Penang Record 2015 is the compilation of Penang snapshots by three photographers. Eden Lai is from Zeelung City in Taiwan; Kenny Ng lives in Butterworth and Hean Kuan is from Penang island. They got to know each other via photography. From the approaches they opted in photography, the one chosen was undoubtedly to create sparks whenever they got together. Although their backgrounds varied from one another, but when they walked through the streets and alleys of Penang, the every moment of ‘real-life Penang’ was captured and turned into eternity. This book is a compilation of their memorable journey.
The conventional settings of photographic parameters and the golden composition rule of thirds doesn’t apply here, says the photographers. The sole inspiration which drove them was the passion for ‘authentic preservation’! The one and only common denomination which connected the three culturally and artistically diverse photographers was what they termed as Attitude. Today, they say, it may be just an ‘attitude’; in the near future however, it might be known as “style” in photographer’s terminology.
“I often fall into the myth of what exactly ‘street photograph’ is,” says Hean Kuan, one of the photographers involved in this book. “Must the photography be carried out on the street? What about those shots taken indoors, like in a café? Are they not ‘street photography’? ‘Street photography’ set a direction for Hean Kuan to discover the style he admired. Actually, in photography, you can shoot anything you like. We don’t need to emphasize that this is street photograph, we can simply call it ’Penang’ since all our shots were taken there, regardless of the settings. If a title is a must, then the name of the place best fits the purpose! This is what was concluded from our explorations and discussions.”
