Visitors coming to a show at KLPac, not everyone was there for our photos.

We took down ‘EXITS’ our one month long exhibition at KLPac, 13 Sept, Sunday night. It was four weeks of being in attendance at the display at weekends. We met and talked to many visitors and friends. Not everyone who walked pass our show was into seeing or contemplating a difficult subject – life and death.

What was most rewarding was to have a partner Peter Tan and his wife Wuan to join in with me to commemorate our mothers exits. Peter and Wuan didn’t quite know what they were into at first, putting up an exhibition of photographs of grief, but they both warmed up and finally we all enjoyed the experience.

Our mothers, where ever they might be, would have been proud of us (or may be not) we’ll never know. But on our part, arranging and selecting the pictures of our mothers, and sharing it to a larger public was like opening the doors of our intimate self to others. Photography was the path. Love was the key.

How these pictures were received or read was also a vary individual matter too. Many wrote in our visitors book that they were moved and shared our openness and regard of our mothers.

Thanks to Numpueng, Seenum for their support (being dragged there by me)

Some visitors at the exhibition

Wuan and Peter Tan talking to some visitors

Me, Raymond, Lee (from Applied Imaging that supported this project) and Tuan

Stephano signing in the visitor’s book, Peter Crook chatting with Peter Tan

This join exhbition with Peter Tan & Wuan is a revisiting of the momories of our mother’s death and our grief. But it is not only that, to some visitors this show acts as a reminder to them that death is a mystery and it can happen to anyone at anytime. Some said that after looking at our presentation, they hope that their own children will one day do something like what we have done for our mother, for them when they are gone. There are a few who happened to be there, at the KLPac, but haven’t come to see our project and they would not look at the pictures at all and walk straight pass. Of course many are surprised by what we are showing.  We hope this display will open minds to an eternal truth about our human condition – death. How shall we prepare for it?

The exhibition at the KLPac

Peter and Wuan with their presentations

Me with some of my photographs

Our group photograhpic exhibition is now on at the KLPac and thanks to KLPac the show  has been extended from 17 August to 13 September. With this extension, it will also co inside with Shakespeare’s play Hamlet ,which also explores the ideas of death, at the KLPac directed by Chris Ling.

We simply wanted to share our private photographs of our grief with a public and hope that this encounter might initiate important dialogue about life and death, and explore the relation between the two. We know this sort of private experiences of lost are seldom seen in the open, like what we are doing with our pictures, but we hope this show will open up often closed doors of our sorrows.

Peter Tan had his story in his blog.

The Sin Chew and the Star newspapers had also helped with the publicity of our exhibition.  Thanks to the editors and staff.

Peter Tan with his mother.

Relatives and friends at Peter Tan’s mother funeral.

Peter Tan and his wife Wuan and I will be having a exhibition of photos from 17 to 30 August 2009 at the KLPac.

My pictures of my mother going into hospital and then she ‘disappeared’ there.

What is death? This is a question that confronts everyone as it is at the heart of humanity.  There are those who believe that after death, there is nothing, and there are those who believe it is the exit to another life. But the real answer is finally unknowable – for no one has been there and come back to tell us what it is.

What may survive after death are memories, some of which are concretized in photographs. Photography has a tremendous power to preserve private memories and perpetuate the ‘life’ of a departed one. They record moments and emotions that can be revisited by the person looking at them.

My exhibition of photos Empathy at KLPac closed on the 8 March. This third collection of images of people with disability doing their own thing in sports and in work, was on display for 7 weeks. During that time there were several write ups about the exhibition and one of the portraits of Siti Aishah made it to the front page of the Sunday People in the NST’s Sunday Times.

This media coverage of the disabled group gave all those people in this small and fragile community a much needed visual profile which they seldom get. The Star newspaper’s writer Tan Karr Wei also wrote about the portraitures with understanding.

Then there was Elaine Lau from the Option of the Edge who also gave a voice to this often voiceless fellow citizens. Ng Suzhen from the Malay Mail was the first to put this story in her CyberSpot page. The Chinese press too especially the writer Chee Nyuk Yan from Nanyang Siang Pau gave this group a center spread in their Sunday edition and this was followed by Sin Chew Daily‘s reporter Ten Yien Hsia’s news of the event. I was also invited to talk about the exhibition on TV3′s Malaysia Hari Ini morning magazine show.

After all the effort of first going out to get the cooperation of all my disabled friends to allow me to photograph them, and then to mount and promote the visibility of the subject to a larger public, it had dawn on me that this project of promoting a little more empathy for others, has been all a group effort by everyone who has been involved. This is also a note of thanks to all of you. Now I am beginning to understand.

Yaakob Saad and his family come to our party, though he and his wife are blind, their four children are born normal and healthy like the rest of us. Their children are now their parents’ eyes.

Godfrey and Yaakob, two blind old musical friends meeting at the party after many years

Carol telling us a little about herself and how much she likes to live an independent life.

Thanks to H L Lee for sharing his photos of last Saturday’s party at KLPac. There were many new friends to the gathering this year and among them a few old friends were meeting again after many years.

Peter Tan was happy with the portrait I did of him at the Sentral Train Terminal in Kuala Lumpur. On that day that I took his picture he and some of his friends were there testing out the various facilities to measure their disable friendliness for persons like him.

Part of the group of people at the Saturday party, doing their own thing, having lunch or talking with some friends etc.

On the right, Wairah was showing some of the artworks done by her daughter Nurul. Next, Jenny Tan was also  showing works of her son Seng Kit to all those at the party.

My friends, from the left, Charlie, Chong and Carmen, who drought the mandarin oranges, all came to give us some help with the party.

To arrange a social gathering like this  I needed a lot of help from my friends and many of them came to help and to join in the fun and the friendship.

Nala, far left, conducting a game for some of the people who came to the party at KLpac.

The MAB Blind harmonica group playing some music for the gathering

From right, Peter Tan, Christine Lee, Wuan & friend having lunch

This party, last Saturday, in conjunction with my photographic exhibition at the KLPac, was part of the celebration of understanding over ignorance of the others in our midst. We invited about 100 persons from a few different disabled groups, young and old, in the Kuala Lumpur area, to this social gathering. There was music, food, games, walks, a tour of the KLPac complex and lots of conversations and exchanges among the various groups.

Some of them are meeting new friends for the first time and many others are meeting for the second time since last year when I had an exhibition of my second collection and also had a party like this. In many way it was enlightening experience for everyone to meet so many different sorts and shapes of friends in one room.

And there were many friends who helped us make this gathering a success.

From left, Numpueng (my wife) and our dear friend May and her family who helped out with the food and drinks and all the other goodies, especially the delicious cup cakes, for that day.

From left, Numpueng, Jesmine, Victor, Azlan A Azlzee and his two children help out with the setting up and getting the party started.

A view of the exhibition with some visitors

Justin Hughes visiting

Lee Hong Leng taking a closer look

This exhibition has been on for a few weeks and it had many visitors. Justin Hughes, an old friend from the 80s, was one of the first visitors.  He was in Kuala Lumpur for a short visit after attending an International Law conference in Singapore. Justin is currently a Law Professor in New York.

Lee, a fellow photographer and partner of a photographic lab that printed all my prints, was also at the show to share his experiences about photography. It has been his continuing support and encouragement, over the years, that has made it possible to continue this social documentary project.