Page 107 - The Guide To Sarawak

THE GUIDE TO SARAWAK 105
Photography
The first serious attempts
to document Borneo in photographs were made
in the 1880’s by European officers of the Brooke administration. The most notable was Charles
Hose, a pioneer of visual anthropology. His books, The Pagan Tribes of Borneo (1912) and Natural Man (1926) are superb visual records of turn-of-the- century Sarawak. During the 1950’s and 60’s, the German photographer Hedda Morrison spent 15 years photographing the people of Sarawak during a period of rapid social change,
and also produced two remarkable books; Life in A Longhouse and Sarawak.
The first local photographers were strictly commercial, and artistic photographers only began to emerge in the 1950’s, most importantly K.F. Wong and Lim Poh Chiang. Wong, the “Father of Borneo Photography” was a portrait photographer who set up the Anna Photo Studio in Kuching. He became world-renowned for his three photographic studies of Sarawak’s indigenous people – Pagan Innocence (1960), Vanishing
K.F. Wong – The “Father of Bornean Photography” documented a fast- disappearing world.
World (1972) and Borneo Scene (1979) - and his photographs remain some of the best ever taken of tribal communities.
Lim Poh Chiang, by comparison, was a self- taught amateur who photographed the Iban and Orang Ulu of the Upper Rejang during buying trips for his antique shop in Sibu. His style was more ruggedly naturalistic than Wong’s and led to one superb photo-essay, Among The Dayak (1989), published after his retirement.
The most important contemporary photographer is Dennis Lau. Of mixed Chinese- Melanau descent, Dennis
Dennis Lau – Combines photojournalism and ethnography to unique and powerful effect.
has devoted his life to extended field trips into the interior of Borneo,
to record the lives of
his countrymen with remarkable clarity and dignity. His powerful images have won him universal acclaim and numerous awards, and he has exhibited in Europe and America. He has
a substantial collection
of published works, including Penans - The Vanishing Nomads of Borneo (1987) and Borneo - A Photographic Journey (1999). He is also the founder of the Sarawak Photo Art Society (see below) and remains their advisor.
The dedicated and talented members of the Sarawak Photo Art Society.