GEORGE TOWN, Nov 30 ― Behind each picture is a story. A person. A life. Together they tell another story, the story of Penang.
There is the man who sings as he cleans up his stall at Chowrasta Market; the roadside cobbler who always has a smile on his face or the old man caught in mid-stride as he carried a tray full of dishes to the kitchen.
Photographer Karyn Coxall-Leong, who has been travelling to Penang regularly over the past two decades, used her brief visits here to talk to the locals and get to know them.
As an ode to the people of Penang who provided the inspiration for much of her social photography, Leong together with local designer and artist Goh Hun Meng, created a joint installation titled “Real Life” which can be seen in Viva Victoria.
“It is a visual map of Penang starting from Viva Victoria, down the Weld Quay, up to Batu Ferringhi and on the other side, Komtar and up to Air Itam,” she said.
Leong said the images were taken over the last 18 years and she chose about 70 of various sizes to be displayed in the installation.
Set against a black backdrop, the images are in various sizes and placed at the locations where they were taken.
Instead of drawing out roads of the city, the visual map is made up of small sketches and names of the places with tips like “you need change to get on the bus” or “beware of motorbike.” Each location is filled with images of the people who were photographed in the vicinity.
One is of a group of elderly men as they sit facing the Gurney Drive seafront before it was reclaimed years ago.
Leong went back recently to look for them and found that one of them had already died.
“I gave the photo to his wife and she cried when she saw it and she was so grateful to have something to remind her of his happier times,” she said.
In another photo, a young man stands against the backdrop of the Chowrasta Market with a wide grin on his face.
Leong remembered him well as “the man who sings the opera in his impressive voice when he’s cleaning up his stall in the market”.
As for the picture of a stooping old man carrying a tray of dishes to the kitchen, she noticed him clearing the dishes at a prawn noodle shop while a young man out front preparied the prawn noodles.
The “Real Life” installation will be a permanent feature in Viva Victoria restaurant which is on Victoria Street.
Leong recently held her photography exhibition “Caring Matters” on the first floor of Viva Victoria.
“I love her work, these are unique images of the community and real life in Penang... we can see the happiness shining through,” said Viva Victoria owner Tina Lee Degreef.
Now that the project has turned out to be more impressive than she first imagined, she plans to turn more sections along the length of the wall into spaces for other photographers.
“I will paint more black sections and let them become an exhibition space for photographers looking for a place to showcase their work,” she said.
