Stories from Malaysia
The Indian-Muslim masters of cendol A bowl of cendol pulut is a must. Rojak is optional. Time to head home and take a nap, I asked him for the total in Malay. He replies in Tamil. I start fishing for coins from my wallet. Haven't see you in awhile. How's your mother? he asks. She's …
Brilliant colours of blue, light grey, pastel pink, golden yellow smeared across the sky, shifting as quickly as the wind hurries the clouds. One frame morphing into another, no two moments are alike. I share the birthing morning with coconut trees, boulders and sand, moist from last night's high tide. Unfamiliar, nameless faces cross my …
A bus stop is the worst place to ponder on the purpose of life and existence. In fact it's the worst place for any thought at all. Lengthy ones are usually interrupted by the arrival of the bus and short ones only make the wait increasingly unbearable. It is best to simply exist, as if …
Continued from Part 1 Scanning There were several problems here. All I had was a flatbed scanner (Canon 9900F) which came with both 35mm and medium format film holders. None of them worked as designed. After much frustration and tests, I learned that I had to place the film flat on the glass to get …
Continue reading "Portraits of a Monsoon: Making the print, part 2"
I frequently make the mistake of not writing about my work. Here’s a brief guide on how I produced an 8 meter long print from my Portraits of a Monsoon series. I’ve been told that it is the longest photographic print ever produced in the country. This essay explores some of the technical and …
Continue reading "Portraits of a Monsoon: Making the print, part 1"
Earlier this afternoon, I sat on the RapidKL bus from the city back to Ampang. As I was walking back to my car, parked quite a distance away from the bus stand, I bumped into three schoolboys. They must have been brothers, with the eldest maybe 9 or 10 years old and the youngest maybe …
On the 28th of February 2013, the one coffeeshop I've always loved visiting in Kuala Lumpur, Sin Seng Nam, goes into retirement after 85 years of operation. I arrived relatively late, 8.30am to be exact, to find most of the seats already filled with the regulars. I found an empty table upstairs and made camp …
Continue reading "Sin Seng Nam: The end of a very long chapter"
“Itu orang semua sudah lari. Semua sudah kosong." Ah Heng lives in the 2nd room on the 1st floor of the 4th block of the Tuanku Abdul Rahman Flats, or more famously known as the abandoned Pekeliling Flats. Built in 1967, it was one of the earliest housing development projects in the city, home to …
