photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
Cecilia Lim | all galleries >> travel >> malaysia > Gayly Remembered
previous | next
2 September 2007 Malacca, Malaysia

Gayly Remembered

For me, these rows of ancestral tablets at the Cheeng Hoon Teng Temple are the epitome of sadness. Unlike the memorial tablets of the rich which are intricately carved & gilded in gold, (preserved in another section of the temple), these modest, simple tablets belong to the poorer community. As if losing a loved one and not being able to afford a beautiful tablet to honor them was not tragic enough, a fire came and swept through their final memorial place. Although the fire was an accident, their photos are now burnt and bent over, as if they've been condemned to eternal doom.

However, out of the rows of singed expressionless faces, one in particular stood out. She was the only one that was thoughtfully placed in a fancy photo frame, and the only photo that gave us any inkling of the person that she was. Most of the deceased were represented with a formal, neutral, passport-like photo, but she was immortalized as a happy, confident, stylish woman - and playful even, posing flirtatiously with her beads. Despite their financial circumstance, it's obvious that the people who loved her wanted to celebrate her life, her personality. And I find the love and reverence they have for her most touching.


other sizes: small medium original auto
comment | share
Cecilia Lim11-Jul-2008 18:57
Tim, I also find it interesting that neither the three of us posted any images of the fancy ancestral tablets. I guess the fire in this room created a very haunting mood, accentuating the feelings of death and doom which presented us many more opportunities for dramatic story-telling. It was great to see how we each told very different but moving stories about our experience here.
Tim May09-Jul-2008 00:28
This room was very moving to me also. I felt the hopes of lives lived and remembered. I have since seen several rooms like this in temples I have visited. But this first one was startling and moving. I think it interesting that we all three spend more time here than in the rooms with the well cared for tablets, the fancy ones.
Phil Douglis05-Jul-2008 22:32
Thanks, too, for your perceptive comment on my image athttp://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/86307882, Celia. I have posted a response to it, noting that photographic meaning does not depend entirely on subject matter itself, but rather in the way we may choose to photograph the subject. We each had dozens of different tablets and memorial photographs to choose from, and by varying our selections, as well as our vantage points, framing, focusing, compositions, and points of emphasis, we expressed ourselves differently, and communicated differing stories to our viewers. You are right -- in doing so, we each put a bit of ourselves into our images.
Cecilia Lim05-Jul-2008 21:11
Phil, it is amazing how differently you, Tim and I each perceived and expressed our experiences here at the ancestral tablets. It is very clear that photography is not just about capturing the scene infront of us, but an expression of our vision and feelings as individuals.
Phil Douglis04-Jul-2008 18:42
Once again, all of three of us made this photo, but each in a different way. You build yours around a framed portrait of a happy person. Given the context of a memorial, it becomes incongruously touching. Tim creates a sense of community in his (http://www.pbase.com/mityam/image/87404559 ) while I rhythmically stress the repeating cycle of life and death in my own interpretation. (http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/86307882 ) Same subject, three different stories.,