advertising, then as a professional photographer and art gallery owner. My life is bound to the arts, it is my lifeblood."

Born in 1932, Chua is the eldest of six children of a factory worker and seamstress. World War II interrupted his education at the-now defunct Chong Zhen Primary School (he has only primary school education) but that did not stop him from chasing a career in the creative field.

At 17, he was a lithography apprentice at a printing firm, then joined an advertising company with a fatter paycheque so he could afford weekend art classes at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts with Singapore artist Cheong Soo Pieng.

As Chua rose through the ranks to become an art director, he pursued his love for photography by assisting top lensmen at the now-defunct Cathay Advertising with photo shoots.

In the 1970s, he struck out on his own as a photographer. When age caught up with him in the early 1990s - "It became too tiring to carry the camera and equipment" - he turned his eye to art.

He continues to add features to his home - a cellar, a mahjong room - which doubles as a showcases for his collection. His ensemble is eclectic and ranges from vintage cameras and antique furniture, to ancient petroglyphs and Qing dynasty title deeds.

He began collecting luxury watches two years ago and now owns more than 20 of them, including watches from Franck Muller and Richard Mille.

What he cannot fit at home is stored in his five warehouses in Ubi Techpark - more than 5,000 sq ft of storage space - and his two villas in Chengdu, China, which he visits almost every month for work and leisure.

His wife, Madam Liew Choo Hsien, 78, a housewife, cannot understand his penchant for collecting.

"He is so old already, why keep collecting? And how can he wear so many watches?" she says in Mandarin. But after 55 years of marriage, she has learnt to let him be. The couple have three sons - Cher Wei, a businessman who died a few years ago from ill health; Cher Tzien, 54, a businessman, and Cher Him, 40, a freelance editorial photographer.

Cher Him says: "As a father, he was very open and he never told me what to do. He allowed me to do what I wanted. But he did take me to art shows such as my first Venice Biennale in 1999."

Chua invites you to take a look at his cellar, built to house his latest interest in collecting: wine. He began the collection a year ago and owns about 100 bottles. Some of them are still in crates, having just arrived from an auction house.

He reaches into the chiller and fishes out a bottle he likes, a Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2000, noted by wine experts for its rich taste as much as the bottle's exquisite gold-engraved design. He then motions for you to sit on one of two vintage arm chairs, the skin of a wild cat draped over the back.

He settles into the other seat and takes a moment to savour the sonorous aria, Habanera, playing from the sound system.

"I like to drink wine and listen to music here with friends," he says. A wall in the cellar is decorated with a lively sketch by contemporary Chinese artist Zhang Xiaogang, whom Chua championed, that depicts a chipper party hosted by Chua and attended by Chinese artists. Today, Zhang's paintings sell for as high as HK$79 million (S$12.6 million).

Chua says: "Collecting things makes life more interesting and happier. I always bring something home with me when I go overseas. Sometimes they are important, sometimes they are not, but they are recollections of one's life and I feel that should be the way."

For a collector who loves acquiring things however, he is equally ready to give - to the arts, to artists and even peers in the competitive gallery scene.

His former long-time gallery manager Nianci Leong, 57, says: "He has a wide knowledge of the arts scene, a good eye for art and he always shares what he knows.

"When I left in 2011 to set up my own gallery, Domain Art Gallery (at the old Hill Street Police Station), he allowed me to sell works from his personal collection, paintings by local artists Chen Wen Hsi and Cheong Soo Pieng, and he brought friends and collectors to my gallery."

Art consultant Lindy Poh, 43, who curated the Singapore Pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale, also recalls his generosity. She says: "We had a funding crisis for the production of Vincent Leow's proposal. The artist shared his frustrations with Soo Bin and he called me a few days later to say that if there were insufficient funds, he would sponsor and that I should concentrate on curating and Vincent on developing the work. I was doing cartwheels.

"But later, I found out that we could not include his gallery logo in the booklet. Usually, sponsors would tell me 'No logo, no money' but Soo Bin, totally unflustered, patted me on the shoulder and said, 'Don't worry, please. I don't need the logo'. It was very elegant."

For Chua, however, it was simply the thing do. "It is important to promote artists doing innovative work, I want to help them. It is also good for people to see what Singapore art is about."

He has sponsored Singapore artists such as Willy Tay and Lee Wen for artist residencies at his villa in Chengdu.

Chua is also selfless when it comes to sharing art, says Mr Teo Han Wue, editor of Legends: Soo Bin's Portraits Of Chinese Ink Masters, the English follow- up to the sold-out Portraits Of Excellence in Chinese.

Mr Teo, 68, former director of Art Retreat Museum, says: "There was no guarantee of return for him but he put everything into Portraits Of Excellence. He had to take out a banker's guarantee to get the publisher to print the book and he suffered a mild stroke due to exhaustion."

The idea for the project came when Chua was on a shoot in China in 1984 for Singapore Airlines. He noticed a lack of good pictorial documentation on influential Chinese painters. "It made me think that I needed to do something. It was not for personal profit or to make money."

Armed with a short list of names and a letter of introduction by Chinese painter- art critic Huang Miaozi, Chua knocked on the doors of distinguished artists such as Wu Zuoren and Lu Yanshao. His disarming nature helped him develop an easy camaraderie with the senior artists and photograph them in candid moments. The poignant portraits were exhibited at the National Museum in 1989.

It was this same artistic foresight that drove him to persevere in his efforts to promote contemporary Chinese art at his gallery from 1997 to 2004.

"My then gallery manager, Nianci, was the first to object," he says. "She said she could not sell those avant-garde works, they were not pretty."

He adds: "There were times when I had to sell works that I did not personally like very much, realist or slightly sweeter works, to sustain the gallery."

But he managed to get by with the help of friends and clients who trusted his judgment in contemporary Chinese art. By 2005, he was vindicated. Paintings by artists such as Zhang began to sky-rocket and works that used to sell for a few thousand dollars in his gallery were going for millions on the auction market.

Chua says: "Everyone began to admire my foresight but it is nothing to be proud of, I just took part in the promotion of contemporary Chinese art overseas, along with many other people."

He adds: "The ones who made money were really my collectors. You cannot imagine how much they made, you would be shocked by the sum, but I cannot tell you because it is confidential."

In the last two years, his gallery has reduced the number of exhibitions it holds because he has been brokering more deals in China through collectors, dealers and auction houses.

Yet, he is also making plans to launch the next phase of his life - as an artist.

"I regret that after photographing Portraits Of Excellence, I went into the art gallery business and became so busy planning and organising more than 100 exhibitions that I lost the opportunity and time to do photography," he says.

He hopes that when his art business becomes less hectic and his home renovation projects settle down, he will be able to focus on photographing.

He is toying with two possibilities - a project with a traditional approach that uses film to capture classic images, and another that is more conceptual in nature and uses newer photography methods, such as digital photography.

He says he has been testing his ideas but has not shown anyone the works. "They are not yet mature and they are not ready to be shown. My expectations are high," he adds.

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