About Me

It wasn’t easy letting it all go, the city lifestyle, the commitments, the decade long career path that came with a status in society and the consumption of superficial ideas. Watching it all fall apart was the hardest fulfilling experience I’ve had.

Somehow through some unknown difficult months in Kuala Lumpur, it was late 2012, feeling lost, with only time on my side and some close friends, my childhood passion for photography slowly returned. I remember a trip we took to Penang, the annual marathon. Since then… something changed.

I kept doing it, escaping into the images and their stories, I felt a little more at peace with how things were, it reminded me of the first film camera I’ve owned when I was 19 and when I was free to just create, by myself and explore human lives.

A year passed, and I wanted to feel more of this. It felt like something was changing within me, but still uncertain. After my trip to the Philippines, I decided to sell all my belongings, put my apartment up for sale and went backpacking across Asia. I knew I was ready to start a new life chapter.

I went around photographing different ethnic cultures, flowing with unplanned trips, telling stories in new places and connecting with strangers across South East Asia, South Asia, Europe and West Africa. 

DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY. How it all started?

PANAY ISLAND | PHILIPPINES

Typhoon Haiyan, November 2013 | Most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded in history. I had no time to think or plan anything and the same time it’s where I wanted to be.

In a week, after speaking to my sisters, I left for Philippines and with a good friend, Rishiwant Singh, I got assigned with a non-profit organisation, United Sikhs, to be their photographer & volunteer to help with relief aid. 

I was in Philippines two weeks after the major typhoon, landing in Manila, and then we found our way towards Roxas City, Panay Island, where the typhoon last passed. Effecting over 3 million people, who were homeless now. This was my first experience in a natural disaster zone. 

Here I met many who have lost their homes and belongings, overnight due to the typhoon. We immediately started sending food aid and medical aid. Life was happening fast here, as early as 5am daily. Working along side volunteers from all around the world, I learned a lot from the UN teams, travelled with the Canadian army, made new friends, photographing the effected locals and experiencing what life is after the natural disaster. It wasn’t easy and there were some really hard days too, but this is where I wanted to be. 

After most of the NGOs left, I decided to stay on for nearly a year on this remote island, working on my own ideas, with some close friends, with different photo projects, sending aid, while exploring more local fishing villages.   

GIVE THEM LIGHT

This is when something changed my life path, a realisation of what I am to do. The photo stories and a social aid project started here. A project called ‘Give Them Light‘. It wasn’t easy to live here, but it was true life to me, it was my home now. I wished to do something to support these communities. 

I was learning, creating ideas and keeping busy, the solar lights project was like a mission, towards empowering these families, creating the awareness, while discovering more of myself again.

The ‘Give Them Light’ project grew into something more, I kept backpacking to more places, supporting natural disaster survivors and visiting tribal communities. I lived among some ethnic tribes in Malaysia, India, Nepal, Philippines and Vietnam, creating social projects and telling their stories. 

PHOTOGRAPHY & STORYTELLING

Photographing those ethnic communities, festivals, cultures and sharing social issues in Asia became my work life balance today. I use images to express my experiences about the human nature and my storytelling changed more towards creating awareness. 

I’m grateful to have friends and partners from around the world who have supported my social projects, sharing an adventure together and to have my work shared, it’s been a blessing.

Since then, there has been many ‘first’ for me, like being in a helicopter in the Himalayas, falling off a wooden bridge in a tribal village in Philippines, a motorcycle trip across India and Nepal, the Pushkar Fair with 40,000 camels, snowfall in Austria, exploring West Africa and living among Hmong people in Vietnam.