about

I am a lawyer based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Stirred by the magnificent sceneries as well as boredom and melancholic loneliness as a student in Christchurch in the South Island in the eighties, I turned to taking photos. This hobby, combined with tramping – the favourite New Zealand pastime of walking and trekking the length and breadth of the celestial country, became a passion for me, as I learnt to record my far-from-home experience and feelings with youthful curiosity and a second-hand East German camera.

When I returned to Malaysia after a decade abroad I saw up-close Asia’s astounding ascendancy as well as its spectacular and sad shortcomings. Here was a place where changes came in months sometimes weeks and not years anymore. From Mumbai to Yangon to Beijing (not long ago Bombay, Rangoon and Peking ) buildings, customs and habits vanish often with little trace when you return to a place in just two or three years. Not since the industrial revolution has so much change affect so many people so deeply in such short a period.

Through my photographs and notes I try to make sense of the world I witness around me.

I agree with Cecil Day-Lewis. He said:

“.. I do not sit down at my desk to put into verse something that is already clear in my mind. If it were clear in my mind, I should have no incentive or need to write about it. We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand.”

If you are inspired or wish to share your view, idea or experience please feel free to post  a comment here or write to me at kerkboonleng@gmail.com. I will be happy to hear from you.

Home is where your heart is but go where you feel most alive.

Kerk Boon Leng