Glimpses of Southeast Asia
Photographs by Richard Wotton
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White Moon Melaka 2008
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Million Spring Pharmacy Georgetown Penang 2008
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Yi Shun Place Brunei 2008
WHMilbank Gallery, 17 Taupo Quay, Whanganui
November 7–28, 2009
THIS EXHIBITION had its genesis 41 years ago, when my brother Mark and I travelled overland from London to Singapore, by whatever means of transport we could find – as long as it was cheap. (We didn’t know until nearly 40 years later that in 1968 we were part of a group of overland travellers known as the “Intrepids”.)
Memories of this journey had mostly faded to a bit of a blur when Mark suggested to me, in 2007, that we do a two-week “reunion tour” of Southeast Asia to celebrate the 40th anniversary of our adventure. By this time we were more decrepit than intrepid, but we went anyway.
I’d carried a camera on my early travels, but, having no serious interest in photography at that time, used it in a fairly spasmodic way. I made six 36-exposure rolls of Kodachrome 25 slide film last from London to Singapore, and when I think back to that journey I refuse to allow myself to think about all the sights I didn’t record on film. As the great French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson once remarked, “You cannot develop and print a memory.”
In the years since then, my interest in photography increased to the point where most of my personal photography was done with black and white film shot with either a cumbersome and heavy 4 x 5 inch view camera or a hefty medium format SLR. More recently, I’ve been using digital SLRs, which can still become a burden by the end of a long day – especially in a hot and humid climate.
Four days before leaving for Brunei, our first stop, in November 2008, I did what all the photography magazines tell us not to do: I bought a new camera, a little Canon digital compact. Carrying a camera that fits into the palm of my hand was a liberating experience for me after years of feeling a little like a beast of burden, and many of the photographs in this exhibition would quite possibly not have been taken had I been laden with much heavier equipment. Also, I didn’t need to worry about running out of film.
The majority of these images were shot in the old commercial areas of Georgetown and Melaka, two Malaysian cities which now enjoy World Heritage Site status. In this age of multi-national chains, I derived great pleasure from seeing the tiny businesses surviving in the exotic, narrow streets of these fascinating cities, and I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to make my small record of something old I fear may disappear to make way for something new.
NOTES
All prints are made with Epson archival pigment inks on Epson and Hahnemuhle archival papers, and the prints are matted with archival rag board.
Richard Wotton’s photographs are held in the collections of the Sarjeant Gallery, Te Manawa (Palmerston North), the Waikato Art Museum, Te Papa Tongarewa and the Christchurch Art Gallery, as well as a number of private collections.
