About Me
Born in 1976 in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia. I grew up in this state, known for its beautiful beaches and islands . I have been exposed to photography world since 1996 and made it serious in 2004 when i stayed and worked at Redang Island. My initial shots were mostly landscape as I was very much influenced by the island beauty amidst the sun ,white sands and the roars of waves hitting the beach.
From 2009 until now, I’ve pioneered a special project to record the life of indigenous communities in my country. Currently, I am closely involved capturing the lifestyle of the people of “Bateq”. In Peninsular Malaysia, there are about 18 indigenous community , mostly had began leading the modernized lifestyle, however there are still many of the indigenous people remained with their traditional way of life like the Bateq people. Bearing a similar character such as the African indigenous people, they are still leading a half-nomadic lifestyle, hunting using blowpipes and lived in forests where they make a living. In the event of death, the dead bodies will be placed on top of trees and they (living nomads) in turn will move to other places. I has also worked in collaboration with renowned media teams, including National Geographic, Canal+ and RTM on a series of documentaries about the Bateq people.
Other than the Bateq people, i also had captured the pictures of other indigenous communities from other states in West Malaysia. Amongs them are Semaq Beri, Jahai, Semai, Temuan, Mah Meri & Che Wong. Capturing their pictures had been a challenging task especially those who live in the outskirt of town where we had to literally walk for hours into the forest in order to reach their shelters. Sometimes we had to use boats and other mean of transportation. There are some of these nomadic people who have moved and lived in town, but for my photography project, i prefer to capture them in their natural habitat and way of living since their lifestyle keeps slowly changing with time. If we don’t record them, there is a possibility in the future that our young generation will not know the actual lifestyle of these aboriginal people.
I had also won numerous awards in photography competitions both locally or internationally . I had participated in more than 10 photography exhibitions in Malaysia since 2007. Many of my works appeared, in the local tourism sector. Currently, I am one of the regular writer for a photography magazine in Malaysia, Fotografika. My other emerging interest include travel photography, especially in Asian countries focusing on the minority population in the countries.
In 2014, I began to record the floral diversity in the Setiu Wetlands, Terengganu, with focus on wild orchids. The idea to create an ex-situ conservation project for wild orchids began when i discovered that much of the natural landscape in Setiu was being cleared for agricultural and residential purposes. The project was later expanded into work to rescue them from being wiped out as a result of these logging areas. During this project, i also photographed various species of flora and fauna i encountered along the way.
More than 10 new species comprising wild orchids, wild gingers, pitcher plants and Thismia are described with help from botanists from FRIM, MARDI and UPM. This project has brought to light the immense wealth of Terengganu forests, yet unexplored. Deforestation for plantation and uncontrolled logging have severely damaged the flora and fauna, many of which are under threat of extinction even before they are catalogued and studied.