Change and the big city
A group photography exhibition compares today’s Kuala Lumpur with how it looked in 1976.
IT all started over 40 years ago. Photojournalist Eric Peris was travelling around Kuala Lumpur in 1976, during his off-hours on the job. Having come from Singapore, the Malaysian capital city was new to him, and so he decided to capture it on film.
It was 20 years after Merdeka, and KL was growing rapidly, turning into a modern capital city.
Peris took photos from the top of the popular Revolving Restaurant at the top of the Federal Hotel, which offered marvellous views of the city. He captured images of the shopping centres along Batu Road (now Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman) and the famous Benteng (Embankment) food stretch, which was nearby Central Market.
“It never occurred to me at that time that this series would be an exhibition. It was just to have some record of the city,” says Peris, 78, about the Revisiting Kuala Lumpur photography exhibition, currently showing at KL’s Sutra Gallery.
Last January, Peris was taking a walk in Kuala Lumpur to run some errands. At Dataran Merdeka, Peris recalled how things have changed, the entire landscape in that area is totally unrecognisable.
“I tried to reimagine the (Selangor Club) padang, all the sports activities that took place there. Right now, I noticed the tourist buses, no one playing on the field. And let’s not forget the changes to the Masjid Jamek area nearby. Across at KL Sentral, the whole railway yard is gone. I just saw a different KL with every step,” says Peris.
“I decided to look at the pictures I had taken in 1976, and realised KL had grown more than one would have imagined. I made prints of the 1976 pictures, and decided to select some 20 images that would bring a sharp contrast to what KL is today,” he adds.
Peris then teamed up with his friends – photographer Lee Hong Leng and hotelier K.F. Choy – who loved the idea of a photo exhibition contrasting Kuala Lumpur of then and now.
“I told them that I already have 20 images that I took 41 years ago. KL today is what they had to record,” says Peris.
The collaborators had the same views as Peris in realising the Revisiting Kuala Lumpur show.
“Basically when Eric proposed the shoot, I was quite taken aback, because in 1976, I had just come down to KL from Penang. That was a time I was quite familiar with the surroundings. So when he suggested we do a shoot of ‘now’ pictures, I was quite gung-ho about it. And I had a very good time taking the photos,” says Lee, 62, who shot the new images of the revolving restaurant (Bintang Revolving Restaurant@FederalHotel) and the railway station.
“Generally, I think a lot of people miss a lot of things about the places we shot in the exhibition. A lot of people take things for granted, they just go around Kuala Lumpur without really noticing what’s around them,” says Choy, 65, who photographed the Masjid Jamek vicinity.
In many ways, Peris wants this show to also raise some questions about the impact of over-development in the city.
“I think it’s important to record, to help people understand the massive amount of development that Kuala Lumpur has gone through. They should ask themselves the question: is this desirable or not? That’s up to each individual’s perception,” he says.
Peris mentions that this exhibition is a result of a good team effort and understanding.
“Each session was discussed and I would express what is missing (now) as compared to the past. This exchange of picture ideas, I must say, resulted in a very good visual presentation of KL – past and present.”
The photos in Rediscovering Kuala Lumpur also include the Klang Bus Station, Benteng and the former railway yard. At this show, spotting differences can be fun.
The photo taken by Peris from Federal Hotel’s revolving restaurant shows that one could see the central range of mountains (Banjaran Titiwangsa) from the city in 1976. Today, that view is no longer visible, and new landmarks, such as KLCC and the KL Tower have risen into the skyline.
Peris says that he misses the Kuala Lumpur of old, particularly the (Dataran Merdeka) Padang, a popular green lung of the time, and the Benteng area.
“Perhaps with better facilities for the stalls, proper lighting and laid out pavements, we could have kept Benteng as a much-loved food haunt today as it was in 1976,” he reminisces.
“It is difficult for me to highlight a special image – from the past to the present. To me all the images taken in 2017, tell the story of change, the story of growth, something that I would not have been able to imagine,” he concludes. Revisiting Kuala Lumpur is showing at Sutra Gallery, 12 Persiaran Titiwangsa 3 in Kuala Lumpur till Feb 28. The gallery is open from 10am-5pm, Monday to Fridays. Saturday, 10am-12.30pm. Closed on Sundays and public holidays. For more info: sutrafoundation. org.my or call 03-402 11092.