Exodus Archives - Mudframes PicturesMudframes Pictures

February 13, 2014

Brandon Hoe of ClearSketch

This post is tremendously long overdue but here it goes. I’ve had the privileged opportunity of meeting up with a talented and creative Brandon Hoe from ClearSketch last December 2013. ClearSketch is an agency specialising in creative technical marketing, providing content creation/marketing, video marketing and marketing automation services.

Being the founder and executive producer of a fast growing organisation, Brandon Hoe is truly a hands-on and inspiring man with depth, experience and profound knowledge in the field of photography and videography. He’s completely self-taught. If there’s one trait I could identify very well with him, that would be his insatiable appetite for perfection. Similarly, as a perfectionist myself, I’ve always been fussy with details.

As a creative person myself, I’m indeed proud to meet another successful fellow Malaysian who has made it abroad in the creative arts industry. He definitely came across to me as a creative practitioner who places great emphasis on a good concept and story which precedes technical prowess or gear. The former clearly is far more important as one’s work has to be strongly driven by a message or cause.

Brandon Hoe, born of Chinese-Portuguese parentage is a Malaysian currently residing and working in the US after having completed college there. He is a friend of Raymon of whom I photographed too as part of my ongoing Project Exodus quite some time back. It’s been awhile since I’ve had any candidates for the project, so it came as a welcome surprise to have Brandon join in the ranks of my personal project of a documented growing list of brain drain from Malaysia.

Brandon was down in Malaysia to visit family and friends over the year-end holidays and we caught up at my SOHO studio for an interesting chat about the industry and work. He does some really amazing motion picture works for his company.

The 3 photographs above were made at my studio’s court yard using 3 Canon 580EXII Speed Lite. Key light was a beauty dished boomed into place on a C-Stand, while two other strobes were bare head lights providing some fill and sculpturing of my gritty background.

As a visual storyteller through both still and motion pictures, Brandon has really good eyes for a great picture with unique and insightful directing experience. I wish I could be as quick a learner and versatile as him. Do check out his profile and works, plus his amazing team of creatives back in the US.

Meanwhile, do give me a buzz if any of you interested fellow Malaysians abroad are reading this who are game on being one of my photo subjects for Project Exodus.

July 14, 2011

Raymon David living the life

My nineth candidate for Project Exodus, and my first from America; Raymon David. Raymon is working as an Analytics Program Manager in HP, US. He contacted me from a post I wrote back when I shot Sumi. He’s currently back for a short holiday and will be leaving this Saturday back to the US. You can see how tight a schedule it has been for me, for all these Exodus candidates.

As with all my previous shots, I have not the privilege of planning ahead with regards to location. I’ve never met Raymon before. All I knew was, he sounded nice and amiable. I braved the evening rush hour to go over to his parents’ home in PJ just after work. By the time I got there, it was already dusk.

I opted for a roadside shot of him sitting on a very old vintage luggage belonging to his parents. As the fast fading light was creeping out on me in an especially humid evening, a horde of mosquitoes added to my misery.

I have him seated, looking comfortably waiting to depart just outside his home. Took this shot at 1/40 sec, f/5.6 @ ISO 100, with one shoot-thru umbrella to camera left.

We then moved into the garden compound and I took a shot of him, with the house as the background; a place where he’s spent time away from for the past 20 years. Took this shot at 1/30 sec, f/2.8 @ ISO 100, with one shoot-thru umbrella to camera left moved in real close. The umbrella has to be very close to simulate a large light source yielding a soft wrap around light.

Throughout the shooting session, I kept Raymon occupied by simply…chatting. He’s a well accomplished guy who has travelled and seen the world. He’s happily married with 3 children. When asked will he ever consider coming back to Malaysia, he simply said no, citing a much better quality of life in the US as his reason for staying put. The social and economical benefits his family enjoys there are just too much for him to leave behind. I understood all too well.

Some may argue, “There’s no place like home”, while others claim racism and second-class citizen treatment in a foreign land amongst other reasons to succumb to the temptation of returning to Malaysia. Truth be told, I personally rather get treated like scums in the eyes of “some” hooligans but flourish in a land of merits, than putting up with “mostly” psycho idiots and systems that devoid of common sense; systems that constantly rape your heart, soul and mind.

Before we bid our goodbyes, Raymon was kind enough to help bring back some Project Exodus flyers to be distributed. It may not be that significant a move in contributing to the awareness of this project, but hopefully, it will catch the attention of some Malaysians there.

All it takes is just one zealous Malaysian to catch the bug at any distribution point (e.g. news stands, coffee house, community hall, restaurant, theatre etc), before he/she further drives this initiative through his/her network. Of course digital methods work better. I’m just widening my net.

9 down. 46 more to go. Hope I can complete all 55 portraits before next year’s Independence Day.

June 28, 2011

Dancing away in objection with Tony Yap

My eighth candidate for Project Exodus; Tony Yap, an accomplished dancer, director, choreographer and visual artist. Born in Malaysia, Tony Yap has been away for 35 years, living and working in Australia. His critically acclaimed works in dancing has taken him to many countries and have seen him collaborated with dancers from around the world.

Tony has received numerous nominations and awards including his solo work The Decay of the Angel which won him a Green Room Award for Best Male Dancer. He’s currently back in Malaysia to prepare for Melaka Art Festival 2011, scheduled to take place in November this year. The very same Melaka Art Festival which concluded in November 2010 was a successful hit.

Tony Yap who runs the Tony Yap Company, formerly known as Mixed Company, was at the office of E-Plus Entertainment Productions, the event company charged with managing and organising the Melaka Art Festival 2011.

A tall lanky guy who looks rather muscular, his physique spoke of him as a dancer indeed. He was very friendly and always smiling, whose eyes would lit up whenever he talks about his works and dancing. I looked around the small office for a suitable place to shoot.

A bright red wall on the far side of the office next to the entrance caught my attention. I needed something simple. As I was in a rush, I decided to just use the background. I also thought the fiery red tone would best portray Tony as an energetic dancer. Coupled with a serious and pensive look which I told him to put on, the resulting image was something I’m more than happy with.

The setup shot below showed an improvised Manfrotto light stand used as a boom by my “voice-activated light stand” assistant. I had it placed above Tony’s head, slightly forward and away from his face to ensure his face catches the soft wrap-around feathered light, instead of bearing the full brunt of the light. This setup also gives the “snooted” look where only his upper torso and face are lit by this key light, while his lower torso goes dark (hence the vignette effect; partly also due to the background separation light too).

I also arranged for a second strobe on a light stand right behind/beneath him, zoomed at 105mm to hit the wall, thus separating him from the background. I shot with a 24-70 L IS, at ISO 100, 1/200 sec, f/8, using the 7D’s on-camera flash as on-axis fill, which also doubles up as a trigger for both the umbrella-ed key and background strobes.

June 18, 2011

A dissenting voice from down under

Finally, my seventh candidate for Project Exodus, Sumi Henry who is currently residing permanently in Australia. She’s a friend’s niece who has been living in Australia for the past 10 years. Coincidentally, she’s back for a short week or two to catch up with family and friends. I caught up with her the day before she’s scheduled to fly off.

We had the shoot just outside her uncle’s house in PJ.

Here, she’s seated under a tree by the road, facing the setting sun, in a straight forward ambient-only lighting.

We went further down the road, and I had her sit on the kerb facing away from the sun. I had to work really fast in the next couple of shots just to utilise the fast setting sun as my separation light.

And here’s where I thought the mood was the most appropriate; a low-key atmosphere with a straight-face serious stare. The strobe was aimed a little towards her back. Her face and upper chest are catching the feathered light of the strobe, hence missing a large region on her front.

And here’s another shot of her with a hint of flare just off her left shoulder. All shots manually exposed at f/5.6, 1/160 sec @ ISO 100, taken with EF 50mm prime, with single bare strobe off-camera to my right. The strobe is now aimed a little more towards her front, hence breaking away from the previous low-key flavour. I had to admit, I was too lazy to set it up with an umbrella; hence the pretty harsh shadows under her chin.

Sumi has been kind enough to help me spread the word on Project Exodus. She will be bringing back with her some A5 flyers I’ve printed regarding this initiative. Please feel free to download the print-ready flyer in A5 sizes at the given link for distribution in your current location.

I’ve been distributing them in cafes, restaurants, art centres etc in Malaysia. So far, I haven’t had any luck, except for a handful of people who emailed me expressing their support for what I’m doing. Some preferred not to participate for personal reasons, but promised to help spread the word.

Sumi will do the same when she gets back to Australia. Hopefully, she is able to get the attention of some serious Malaysians who would consider helping in this cause. For all you Malaysians and ex-Malaysians in Australia reading this, I thank you in advance for considering to be part of history in making a visual statement. Your co-operation is deeply appreciated and valued for the sake of a better Malaysia.

One done. Total 7 in hand. Need 54 subjects. 47 more subjects to go.

May 14, 2011

Project Exodus: Living in Exile

Malaysian Employers Federation in an interview revealed an estimated 785,000 Malaysians working overseas. Unofficially, the figure may very well be over 1 million. The brain drain rate appears to be showing no signs of decline in the last decade. According to a recent parliamentary report, 140,000 left the country, probably for good, in 2007. Between March 2008 and August 2009, that figure more than doubled to 305,000. Why the large number leaving and living in self-imposed exile?

Apparently, the typical reasons commonly cited are improved employment and business prospects, higher salaries, better working environments, merits-based employment, greater chances of promotion and a relatively superior quality of life. Malaysians across all racial divide pulled up stakes, apparently disillusioned by rising crime, racial discrimination, corruption, a purported tainted judiciary, human rights abuses, failing education system and other concerns.

The Malaysian government in return, stepped up efforts to attract foreign direct investments, while urging Malaysians abroad to heed the call to return home. Despite these attempts, ironically, the outflow of both local talents/graduates and money continue to be on the rise. However, the Malaysian government should be lauded for its efforts in putting us ahead of Cambodia, Myanmar, Brunei, Laos and Timor-Leste on the international stage.

Taking a look elsewhere; consider this startling statistic: There are more Sierra Leonean doctors working in hospitals in the city of Chicago than in their own homeland. More Malawian nurses in Manchester than in Malawi. Africa’s most significant export to Europe and the United States is trained professionals, not petroleum, gold and diamond.

The educated African migration is definitely retarding the progress of every country in Africa. Today, one in three African university graduates, and 50,000 doctoral holders now live and work outside Africa. Sixty-four percent of Nigerians in the USA has one or more university degrees.

This social & intellectual displacement of humanity, more commonly known as the brain drain syndrome, is prevalent in Malaysia. While Malaysians could comfort themselves that they’re not alone in losing skilled talent to other countries, Malaysia is unique in that the inflow of skilled foreign immigrants does not balance out the mass outflow of local talents (and the rapidly declining expatriates).

Instead, Malaysia is only able to draw low-skilled foreign labour, currently estimated to be at 2.5 million, both legal and illegal workers. This foreign labour resource hold menial jobs in agriculture, manufacturing, construction and low-paying service sectors. In contrast, the New Economic Model report has noted that the number of expatriates from first-world countries, which was 90,000 in 2000, was halved by 2008.

Exodus: Living in Exile, is an ongoing photography project aimed at documenting the lives of the hundreds of thousands of Malaysians currently living abroad.

For more updates on Project Exodus, do check out, like and share the Project Exodus facebook page. I will be making known my location regularly through facebook just in case I happen to be at your area; hence we can arrange for a shoot. Otherwise, do contact me for further info or to make the necessary arrangements for the photography session.