Dear All,
Greetings! My mentor Spencer of SpencerAzizul
sms on the publication of the following article when I was about to
board the train from Sentral heading back to my office at Sheraton. I
made a quick dash and quickly pick up a copy of the NST. Was really
pleasantly surprise that the story landed on the cover:) After so many
interviews, finally one made it to the cover! I was also very very
happy with the header Chan loves weddings, no Kid-ding! , in fact there were suggestion that i should print in on a T-shirt. What do you think?
Please find the following the actual article:
NST Life & Times, May 12 2005 COVER STORY by Manveet Kaur
International business graduate Kid Chan never meant to take up photography, less so wedding photography, writes MANVEET KAUR.
KID
Chan’s career has really clicked. You see, he is a photographer, and he
is steadily building a reputation as one of the most sought-after
wedding photographers in Malaysia. But if you’re looking for
traditional style wedding photos and portraits, Chan will, firmly but
politely, tell you to hire someone else.
“I believe in a
journalistic, candid approach to wedding images,” he says. “I try to
capture how people ‘feel’ about the event… that is, capturing the
emotions of the day.”
More precisely, Chan says that his style
of photography is known as “wedding photojournalism” where he looks for
“the pictorial essay rather than a mock-cheque shot.”
“Actually,
it’s quite simple — a wedding photojournalist covers a wedding similar
to how a Press photographer would cover any other event — by observing
and recording the highlights on film,” he states matter-of-factly.
He
explains that throughout the wedding festivities, a precarious balance
between staged and spontaneous is achieved. From getting dressed to the
first dance, Chan watches with an astute eye. Elegant portraits and
family groupings are photographed quickly and with a sense of fun. The
rest of the time is spent unobtrusively stealing the candid moments
that will make a lifetime’s memory — a mother’s teary grin, a child’s
hug, a tender conversation — moments that very few others, if any, will
notice.
This is in contrast to the “traditional” photographer who attempts to create a perfect portrait with each shot.
The
results are that his stunning artistic images not only “wow” his
clients but have earned him the admiration of his colleagues. (Neither
approach is better or worse than the other, Chan says, “they’re just
different. And the bride and groom need to know what they want.”)
Kuala
Lumpur-born and bred Chan, 27, very openly admits that he is “an
accidental photographer.” “I always saw myself working at some
high-powered dynamic corporate job, that’s why I majored in
international business,” he says. So when he graduated from Curtin
University of Technology in Perth, Australia, he worked as an executive
assistant to a prominent businessman for two years before giving up all
the perks (company car, credit card, expense account) to join his
family business – a photo studio called Portrait One.
“My
heart wasn’t really in the corporate world, and truth be told, at 22, I
was heading for a burnout,” he recalls. “I was a keen amateur
photographer while in Western Australia so I wanted to pick it up
again.”
He went through a short training stint at a commercial
studio, Studio 88, and professional photography soon beckoned him. Chan
embraced it wholeheartedly, realising that this was the medium that
would allow him the freedom of artistic expression he was seeking.
But
never did he expect that he would end up taking wedding photos. “I
started out as a fashion and commercial photographer,” he says. That’s
where one earns serious money and respect, not wedding photos.
“I shunned the wedding circuit like it was the plague,” he adds candidly.
He
explains: “Weddings can often be quite stressful, especially if it’s on
the larger scale. And you’ll have various family members calling you
and giving you instructions, often not in a very respectful or pleasant
manner,” he says. “I mean, do I really want to put myself through that
sort of ego-beating on a daily basis?”
Through his corporate and
government contacts, he was doing okay getting commercial work. But he
was also under a lot of pressure to take up wedding assignments. “It
got to a point where it became very difficult to say no.”
Chan
started doing a few weddings in a photojournalistic style and soon
realised there was an increasing demand for this type of wedding
photography. He now photographs around 50 weddings a year all over the
country – most of which are high profile.
His
portfolio includes the weddings of Paula Malai Ali to Tengku Kudin,
Raja Emilia to Ikhwan Radhi and Mohamed Ridzuan (son of Second Finance
Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop) to Ezrin Suraya.
“I have
done weddings where there were eight Sultans in attendance,” says Chan,
who is currently the only Malaysian who is a member of The Wedding
Photojournalist Association. “I do shoot a lot of regular weddings but
of course the royal and celebrity weddings are the ones that get all
the publicity.”
“I have found my niche,” he reflects. “I don’t even attempt to shoot anything else.”
Chan
says the biggest misconception is that they are just there to snap
pictures. There is also the pre- and post-production process that is
equally important and very labour intensive. “If you are not prepared
with a clear brief of what is expected or you are not familiar with the
details concerning the event, you are aiming for disaster.
“You
must also be well-versed in terms of the various traditions and
customs, including the order of the day and the protocol of what is to
follow, what is to be done, the way it is to be done and also when.”
Being
a wedding photojournalist, Chan says, also requires patience, tact and
sensitivity. “Some photographers can attend a wedding and be so focused
on getting THE shots of the shoes, rings, flowers and cake that they
completely miss the emotional impact the day is having on everyone
around them,” he admonishes.
Walk into his studio at the
Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur and you’d be greeted by a huge photo
banner of wedding pictures but they are all of Chan and his wife
Shirlyn.
“Might as well use my wedding photos for the display right?” he says laughing.
No
stranger to having his work published, Chan’s wedding pictures have
appeared in many bridal and women’s magazines. But he says his most
enriching work was capturing the birth of his four-month-old daughter
Faith, which was then published in the Ma & Pa magazine.
Pushed
further to explain his style, Chan wants badly to explain it but, like
most artists, his explanations are not about technicalities.
“I’m
not a very technical person,” he says. “I want (the bride) to see me as
a creator rather than a technical photographer.” Frustrating as this
statement may be to colleagues looking to study what he does and how he
does it, it seems to matter little to brides looking for something very
artistically different. To them, results are the only thing that matter.
Chan
talks in terms of making the wedding day fun and working with couples
who give him the freedom to explore their wedding day story. But he
knows he has taken a risk by marketing his own style and vision rather
than fitting himself into the expected mould.
“If they make me
do what they want then they probably won’t be my client,” Chan says.
“It used to be asking the bride what she wanted and following her list.
Instead I want to say, ‘Yeah, I’ll do some of the things you want but
let me show you how I can make your wedding stylistic and fun and
emotional, different than it has ever been done, different from the
norm’.”
But catering to the modern bride often means catering to
her mother as well because, “although beauty is in the eye of the
beholder, it is also in the eyes of the cheque book holder,” he says,
jokingly.
As you might expect, Chan has become something of an
expert when it comes to weddings. So for the bride-to-be, he offers a
few words of advice: "I’ve been witness to hundreds of beautiful
weddings and I can tell you that it is a magical time. Do everything
you can to make the details that are most important to you perfect, and
then take a step back and relax. Things will just fall into place
naturally.”
Cheers!
Kid Chan, WPJA
" the most sought-after wedding photographer in Malaysia" -NST
