IF you look through Kenny Loh’s camera lens you will see a big heart. Well, at least metaphorically.
For this renowned photographer and author of Born in Malaysia and Born in Malaysia – A Story of Kuala Lumpur, his equipment is secondary to his empathy for his subjects.
“I will always go for the story behind the subject first and to have a conversation with that person about his life,” Kenny, 62, says that he has come to a point in his photography where he needn’t have to think much about taking that good enough photograph.
He confidently declares that taking a genuine interest in a person’s story will naturally help to compose a photo with soul and depth. Exercising empathy towards his clients has also helped them to discover more about themselves and the people around them.
Kenny captures such moments of realisation and frames them in his gallery of photographs for them as if to freeze those moments for them to share and to reflect on.
“When I was shooting for my first book Born In Malaysia, I met a rattan weaver in Penang and after photographing him, I asked for his name. He replied, why do you want my name? I am nobody.
“Then I asked him, Do you have children? He said yes. A son working in Singapore and another is working in IT somewhere.
“I told him, Then how can you say you are a nobody? At that, he realised he was someone’s father and not nobody. He began to tear.”
Kenny’s search for good stories would leave him with hours of storytelling and sharing with his clients. From high-profile corporate personalities to the man on the street, Kenny would not hesitate to have a chat.
“Photography has become so much a part of me that it doesn’t take so much effort to take that picture. As I begin to talk to the subject I would already visualise in my mind how the photo should look like.”
He does not only see with his heart, Kenny is also cognizant of sound created by elements in the environment around his subjects.
“When I was a child, my father would take us on road trips from my home town to smaller towns like Kampar, Tapah and Bidor. Every time I got out of the car
there were scenes like a guy fixing the motorbike, and someone hitting tin cans, the sound was very different from what you hear and see these days.
“You can hear the craftsmen whether they are knocking or sawing something. The cacophony of sounds in the coffee shops and all.”
He went on to study photography and worked as a commercial photographer before taking on employment overseas, putting aside his photography for a different career path.
“Twenty years later, aged 40, I returned and revisited the scenarios I had seen as a child and to see if they still existed. I found them off the beaten path.
“I wanted to do documentaries and it was my dream to work for National Geographic but that didn’t happen,” he laughed and said he now finds his fulfilment from personal documentary shoots.
With only one camera and one lens, to ensure that nothing hindered his conversation with the subject, Kenny would go in search of good stories.
“I am often asked how I captured one picture or another, I would tell them it’s not the gear but empathy. If you don’t have empathy for the subject you won’t be interested in the story.
“I learnt this the hard way when I interviewed people for my first book Born in Malaysia. When you talk to someone and you are already thinking of the next question or thinking of how to shoot that picture, that person is going talk for a short while and it’s done because you don’t show interest.
“So I decided I needed to focus on the story and not think about shooting. I knew that after conversing with the person it was very likely I would get the shots I wanted.
“If you are interested in hearing other people’s stories and I am, and you show excitement and start sharing, the conversation will go on for a while longer.
“Everyone has a story to tell, you just have to listen. “
His listening skills led him to produce books that help individuals learn more about their families and communities.
“A client invited me to her family gathering to photograph them. When I laid all the photographs in front of her I made her realise what her family was all about. It gave her a chance to reminisce and reflect on how much they had been through together.”
Whenever he could, Kenny would revisit the people whom he had photographed for his books. Some had already passed away but Kenny would still stay to have a chat with their families or whoever there knew them.
Their stories would live on in his mind, his books and his photographs.
– JE Tan
