Tag: documentary photography

Lembah Beringin – Part 1

Shattered Dreams.

I can still remember my friend Leonard Tan singing the television and radio jingle ‘What A Wonderful World’ in a faux gravelly Louis Armstrong voice. That was in the 90s when the township was heavily promoted. Today the township is filled with moldy, empty houses under skies of blue and clouds of white.

Many parts are like a ghost town and some people even called it a Chernobyl. It is a disaster for the buyers stuck with homes that are now not only in limbo but in ruins.

I will try to discuss its failure as I explore and examine the township deeper for this new photo essay series. Only problem was; there were so few people living there who I can talk to. For many of the early, hopeful buyers and investors, it turned out to be shattered dreams as they are now saddled with properties they find difficult to sell or rent out.

The only positive for me, if compared to Bukit Beruntung, was there were NO heartbreaking sightings of abandoned dogs and puppies living alone here.

Shattered glass window as seen from the inside of the abandoned guard post leading to the golf club. Coincidentally, Shattered Dreams was a hit for Johnny Hates Jazz in the 90s.

Panasonic Lumix GM-1, ISO 200, f11, 1/200 sec.

#urbex #abandoned #urbandecay #dilapidated #landscape #documentaryphotography #lembahberingin #glass #selangor #township

Finding Food

People caught without food were spared from looking at the lavish and sumptuous meals posted continuously by some unaffected west coast Instagrammers.

In my years of covering the monsoonal floods, I have come to admire how resilient the kampung folk are. They are used to the annual calamity and they adapt as best as they can.

In the countryside, those who are skilled at cast net fishing can find food in the flood waters outside their kampung house. This man told me I should have come a day earlier to see him catch a tilapia as long as his outstretched arms. I doubt it was the usual angler’s exaggeration. He said it can feed a hungry family.

Others wait for supplies or are fed where they are temporary housed at relief centers. Salute to the aid workers, uniformed personnel, volunteers and everybody in the chain for providing help to the affected. I brought my own Penang White Curry Mee instant ramen; the hipster fad or flavour of 2014.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 400, f4, 1/1000 sec.

#floods #banjir #fishing #aftermath #landscape #temerloh #pahang #malaysia #sonyalpha #a7r #zess #tbt

Watching Wet Soda Dry

An Indian grocery shop man drying goods that are salvageable. Most of the other goods inside the shop are permanently damaged.

Gotta love Temerloh people. Everywhere I go, from flooded villages to the suburbs to town, I am greeted with a warm smile. Not to make less of their sufferings but I think they are such resilient people. Exuding sunshine under the dark clouds.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 200, f4, 1/400 sec.

#floods #banjir #landscape #nature #smile #temerloh #pahang #malaysia #sonyalpha #a7r #zeiss

Picking Up The Pieces

Picking Up The Pieces.

One of the many unsung victims of the floods are the small independent businesses. Not many shops are insured or can insure against such natural disasters. The damages for each shop can exceed millions of ringgit.

At this electrical shop, this young man is trying to salvage whatever that is left. He is wiping and brushing mud off a LED bulb, hoping to sell it cheap. He can’t test it now as this part of town is still without electricity.

Expecting the usual annual floods, the shopkeepers and workers moved everything to the upper shelves. The fast rising water that swarmed the shop was unusually strong. The shelves, racks and goods collapsed.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 100, f5.6, 1/80 sec.

#floods #banjir #landscape #damage #temerloh #pahang #malaysia #blackandwhite #sonyalpha #a7r #zeiss

Eaten By Crocodiles

She was referring to the giant alphabets ravaged by the flood waters. Watching the fast flowing and swollen Pahang River is both hypnotic and scary.

Among the small crowd of silent onlookers was a local fisherman standing on my other side. He explained that the overflowing of the river was the main cause of flooding at the riverine town. It didn’t rain that much, he noted.

The mighty Pahang River is the longest river in Peninsular Malaysia and Termeloh is a stopover town for the tidal rush from the mountains during the monsoon of the North-East.

Beginning as the Tembeling River at the Titiwangsa Mountains near the National Park, it merges with the Jelai River in its journey to the South China Sea.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 1600, f4, 1/250 sec.

#floods #banjir #landscape #nature #river #temerloh #pahang #malaysia #sonyalpha #a7r #zeiss