Back in May 2009, I sat down with Zhuang Wubin in Manila for an interview for his research work on Photography. In 2016, that interview was published in the Photography in Southeast Asia: A Survey book.
Zhuang Wubin
I first met Zhuang Wubin in Singapore during the Singapore International Photography Festival in 2008. That time, I was one of 30 participants in the photo workshop as part of the event. If I remember it right, it was at a café where I met and chatted with him.
Wubin is a writer, curator and artist. From his website:
Zhuang Wubin is a writer who makes photographs, publications and exhibitions. He is interested in photography’s entanglements with modernity, colonialism, nationalism, “Chineseness” and the Cold War in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.
– Zhuang Wubin bio page
The National University of Singapore published this book and is “…a comprehensive attempt to map the emergence and trajectories of photographic practices in Southeast Asia.” It starts with the colonial era, the introduction of Photography by visitors to this part of the world. The meat of the publication is the section focusing on the different practitioners in these countries: Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Brunei.
In the book, Zhuang Wubin writes about me as a documentary photographer and my focus on Filipino spirituality. He highlights two works: A Ritual of Faith and The New Cathedrals. The write up can be found in pages 349-351.
