Cheeky

Exhibited at in/Visible 0609

Published in KLUE magazine June 2009

On our travels across the country we noticed one thing. People were more welcoming of strangers in smaller towns than in cities. We would get invited into houses, people would gladly pose and smile for us, they would get excited seeing us and even share their food with us.

On a Chinese New Years day last year, we drive down to Klang to shoot some photographs. On our way we ended up seeing a truck full of lion dancers heading somewhere and decided to follow them. When they turned into this old restaurant, we were hesitant to get down and shoot.

The owners gave us welcoming smiles and let us shoot. It was definitely a good start to the day.

Driving further down, I found a row of old government quarters which were probably built even before independence. I got down and walked around to find some kids running around. I had been tranxfised by the blue and yellow walls, but the moment I saw the children, I wanted to photograph them.

They came running towards me and as I looked up at their mother, she shyly gave me a smile nodding her approval. So I spent the next few minutes talking to the children and just shooting them. After a while they got bored of me and walked back to their homes. That’s when I got this photograph.

Where else in the city, we could risk getting beaten up and scolded for shooting normal folks on the streets. Female or male, everyone is looked at warily.

Maybe we’ve lost the sense of trust. We readily smile at foreigners but don’t extend the same to our fellow countrymen. Indeed there’s a need to be street smart but we can do with a little trust and smile to the next stranger we pass.

As they say smiles are infectious.