Kamal Sellehuddin

My name is Kamal Sellehuddin and I am from Klang, Malaysia. I have been a photographer for 12 years now. I started out as a newspaper photographer with The Star newspaper, which was at the time the number one selling English newspaper in Malaysia. My time with The Star gave me exposure to a wide spectrum of photography – I had the opportunity to do sports, fashion and hard news photography. After 6 years with the newspaper, I moved to Canada and spent four years there. That was when I started free-lancing and I got to do more of the stuff I was interested in such as portrait and street photography. At present, I am interested in doing more portrait photography.

I find myself drawn more to the colour black. If you look in my wardrobe, you will find that most of my t-shirts are black. When it comes to selecting the body for my camera, I will almost always opt for black. There is a certain depth to this colour.

When I was in high school, the photographs in Rolling Stones and Trasher magazine really caught my imagination. They were forceful and dynamic; and seemed to come alive on the pages. I think those photos planted the seed of the love for photography in my heart. I went on pursue photography for my bachelor’s degree.

For me, its simply capturing a moment in life that can never be re-lived or retrieved. It’s a form of story-telling.

Hungry Ghost Festival outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Having started out as a news photographer, I would say knowing and getting close to the subject is important to really capture the story to bring it across to the readers. Thus, making a connection to the subject matter is imperative.

I don’t think actual fear applies to me as a news and free-lance photographer. Of course this would not be the case if I was assigned to cover conflict and war situations. Trusting your gut instinct to stop taking photos when the situation does not seem right would be your best bet to deal with these feelings.

In my opinion, you can also eliminate doubt from your work by doing thorough research and study of angles before taking photos.

I have always been fascinated by ancient civilisations, in particular, the ancient civilisations of Athens, Rome, Egypt as well as the Aztecs during the peak of their glory. Those were fascinating and deeply interesting times.