Studies in Sepia

The Saturday edition of The Star featured a book I am now eating my heart out for. Malay Peninsula: Old Photographs of Malaya and Singapore draws on the turn of the 20th century photographs in the private collection of Selangor Sultan, Sharafuddin Idris Shah. He bought a boxed set of of photogravure prints by German photographer Charles Kleingrothe from a dealer in London, some decades back :

When I saw the old-fashioned photographs of the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States, I was very impressed and realised instantly that these were of great historical importance. By buying the original prints, I was not just adding to my collection, but also helping to preserve the nation’s photographic history. The photos are beautifully and expertly taken, and the subjects ranged from people in traditional wear, natural landscapes, buildings, tin mines and fishing villages, to large towns, government offices, plantations, ports and everything that made up the Malay peninsula over a hundred years ago.

This is the kind of book I could pour over for hours, the nearest thing to a time machine. Just that the RM400 price tag is a bit too steep for me. (Have I ever paid that for a book?)

Becoming the Book

At design site Toxel.com there are some stunning images in which book covers blend with readers' faces. [via] Do go see!

Beauty in Diversity

It was the book launch of the year, attended by all the glittery people (including my great hero, Datuk Jimmy Choo, whom I still haven't got to meet!) and in my usual blur as sotong way I managed to miss it.

Don't know what trick my fuzzy brain was trying to pull, but I turned up at the right venue a whole day too late, having misread the invitation. Cle-ver.

Fortunately a phone call to Haliza Hashim-Doyle and a grovelling apology put things somewhat right, and it turned out that she and co-author Steven V-L Lee were over at the Convention Centre with a small exhibition of the photos that had been chosen for the book

Malaysians.

And we had time to sit and chat about the book and how it came to be.

It truly is a stunner, a small-format coffee-table book comprising portrait photographs by Steven, with accompanying text written by Haliza.

What strikes you is the sheer diversity of faces and ethnicities. When folks talk of race in Malaysia, there's so often this neat pigeonholing - Malay, Chinese Indian dan lain-lain (others).

Yet this broad categorisation doesn't even begin to describe the blend of racial origins you find here: Portuguese, Burmese, Penan, Kelabit, Bajau, mixed Ceylonese and Achenese, mixed Indian and Thai Chinese, Indian-Filipino, mixed Chinese-Indian-Austrian-Slovenian ... improvisation on a theme ... and the list goes on and on.

The girl on the cover Rachel Anne Ward (of English and Iban parentage) is an absolute stunner, and wouldn't be surprised if she were whisked off by someone to become a professional model.

Most of those photographed are ordinary citizens and there's everything from market traders, fishermen and farmers to city-slicker corporate types, and cool fashionistas with interesting hairstyles. Some of my favourite portraits are of the older folk, with their life-stories etched into the lines on their faces.

There are a few famous faces in here too: Chef Wan, Indian classical dancer January Low, her mentor Ramli Ibrahim, Malaysia's "prince of fashion" Bernard Chandran and ... hey there's Rocky (how did a blogger a.k.a. "media strategist" get in there?).

Anyway, do take a look at the sample gallery online to get a taste of the book, and Steven's diary gives a fascinating insight into the work that went into the project. You don't get portraits as stunning as these without putting a lot of love into your work.

Postscript:

Chin Mui Yoon's review of the book in Starmag.

Space to Read

Was at Central Market Annex today to meet the lovely Pang and look at spaces for the International Readings on 7th.

Renovation work is still going on - there were teams of workmen banging about all over the place, wooden floors were being sanded and varnished, but when the place is finished ... I think it's really going to be a home from home for all in the arts community and I can already think of ways I'd like to occupy some of the rooms!

As for the quest at hand - I took one look at the main gallery on the 2nd floor and declared that this was exactly what I wanted. There is an exhibition on at the moment celebrating the landmarks of New York and Kuala Lumpur. The photography is excellent. Nearly broke my heart all over again over an installation by Caecer Chong showing a huge blow up of Bok House as it was being demolished, with masking tape over all the evidence of mutilation ... as if a sticking plaster could heal the wound. (I got a bit carried away in the guest book and almost ended up writing an essay.) Also very much enjoyed working out what was happening in the Pang's own photos ... hidden in a little side room. And came away educated about landmarks I hadn't realised were landmarks.

Pang cut me a deal for the room hire, logistics were worked out and we celebrated with curry mee in Central Market next door. Am comforted that despite the renovations, this place is as tacky as ever.

Had a really nice wander through Chinatown after that with a visit to my favourite shop - Peter Ho's - which sells all kinds of household treasures, clothes, jewellery and divine cakes.

But an otherwise perfect day was spoiled by my car breaking down and needing the medical services of a tow-truck.

Anyway, the publicity for the event will be out shortly ...

Postscript

Pang is organising Art Bites a weekend of creative workshops at Central Market Annex for the public on 3rd and 4th February, and has roped in some of KL's top arts practitioners. Sessions include story telling, folk dancing, drumming, creative writing, theatre games, collage art, relaxation techniques and a talk on the history of philosophy.

Photographic Revelations

"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know."

I was introduced to the work of Diana Arbus years ago by my rock photographer friend, Panny, who was much influenced by Arbus, and like her worked with a Rolliflex in grainy black and white. When I stayed with Panny my eyes ached from seeing so much - I went out on shoots with her and to exhibitions and we poured over her art books together. Panny had a couple of books of Arbus' photographs and I've carried many of the images in my head for a good quarter of a century.

I saw many of those images again at the retrospective of Arbus' work, Revelations, at the V&A Museum, this week. Her miracle was to take the everyday, the conventional, and transform it. Her subjects reveal their inner lives to the camera, invariably exuding quiet despair whether fashionable New Yorkers snapped on the streets, circus freaks, mental patients, or nudists. She was truly an artist who chose photography as her medium.

The exhibition included many personal artifacts including Arbus' tiny, spiral bound notebooks in which she recorded her life in tiny crabbed writing. I would have loved to have stayed and read much more.

Wish I could have bought the book of the exhibition too, but at 40 quid ... will have to wait for more solvent times.