THROUGH ROSE-COLOURED GLASSES (2002)

Until the 1980s, only the upper class and a small part of the middle class in Malaysia could afford photo cameras. The rest of the population had to rely on photo studios, where they could have their portrait done, with (or without) the help of props. One of these studios, the Pakard Photo Studio in Malacca, was owned by an immigrant Chinese, Tam Hong Lam, and his wife. They started their shop in 1959, two years after the Federation of Malaysia became independent from the British Empire. In 1963 the peninsula joined together with the northern part of Borneo to make up the state of Malaysia. A procession of new Malaysians had themselves photographed in the Pakard Photo Studio, unintentionally creating a detailed social-cultural archive with images full of innocent and intimacy from the period in which Malaysia was formed. Tam Hong Lam was an extremely productive photographer. During his career he received three successive generations in his studio.The Malaysian photo artist I-Lann Yee (Malaysia, b. 1971), represented in ‘Another Asia’ with SULU STORIES, used Tam Hong Lam’s photo archive for an installation. THROUGH ROSE-COLOURED GLASSES (2002), with photographs from the years 1977 to 1982 (the older negatives were lost in a flood) offers a cross section of Malaysian history. The Pakard Photo Studio is still in business, at the same address in Malacca, now run by Tam Kwong Win, the son of Tam Hong Lam.