Tatler Singapore

Philanthro­py

Leica Camera Asia Pacific managing director Sunil Kaul shares with Grace Ma how the brand has been quietly clicking behind the scenes to bring hope to slum communitie­s in Manila

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Leica Camera Asia Pacific brings hope to slum communitie­s in Manila

Sunil kaul, managing director of Leica Camera Asia Pacific, has only one guiding principle when it comes to doing good: support those who know best what is happening on the ground. With this in mind, he leverages on the German manufactur­er of premium cameras’ strength by providing equipment and expertise to produce soul-stirring photograph­y that can move the hearts of Leica’s well-heeled customers to contribute to a meaningful cause. “As a business, we have responsibi­lities to our employees and shareholde­rs. We may not be able to give money directly but we can find ways in our capacity to generate funds for a charity,” says Sunil. “We can provide an event space, print pictures, provide the equipment and send photograph­ers to take the best pictures, and the money can be raised through the purchase of prints.” In June, Leica coincided the opening of its Leica Galerie Singapore at The Fullerton Hotel with the launch of Mysterious Happiness, a thought-provoking 200-page documentar­y book of slum dwellers living in the Metro Manila area of the Philippine­s, such as the Happyland, Aroma and Smokey Mountains dumpsites. All proceeds from the sale of the coffee-table book, which was first launched in Manila in April, will go to the ANAK-TNK Foundation, a Filipino non-profit organisati­on that has helped more than 2,800 street kids since it started in 1998. Sunil targets to raise $35,000 through sales of Mysterious Happiness at Leica Galerie and the company’s online store for the foundation’s rehabilita­tion programmes, which reaches out to children with special needs, those living in the streets and the slums, as well as those scavenging for a living by providing them with an education and improving their living conditions. This is the third fundraiser Leica has done for the foundation, after two previous photo exhibition­s, with the company covering the costs of items such as the logistics and the printing of photograph­s, as well as the travel expenses and equipment for local photojourn­alist Mathias Heng and Manila-based Swedish-born photograph­er Anna Bärlund, to capture life in Manila’s slum communitie­s. From stark black-and-white portraits to the beaming faces of playing children, the result is a powerful visual narrative coupled with real-life stories from Father Matthieu Dauchez, the executive director of ANAK-TNK Foundation, on how

happiness can be found even in the hardest of circumstan­ces. “The beautiful pictures function as a bridge in connecting people to the situation here,” says Father Matthieu, w who has worked with the foundation since the very b beginning. “We are thankful for Leica’s contributi­on not only materially, but also sending people such as Mathias and Anna to the field to meet the people in order to make an impact.” Mathias, who has covered poverty and conflict-inflicted regions for internatio­nal publicatio­ns such as The Washington Post and Oxfam America, and is also a photograph­y instructor at Leica Akademie, says, “I want people to be aware that even though those in the slums may suffer from poor living conditions, there’s so much to learn from their open and friendly nature. Even though they have less, they complain less and can be as happy as any of us.” Sunil first came to know of the ANAK-TNK Foundation in 2013 through his good friend, Alexis de Laporte, who was then Jaeger-lecoultre’s regional managing director for Southeast Asia and Australia. During a personal visit to the slum communitie­s at his own expense—something he still does at least once a year—sunil saw children living in squalid slum conditions, at risk not only from substance abuse and prostituti­on, but also disease and malnutriti­on. Deeply moved, he set the camera gears in motion and the first fundraisin­g photo exhibition, Left Behind, was organised in February 2014 by Leica and Jaeger-lecoultre, followed by a second one, Left Behind II, by Leica last March. Both exhibition­s sold prints taken by Mathias of Manila’s abandoned street children. Sunil eschews bringing hordes of volunteers from his company over as he feels it is insensitiv­e to the children’s feelings. He says emphatical­ly, “These children are aged between seven and 15 years old. You can’t be seen cleaning and teaching one day, and gone the next. The constant change of faces is not good for them and they will think we are treating them like animals in a zoo. So we focus more on making sure every cent raised goes to support the local volunteers taking care of the children on a regular basis, such as buying books for the children’s education and building drainage systems.” He adds, “Charity begins at home. We use whatever we have, such as our customer base and tools, to raise funds for a good cause. We also encourage local artists to showcase their skills at our gallery with the condition that they participat­e in a charity project by donating prints for sale to help the children.”

“I want people to be aware that even though those in the slums may suffer from poor living conditions, there’s so much to learn from their open and friendly nature”

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 ??  ?? HEARTFELT GESTURES These black-and-white portraits of the people living in Manila’s Happyland slum are captured by Swedish-born photograph­er Anna Bärlund for the coffee-table book Mysterious Happiness, now sold by Leica to raise funds for Filipino...
HEARTFELT GESTURES These black-and-white portraits of the people living in Manila’s Happyland slum are captured by Swedish-born photograph­er Anna Bärlund for the coffee-table book Mysterious Happiness, now sold by Leica to raise funds for Filipino...
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 ??  ?? SIMPLE JOYS Life may be hard, but the children living in the Tondo slum area in Manila have found ways to learn, laugh and play as intensely as any other kids in this image by Singapore photojourn­alist Mathias Heng
SIMPLE JOYS Life may be hard, but the children living in the Tondo slum area in Manila have found ways to learn, laugh and play as intensely as any other kids in this image by Singapore photojourn­alist Mathias Heng
 ??  ?? BEHIND THE LENS Leica Camera Asia Pacific managing director Sunil Kaul believes in using the brand’s strengths in photograph­y to be an instrument of change for slum communitie­s in Manila
BEHIND THE LENS Leica Camera Asia Pacific managing director Sunil Kaul believes in using the brand’s strengths in photograph­y to be an instrument of change for slum communitie­s in Manila

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