Memories. Travelling.
I draw inspiration from the beaches, the sea. I inhale the urban ambience of the slums. No white walls there, merely the colours of life. These locations are vibrant splash of red, blue, yellow, black, brown and green. I’m no stranger to new lands, and I avoid commercialised places at all cost. Why deposit yourself in a fine-dining restaurant when you can sit at a street stall and sample the food, or cheap, dodgy bars, and embrace the blinding contrast to life? Or view the crystal clear seawater hugging the shoreline.
I don’t seek the cocoon of comfort in the city. I seek the stunning randomness of the slums, where being pretentious is the last thing on people’s mind, and fashionable way of life is considered distasteful. Slums have a healing effect on me, a therapy that I have sought since the late ’80s. The beach, a contradiction of emotions, is partly about isolation, a solitude that I seek. Almost an instantaneous sense of tranquillity where at the sight of the white sand and the swaying coconut trees my body shuts down and peace creeps in.
I miss everything.
I seek that experience where radical and calming emotions wash over me, like the waves of the cooling sea and the suffocating presence of the slums.
I miss it all.
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Zashnain
An avid blogger, twitterer and photojournalist, Zashnain Zainal suffers from an incurable addiction to social work, helping marginalised communities since 1989. Nowadays he travels from the plantations of Malaysia to the slums of Thailand. He can be found at zashnain.com and @bedlamfury
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