THE UNSUNG HERO: 05/08/2007

Old Photographers Do Not Fade Away

There are photographs, historical value pictures, which were captured by senior photographers who served the Information Department, way back in the 1940s, remained without credit line. One good example is the exhibition held at the Petronas KLCC tower. There are photographs displayed in large formats that stated photographer as unknown. The exhibition, however, shows, the lackluster effort of the organizer to further research the names of the people who took the photographs.

During the early days, the Information Department's photographers were most sought after by the mainstream newspaper company to obtain exclusive photographs taken by them during exclusive assignments. Some of the assignments were classified dangerous and only the government agencies' staff were allowed to carry out the assignments, as most of the time they were only informed of the destination when they touched down from the air force helicopters and aircrafts.

Some were even killed during assignments. Many suffered the after effect of long ordeal jungle bashing experience such as drinking from jungle swamps and sleeping in the wild jungles. Many of them were not even remembered.

Below is a life account of one of the senior photographers. They say old photographers don't fade away, they 're just out of frame.