western digital empire

this image was captured during a cloudy lone afternoon. the day wasn't significant. but some photo turn out better than the mood. with added imagination. things happen.

there is always two sides or more to a story, a giant digital corporation, a factory production line. nothing significant.... no one really notice anything, no one's really affected dramatically in anyway anyhow.




opposite the empire, there is a nice waste land, some people go fishing over here. but soon. these waste land will turn in to "foreign gold"*





* upcoming project... (which i also believe will take me forever, without positive support... doing this alone is not so fun..... but i have to....)

titled : this nation is build on foreign hands

an incident on this street

is was on this street, that something happen; a particular incident, an undesirable accident. planned from the start, executed at night. somewhere near the bus stop, there, where it happen, where they took precious material, dear to the owner; cravings from both side - both driven by greed. sadness and joy intertwined harmoniously. necessity, desperate measures and unforeseen conditions.

one seems to be from the light, the other the dark.

increased paranoia from the light, increased security, increased suspicion - everyone they do not know is their enemy. until their wealth can be secured.

your neighborhod

the friendly neighborhood photographer
the neighborhood

photo essay: thaipusom 2008 (part one)

...

philosophy of photography : photograph reality

one's self-perception cannot prove the existence of one's self-perception; one cannot perceive any other senses only but within their capacity and health of one's own senses. The senses then translate into a medium that is theory/experience-laden, thus making it ultimately,unable to "judge" a concept such as perfect, beauty, niceness or good in an absolute sense.'Facts' as we know it in general are merely translated data we received in this sense-experience world.

above: first premise

Auxiliary argument: - experiences in a photograph via one's self expression/ interpretation

it is arguably confirmed that one cannot experience another conscious in a way one experience one's own conscious and perceptions of the world around. the next best thing is only via a variety of medium such as the imagination, paper, a canvas, a computer screen, audio, food and so on.

so photographs are applied.

Assumption: in this short essay, the assumption is that "photography" is used as a means of artistic exploitation. it totally neglect the supposed "idea" about its function and capability to express factual reality of the world. the first premise reject this assumption and it also reject the assumption of its ability to reflect any actual "reality" of the world.

premise 2: photography - analog or digital, it is still "photo"graphy

anolog are chemicals reacting to the rays of photons...(assumption made:- basic understanding how photograph works)
the question is: does it reflect the perception of one's reality or even actually reflect sense-reality world? since it is almost confirm that we do not know actuality of the world but only via our own sense-experience.
digital are "chemicals" reacting to rays of photons and converting it to binary data.
same question apply.

arguments from both type sparks - which type is truer or factual or better. but from the first premise, it does not make concern for this essay.

different film reacts to light differently, thus resulting in different desirable effect that appeals to the senses. it also could be said that it is not the "effect" that appeal, it is the content and the effect "enhances" the desire of the appeal.

if this is true, the role of different films and its "quality" (the word also implies character, functionality, specialty, weaknesses, and so on) are merely a "tool of desire"
whether if it a desire to reflect reality in its truest form, or to bring out a certain color or contrast- they all serve the same purpose. the post process of film also acts as a tool to "enhance"(depending o the different chemical mixture)

*[ related idea, but will not be part of this essay - title: mass produced type film, limitation to individual "taste". it's an argument about the limitation of the film industry, also due to the mass commercialization of photography,(similar to the Window & Apple OS choice, our way or the highway phenomenon) ]


similarly, the process of digital - capturing photons on a sensor, transform/transmitting it into digital data (binary), and than converting it to our visual perception on a monitor, and then with available data, it is either "enhance" automatically or manually. however, due to insufficient technical knowledge, this essay has no intention to argue about technical processes, above - it is only a general understanding of the process, which the main purpose is to illustrate the similarity and also ultimately support the first premise and finally conclude a comprehensible conclusion.

premises 2.5: making the following assumption
thus analog or digital, it is a "processed" affair of the sense-experience, or in this case, the sense-visual. And depending on what kind of "desire" the maker and also the processor of the photograph choices the most desired tools and according their capabilities, they create a desirable result,which either appeal to their sense-"reality"/experience or/and/also to other viewer who share similar vision. nevertheless, it is an expression of self-expression, and nothing can detest such statement.

and it concludes:....photography of artistic expression in film or digital, "processed" or non-processed" - it is for "the experience of desire" to the sense-visual of the beholder. the sense-experience of the beholder is also theory-laden, thus formed a particular liking to a particular style, personality, taste, and comprehension

glamour portrait (high high key)

Some of disagree with the title, but really, photography is creating a self professed world, which is disputable as well.
this photo was taken a while ago.. about month ago..
at the time, of "capture" - i did try to aggregate some "glam-ness" out of him. from the LCD, i thought it wasn't what i expected.

but looking at it again sparked second thought - his non-soberness was enough to show something more - perhaps this photo doesn't really depict it well. it is truly heavily processed, some touch-up but no manipulation (like liquefy)....

anyhow, i believe i've captured a "glamorizing" moment, disagree otherwise - a sense of innocence, yet complicated, a sense of mystery and perhaps "seduction"...
what do you say?

or perhaps it's just bad post-process?
yea i guess, much to improve on...

i can freeze time and so can you.

who needs heroes?


(photo taken from: http://unsanity.org/brian)

subang summit gym personel - portrait

everyone has a story to tell...
you may not pay much attention, you may not wonder about.
perhaps, maybe, sometimes, you should just forget about what attracts you, (aesthetically) but pay attention to the overall detail, the untold story, whether if it's bad or good,
it is, after all a human story. ( i believe another author in this blog hates how this punctuation and sentence structure is going! :P)

well to me, sometimes looking at a photo, especially a portrait, well, a particular type of "natural" portrait...
perhaps i'll try to explain that in the future... note note to myself : " explain the philosophy of "natural portrait"..
...( continue) i wonder, and i seek the detail and a wonder, about their personal life, work life, and a very brief moment, i imagine the possibility, i try to interpret what's going on in subject's mind..

sometimes, i find it interesting, how people show emotions "without doing anything" - just being, as they are, and if you are careful or lucky, you capture them being who they are, a moment of illusion and a moment of truth locked, between you and the photograph.

As peace gathering becomes a burden

06 Jan 2008, Kuala Lumpur - It is easy to say that there is always going to be dissent in any form of state government. The statement above is obvious, the problem is the state's reaction; the problem is the people's ignorance about it. For long as history/herstory goes, people have gathered upon various matter - war, peace, unjust, just, play, drama, concert, a lecture, etc. Currently, we are limited to authorities who gets to decide certain gathering legal or illegal.

we have come accustomed to a culture silent, "mind our own business", to be concern only about "private life" in exchange for economic stability and security. Perhaps there are other reason for us to believe otherwise, in any case, public participation is not the norm in modern society, including this fairly secular Muslim state of Malaysia.

Most people fear change, which includes bodies like the government - well, depending on what change; changes against one's wishes and desires are often regarded 'threatening' that is only natural to the way we have brought ourselves in this world.


Our voices are privatized yet our lives are constantly being interfered, whether we chose to believe its impact, we are connected through a much larger network of "agents" determining the course of "history", the path we shall live.
As far as we understood history/herstory, there are always people against whatever oppression, suppression of the human connection, against gains of brutality and selfish interest - as we are already part of the selfish path on the ladder so the problem seem reasonable. But to some, it is like taking a child away from a mother, it is like separating two lovers being together.

They** choose to believe, and the choose to voice their believe, and they feel there is no other way to voice it by taking it on to public domain, where real people can hear, whether they understand or even sympathize; even so, local media has no interest in telling "their" story. Whether they* will join the cause and believe in something better. A struggle worth struggling for now and for the future.

Dissent in this country, especially dissent against the state has become worthy for guns, batons, water guns, shields to protect against.
"with or against us"

"it is not in our culture" where is it everyone's culture to "voice-up".
(but we are really comfortable of just being an observer of a murder... intervention would be suicide, this is only for non-human like the "police" to deal with.)
This is the fear and power of dissent,
the power of the voice of the people.
it shows how much change a collective of people can achieve, the impact they can make.
society is facing a challenge, not in court, not in parliament, but where all society begins - the street; an important turn in it's course of history*...
the problem is, much of its citizens are still asleep, they do not hear the story, they do not know. The problem is the message is not out; It is not clear for them to decide, scrutinize or even praise.

candles versus, batons, tear gas guns, water guns

who are the paranoid android? the police or these bunch of people?

for what happen, google it, you probably find not much, but only "what happen", people came for an illegal gathering, so call peace, hmnm and then... police were "forced" to use force... water guns, people ran... next day, nothing happen and what do you care?

**











"save the last for the rich, the rest can starve to death"