The Idea can't Stop Thinking About
I believe every photographer eventually asks the same question.
What will be left after I'm gone?
Awards fade. Clients move on. Social media posts disappear beneath tomorrow's algorithm. But a body of artwork can outlive all of us.
For years, I've been photographing Sabah and Japan through portraits, documentaries, exhibitions and photobooks.
Still, I feel like I'm only seeing small fraction of it.
What if I slowed down? or feeling lost?
Not to chase dramatic stories. Not to create a typical travel show.
Just to observe... Quietly.
I keep imagining a project with one simple rule. Drive, Stop and Documenting it.
Stop whenever something feels interesting.
Walk into a local coffee shop. Eat what the locals eat.
Photograph whoever is interesting to me.
Film the road between towns. Capture conversations that don't need interviews.
Record places exactly as they are. Not styled, not narrated, not performed.
No presenter. No voice-over telling you what to think.
Only time & Only observation.
Every journey becomes a 15–20 minute documentary for everyone to watch.
Chronological, Raw. And Honest.
As the years pass, these will become chapters of something much larger.
A visual diary of Sabah. Sabah after years of forming Malaysia. Sabah after years of North Borneo Chartered Company. After years of Crown Colony of British North Borneo.
Then these video and photos compare to Sabah maybe 40-50 years later.
The episodes become a feature-length documentary. The photographs become a photobook.
Together, they become an archive of a place before it changes. Because it will change.
Shops will close, replacing Malls or turn into a concrete abandoned jungle. Roads will be widened.
People will grow older, People moving away and New People moving in with a new way of life.
Some stories will quietly disappear. If no one records them, they will be forgotten and gone forever.
I don't know how this project will be funded or how it will happen. I don't know how long it will take, or never.
I only know that I would regret never trying.
If this project speaks to you. As a collaborator, sponsor, cultural organisation, or someone who simply believes these stories deserve to be paused in motion and stills. Let's start the conversation.
Because centuries from now, today's normal existence may become tomorrow's history.