The B&W of Photography

I have always been fascinated by black and whites (B&W) whether is be photgraphs or drawings or even paintings and as such i have made every effort to dig around for old B&W pics especially those with age and stories to tell or aesthetically tasteful. I am parial to b&w simply because of the challenge it gives for me to visualize the colors that makes up these pictures as well as its minimal value.



Whenever i talk of black and white pictures i am always reminde of the great Japanese Movies Director  Kurosawa whose early samurai movies were mostly done in Black and whites.



One of my favorite medium or technique when I create art is to draw or sketch in Black and white and in doing so I am forced to study tonal values of excuting monochromatic works. This is also apparent when I do my mono - prints only in doing these i have to reverse my percetion of light and darkness when i draw on to the plate. 



My next show will eopne on the 29th. of April at the Alpha Utara gallery and it will present some thrity pieces of my mono- prints. The process of making a mon - print I might have explained in my earlier blogs and it is the most simplest form of the Printmaking Processes. Print making includes the proces of Etchings which is the most commonly known, then there are various thers such as, Mezzotint, Acqutint, Intaglio, Lithographs, woodcuts etc.



What is most crucial about studying black and whites is the study of light and dark, for examle the source of light in the picture as well as the shadows that the objects cast  as a result. Most beginners artist tend to overlook the importance of ths shadows of objects and how important it is in making the picture more stable or 'solid' in form.



There were classes i attended while in college on the study of monochromatic colors and the difference in tonal values that enhances the work. This was very valuable for me in those early years and they have helped my a great deal in being able to 'pick out' the essence of a picture in one glance. Its shapes and forms and how they are being brought out of pushed back, modeled or shaped.



These pictures are not mine, none of them but i salvaged them from a construction worksite when an office building was being renovated. My ove for these pictures being black and white urged me to save them and now put them onto my blog which will hopefully save them for a long time to come. Most of these works were from former students at the USM Arts School. If any of the owners were to spot these pictures they can contect me for the originals for whatever it is worth. I just felt that it is a shame if not a wasre of good imges not to mention valuable Kodak films and papers to just discard them into the garbage dump.



This picture tells a thousand tales of our human existence for each of us can see in it all sorts of images, a journey, a trail, the road to nowhere from somewhere, the sense of giving up or despair etc. What we read in a picture may not be what the artist had in mind but what the artist had captured through his lens may conjure form with us all sorts of flights of fantacies if we are creative enough in how we see things (life).



A Voice of Conscience

I have been following Raja Petra Kamaruddin's (RPK) blog ever since I stumble upon it a few years ago and to date i am very impress and at the same time am glad that I am on his side of the street although not as daring as he in throwing stones at glass windows of authority. This country or at least those who have any real concern for the future of this country should be thankful that we have a 'Maverick' running around taking pot shots at anything and everything that has to do with the well being of Malaysia albeit politics or simply the voice of conscience that is often lacking.
I raise my hat to the man for his bravado and deep rotted insights into what is real and what is all shadow plays that have been haunting the Malaysian political scene and with his social as well as his political connections he has so far enlightened people like me with revelations of all sorts of wrongdoings that would have been hidden from the likes of me buried with history and those who perpetuated these wrongs would have walked with arrogance along the corridors of power like the untouchable Mafia Dons of of bygone days. Not many in this country can boast of exposing more corruptions and abuse of powers among those in the government as well as the opposition than this man who now lives in exile in England. Nothing seems to escape his keen perception when it comes to Malaysian politics and the fact the he carries a double edged sword cutting both ways makes him a loose cannon that most who have skeletons to hide, or their hands in the cookie jar something to fear about. It is surprising that no one has sent a Ninja assassin to shut him up.
But the Raja has done all the damage that needed to be done in his course of years of banging his head against some mad bugger's wall. Taking him out now would be like creating a national martyr and more heads would roll than the damage done by the Tsunami in those halls of power as there would be hell to pay when the man has practically become the people's champion. The only way you can defeat a genius is by outsmarting him and there is not too many in this country who can do this at present and most who can has their own agenda and interest to serve. Hence like it or not Malaysians, at least those who can read with intelligence and read the right stuff will have to tolerate this Prince who turned the voice of conscience for those whose conscience has been buried under deep blanket of illusory comfort and whose minds are being lulled to sleeps by those who holds the reigns of power in this country. He is someone who can release the noose from the buffalo's nose like the one that Tun Mahathir had installed during his reign.
We Malaysians have been at the mercy of the likes of Khir Toyo, Ling leong Sik and the Samy velu and we have been made fools by the likes of Khairi and God knows a host of others who has taken the Malaysian people for a ride while laughing their ways to the bank. We are a corrupted nation, we are so corrupt that we don't even know what corruption is anymore. We are so corrupted that we lost our fear of the afterlife and God's retribution, its a joke to some today. We have become a nation of Greed, Hate and Ignorance while living in denial of what is going on right outside our living room doors. The words Love, Compassion, Truth and such have lost their meaning to us as we sink slowly into our self made quagmire of so called 'the good life'. We have slowly become deaf and dumb as to the plights of those who are in dire need and when we do lend a helping hand it is always with not strings but ropes of attachment that goes with, not because it was out of mercy.
The was another greater voice of conscience that shook our very foundations recently and many took to the streets fearing for their lives but few saw it as a warning from the Originator of this Voice. It was another wake up call and this time it was felt closer to home as buildings shook a little more and longer in duration. I hope against all hope that those who accommodate the glass towers such as the Petronas Towers or Komtar in Penang felt the voice of conscience whispering in their hearts; enough is enough!
Perhaps it is naive to think that I can make much difference in exacting changes in my country's politics or any other reforms but I know one thing that i can do for sure and that is change my self, perception and  my take on what is happening around me. Comes the day to vote I will do my part as a concerned citizen and the choice I will make will be based on what I feel is right for me off course based on all that i have witnessed and experienced tasted and wasted. The likes of RPK has done a whole lot of eye opening for many like me all i can do is use my own intelligence and cast my vote.
  

Reflections of my last Show

Meditation - J.Krishnamurti

The soil in which the meditative mind can begin is the soil of everyday life, the strife, the pain, and the fleeting joy. It must begin there, and bring order, and from there move endlessly. But if you are concerned only with making order, then that very order will bring about its own limitation, and the mind will be its prisoner. In all this movement ou must somehow begin from the other end, from the other shore, and not always be concerned with this shore or how to cross the river. You must take a plunge into the water, not knowing how to swim. And the beauty of meditation is that you never know where you are, where you are going, what the end is.

You should never meditate in public, or with another, or in a group: you should meditate only in solitude, in the quiet of the night or in the still, early morning. When you meditate in solitude, it must be solitude. You must be completely alone, not following a system, a method, repeating words, or pursuing a thought, or shaping a thought according to your desire. This solitude comes when the mind is freed from thought. When there are influences of desire or of the things that the mind is pursuing, either in the future or in the past, there is no solitude. Only in the immensity of the present this aloneness comes. And then, in quiet secrecy in which all communication has come to an end, in which there is no observer with his anxieties, with his stupid appetites and problems only then, in that quiet aloneness, meditation becomes something that cannot be put into words. Then meditation is an eternal movement.

I don't know if you have ever meditated, if you have ever been alone, by yourself, far away from everything, from every person, from every thought and pursuit, if you have ever been completely alone, not isolated, not withdrawn into some fanciful dream or vision, but far away, so that in yourself there is nothing recognizable, nothing that you touch by thought or feeling, so far away that in this full solitude the very silence becomes the only flower, the only light, and the timeless quality that is not measurable by thought. Only in such meditation love has its being. Don't bother to express it: it will express itself. Don't use it. Don't try to put it into action: it will act, and when it acts, in that action there is no regret, no contradiction, none of the misery and travail of man.

So meditate alone. Get lost. And don't try to remember where you have been. If you try to remember it then it will be something that is dead. And if you hold on to the memory of it then you will never be alone again. So meditate in that endless solitude, in the beauty of that love, in that innocency, in the new then there is the bliss that is imperishable

So meditate in the very secret recesses of your heart and mind, where you have never been before.

The house was between the hills and the sea, over- looking the sea. And as you watched the sea, so very still you really became part of everything. You were everything. You were the light, and the beauty of love. Again, to say "you were a part of everything" is also wrong: the word "you" is not adequate because you really weren't there. You didn't exist. There was only that stillness, the beauty, the extraordinary sense of love. The words you and I separate things. This division in this strange silence and stillness doesn't exist. And as you watched out of the window, space and time seemed to have come to an end, and the space that divides had no reality.That leaf and that eucalyptus and the blue shining water were not different from you.

This too was Georgetown.2

The is not changes as far as the buildings are concern compared to the above pictures especially the one that reads Brick Kln road. The Vespas scooters were in style during those years alongside the earlier models of Hondas and Suzukis. Where cars are concern they were still in the vintage stage with cars like the Vauxhall and Fiats making appearences to replace the old Morris Minor.





Since independence, there have been some changes to the official names of some streets. On the whole, however, like Singapore and unlike many other cities in Malaysia, George Town has retained most of its colonial street names, although until recently they have been indicated on street signs only in their Malay translations.
Until 2007, street signs in George Town were only written in Malay, as a result of the national language policy. Unfortunately, this had the effect of confusing tourists, who found it difficult to match the English names commonly used by Penangites with the Malay names on street signs which were often very different. In the case of proper nouns, the English name is easily recognisable, e.g. Kimberley Street is Lebuh Kimberley. In other cases, however, the Malay translation may be unfamiliar to those who do not speak the language, e.g. Church St is literally translated as Lebuh Gereja (from the Portuguese igreja). A few streets have been given completely new names in Malay.
Even where official street names have changed, the local population have largely continued informally to use the old names when referring to streets. This is partly because the new names are often unwieldy (e.g. Green Lane vs Jalan Masjid Negeri, Pitt Street vs Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling, or Northam Road vs Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah), but also reflects a strong conservatism in the local population, who see Penang's colonial history as part of their local identity. When Scott Road was renamed Jalan D S Ramanathan, after the first Mayor of the City of George Town, the new street signs were repeatedly defaced and had to be replaced several times, eventually forcing the city authorities to fix a replacement street sign fifteen feet up a lamppost (instead of at waist-height, as was then usual).

 

King Street( 大伯公街) is between Light Street(莱特街) and Chulia Street(牛干冬). It was named after King George III(1760-1820). The Chinese called it with various names,depending on location. King Street is located within the Georgetown Unesco World Heritage historic core site. It is within the original grid laid out by Capt Francis Light, the founder of George Town.



Burmah Road or Jalan Burmah is located between Penang Road and Gottlieb Road, Bagan Jermal Road and Mount Erskine Road. It is one of the main road in Georgetown and a long throughout. Burma Road was the only road where, once upon a time, you can meet communities from South-east Asia and the Middle-east. Most of the communities are sadly gone today due to commercial development of their 'kampungs'(villages) or because of migration.




 During the sixties and much earlier the Mamaks often share their food stall space often attached to a Chinese restaurant which you can hardly any Malays doing so. Malays who consider themselves Muslims are more concerned about serving or working alongside non Muslim customers when it comes to serving food. The feeling of 'Jijik' or simply 'yeachy' feeling about the whole experience makes them steer clear from Chinese restaurants. Most of this feeling is the fact that pork is being served at these restaurants.

Georgetown in the sixtiies to my memory was a place that  was safe to move around in  however most of us living in and around the city area would not venture too far out from its outskirts or the so called rural areas where even then these areas were still in the process of getting settled down. The area that is today Relau and even Bayan Lepas , Paya Terubung and Mount Eskine iwas back then considered still under developed and the Gertak Sangol and Balik Pulau areas were a whole different uncharted territory at least where we children growing up then were concern.

 

This too was Georgetown

Georgetown in the early sixties was as quaint a city as any of that era where most shop houses and food stalls exist side by side and the back lanes or alleys were a myterious place for the general public's eyes. The back lanes as they were more popularly known back then were where the family lives took place.



Rope walk is still one of the most common attraction for all bargain hunters whether local or otherwise. Here one finds all sort of items that are sold as second hand items or simply as curios. Today the deals are no more attractive as it used to be as  most of the items worth seeking ang keeping has already been taken by modern day antique hunters. What is left is pretty much items like cheap wallets and used sunglasses, used DVDs and so forth. To find any rare valuable items one has to visit one of the upgraded version of the antique dealers that has taken roots along the Kapitan Kling mosque are or Penang Road area.





Most of these scenes of the old Georgetown are no more in existence today, however they are being replaced by somewhat simmilar upgraded version of what you see here and this is thanks to the United Nation Heritage City status that Georgetown has been accorded.  The Chinese characters that literally dominates all the advertising of this shophouse was later changed as the Malaysian Government insisted that Malay or Bahasa Malaysia, the National language be used alongside English as well as Chinese. 



Most of the streets all over georgetown back in the early sixties were not very well paved and had no parking zones as such. Traffic was alot less than it is today no doubt. People walked around with not much care about being run over and one rarely saw a policeman in the crowd or manning the traffic. Georgetown was like one huge market with all kinds of shops wet and dry markets scattered all over the city with coffee shops and sundry stalls at every corner of the main streets.




The date 1949 that appears on the shophouse above is the date that i was born somewhere not too far from this area. If one could add heat, smell and sound to these pictures one would have a taste what was once Georgetown and there was hardly any racial issues that was alrger than the act bargaining for the cost of a service or an item. Georgetown was in those days a truly One Malaysia City where all the races existed each depending on the other and like wise treated eachother with all due respect. There was no fear of being in danger of being in the wrong place at the wrong time due to racial discord.

 

These pictures are testimony to the old Georgetown a city that was in the process of growing into what she is today. For most who have lived here throughout those years would have a healthy respect for how far or how near we have come when comparing the good and the bad that has materialized due to what is called progress and development.

the day the earth shook

A 8.7 magnitude earthquake has struck the seas of banda aceh in three different parts of the same region causing a tsunami to hit the beaches west of northern sumatra and also likely to hit india,thailand and also malaysia. well this is how the people pf penang reacted to the earthquake,these photos were taken outside of a shopping mall in the heart of penang(georgetown) where people were evacuated from the premises. me and my cousin were minding our own business when we felt the vibration of the earthquake and started to cancel what we were doing and head outside to a crowd of thousands. The tsunami is expected to hit penang island at 9.11 pm local time and with no where to run as reports say the bridge to the mainland has been closed or maybe its only to the island im not quite sure. well this is from shamsul baharis son wishing everybody safe and pray for the people of banda aceh

Karim was excited to have been in the middle of it all when it happened  that was when the magnitude 8.1 earthquake hit somewhere in Indonesia and was felt all over Georgetown. Those who were in the taller buildings came pouring out running helter skelter  all over the street.

It must have been quite a scene to be in as this was not any Anti-Government demonstration and  no one was at each other's throats for any reason. Everyone was facing a common threat a potential natural disaster.  

In any case my son did capture some great shots of the newly  renovated area of the  center of the City which I have thus far not included in my blog. The shots are great simply because they were taken spontaneously in the heat of the excitement

No major happening though other than just people running here  and there hoping for things to happen, like the nearby Komtar tower coming down, but the whole island was shaken none the less.