Believing that there was not enough storytelling in photographs these days, two friends embarked on a quest to empower a new breed of storytellers, writes Karen Ho
A NATURAL in front of the camera, he poses willingly and flashes his pearly whites upon request, melting the hearts of those watching the impromptu photo session.
The youngster, Ahmad Hasif Khair, must surely be the cutest photographer at the recent two-day KL Photography Festival 2016 (KLPF) which celebrated the event’s 20th anniversary.
Although not the most articulate, Hasif is animated and expressive in other ways, like when he’s killing zombies in a garden in his favourite game on his mobile phone. It’s the same phone that he uses to happily take selfies with and with which he snapped a photo selected for display in an unconventional photo gallery titled Family Treasures.
Like the creators of the other photos in the same exhibition, Hasif is no professional photographer; he’s just a 4-year-old who loves using the camera feature on his phone, which was handed down by his mother.
Apart from Hasif, June Chan too has no professional experience but enjoys capturing photo memories of her three grandchildren, one of whom is the subject of her snapshot that’s also on display in the same gallery.
With decades of differences between them, Hasif and June are helping to show that those from their age demographic do have the ability to tell a story within a single photo, despite lacking technical camera skills. Or at least that’s what the two brains behind this unique gallery set out to try and achieve. And it all began with a little social experiment.
COACHING KIDS
Like most digitally-connected people, Adrian Lai and Kausern Hieu, both 40, have seen countless beautiful photographs, created with the latest camera equipment and most likely touched up with computer software. “Problem with this is that it gets boring real quick. For us at least,” says Hieu, who works for a social media company. “Instead, we found ourselves enjoying the unpolished low resolution photos which made us laugh, cry and ponder about life. It was then that we realised that we did not need more good photography, we actually needed more storytelling.”
The more gregarious Lai adds: “There’s a lot of good technical photography because everyone has access. But the thought process behind photography is lacking.”
Lai, a video producer, recalls the time when “... we used to take 36 photos and three were nice; now we take 3,000 and only three are nice. Or only three actually mean something. Maybe it’s time that we move away from just pretty faces, pretty lakes, pretty mountains, and add more storytelling to the photography rather than displaying a thousand pictures of Machu Picchu.”
Sharing a passion for the arts and humanities, these two Malacca-born movie buffs embarked on an experimental project to show that anyone could be taught to deliver a photo that told a story, even if they didn’t possess any fancy camera gear or technical know-how. The current generation of youngsters provide an ideal test-bed. With their seemingly innate phone proficiency and ease in using images to express themselves, Lai and Hieu decided to unearth children’s potential as visual storytellers.
Last year, they coached a group of kids aged 4 to 10 to take photos with smartphones. The intention was to remove the “how” and “what” from the equation, and focus on the “why” we photograph. The kids were given a simple theme, My Family, and sent off to snap away. The exercise produced surprising results, making the organisers realise that kids had a better eye than they were given credit for and that they had interesting perspectives to offer.
As an example, Hieu recounts an interview with a 5-year-old boy who photographed the maid opening the fridge. “We thought maybe he wanted to appreciate the kakak but when we asked how he felt towards her, he was puzzled. It turned out he took the photo because he liked the watermelon inside the fridge. So I prompted him further and asked what else he liked in the photo. His reply was “the milk”.
STORIES FROM SENIORS
Having caught the attention of the KLPF 2016 organisers, the experiment was widened this year by adding a different age category, whose members are similarly not associated with skilled photography. Lai and Hieu asked a group of senior citizens to capture pictures of their grandchildren with an heirloom that could either be tangible or more abstract. The final selection was displayed alongside the efforts by the children who had instead taken snapshots of their immediate family.
“The difference was that the seniors were more self-conscious,” observes Lai, who’s also a professional photographer and self-confessed lens geek. “They were not used to expressing themselves in public and in an artistic way, so there was a bit more coaching and we were more specific with the brief.”
Judging from two of the works selected for the gallery, the goal of the project was achieved.
For June Chan, the project was another lesson for the elder generation. Cheerfully, she shares: “I’m in my 70s. We can still do something, if not just to inspire the seniors to do photography. It’s not just about sitting at home and looking after grandchildren. I play computer games with them and now I’m catching Pokemons. Don’t give up, you go on, and taking photos helps keep Alzheimer’s away.”
The formula for a good story sounds simple enough. Lai and Hieu maintain that it should comprise two basic elements: Character and change.
In still photography, the character is the subject in the frame, while change refers to the viewer’s emotional experience with the photograph. If the viewer’s feelings have changed in some way, then a story exists. To evoke a change, it’s important to focus on the motive for capturing the shot.
Using a blind date analogy, Hieu explains that the photo needs to be visually compelling, but beyond the initial impression, it also needs to have substance, something more meaningful.
A photographer whose work he admires for its incredible storytelling is Brandon Stanton, the creator of the Humans Of New York project which became a huge social media sensation after touching millions of hearts.
“The majority of people want to see something pretty,” acknowledges Lai, “but we’re trying to highlight that there are other ways to use your camera, to express yourself. Storytelling is considered one of the most important business skills of the next decade, so we feel there’s a need to empower everybody with the ability to appreciate and tell better stories.”
And this they did at the KLPF 2016 by conducting a workshop titled Make Storytelling The Centre Of Your Photography.
Though photography is the focus of their project, the duo emphasise that’’... the principles are the same, regardless of the canvas. Whether it’s a photo, a video or an essay or dance, at the core, a story connects to another human being.”