Daring pixman takes 'up close and personal' to the next level
Published on: Sunday, May 21, 2017
By Sherell Ann Jeffrey
CAPTURING portrait shots of animals, especially wildlife, is no easy task, but Semporna-born renowned photographer Amri Ginang has been able to do just that.The 61-year-old's astute interpretation of photography was recently featured in his two-month "Visual Journey" solo photography exhibition held at the Sabah Art Gallery since March 2.
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The exhibition showcased many of his works, about 100 of them, which not only featured photos of landscape and human portraits, but also of animal portraits with Sabah's very own proboscis monkey and langurs, among others. Also exhibited was one shot which captured the direct gaze of Iman, one of Sabah's two female rhinoceros, looking directly into Amri's camera. "I am a portrait photographer, I am used to capturing photos of people all the time, people are very easy to direct and as long as you understand each other, you can shoot easily, but animals are very interesting."I decided to take their portrait photos because that part of Sabah needs to be portrayed.
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Most people would take photos of them jumping and wild in the jungle, without making any connection with them.
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"But I wanted that connection, and when I was asked to do shoots for the monkeys, I said I will only do that if I can go close and see them in their eyes, which is also the reason why in most of my animal shots, there is a connection between me and them. "For the rhino, initially she did not look at me and was avoiding me, it took me three days of continuous visits to finally get the connection I wanted and be able to get that shot when she eventually came very close to me. "There was some kind of communication between me and the rhino, it is all about connecting when it comes to photography," he said. He explained that the shot was taken during his visit to Tabin Wildlife in Lahad Datu last year, where he captured the photos of all three existing rhinos in Sabah, namel, Iman, Puntung and Tam. Amri has also been able to get visitors to the exhibition feel connected to the photos which are each attached with captions that describe the photographs. One photo worth mentioning is the portrait of 82-year-old Tindulun, who has been working as a porter for climbers at the Mount Kinabalu for 60 years. She retired last year. "I did a series on about 40 porters from Kundasang, I wanted to capture their stories through my lens because I know that these people have been working as porters since they were 16. "They have been carrying things up to Mount Kinabalu for so many years, many of them are now between 78 and 85-years-old. After the earthquake I went back to Kundasang to meet them and take their photographs. "Their hands tell a million stories, it shows how dedicated they are and how hard they have worked. I wanted to show this to the world, which is why I also took photos of their hands," he said. Amri who initially studied art to become a painter, recalled how after six months of studying painting, he finally realised that his passion was more to photography. "The first camera I bought was a Leica M4. I was 21-years-old, it took me three months to save up, my parents sent me money and I also did night jobs to finally place a deposit of 200 British Pound (RM1,124)."After the second deposit, the shopkeeper gave me the camera and after the last two instalments I already had the camera, it is my favourite camera which I still have," he said. Amri is currently working on a six-month project to promote Kota Kinabalu Wetlands. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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