I just got back today from an all too short hop up to Georgetown in Penang for the second annual Obscura photography festival, and it was great. I don’t want to go over the whole schedule (http://www.obscurafestival.com) as I only managed a two and a half day zip up and back to try to catch the opening and Yumi Goto’s curated Japanese photography showcase, so I will simply mention the highlights for me and share some thoughts on the festival itself.

I will come straight out and say that I really enjoy this kind of event for its unpretentious nature, manageable size and the fine sense of friendship and enterprise on show and I was deeply saddened not to be able to stick about for the rest of the week to take in the full and very diverse programme. Big respect to Vig and his team for putting all of this together, I am sure it was no mean task but hopefully the diversity and intelligence of the work on display made it all worth while.

This, I am ashamed to say, was my first visit to Georgetown despite its close proximity and ease of access from Singapore, and I will certainly be back, I loved the whole experience.

I have to also say that I also very much liked the choice of locations for the exhibition displays themselves, China House is a very unique Arts centre/restaurant/cafe/bar and was large enough to host five or six of the artists being showcased. The only one that misfired a little for me was the Sobol’s Arrivals and Departures show in The Press.

The problem I had is probably a very personal one to me as I think everyone else seemed to like it very much. What turned me off a bit was the grouping of Sobol’s work into blocks of six, eight or more, I know this particular work pretty well and I don’t think thats the best way to show it, just my tuppence worth but I can also appreciate that the curators had an extremely challenging task to sequence and mount a large volume of very distinctive photographs. Having said all of that, this is still an intriguing set by a photographer at the top of his game and I am sure that it will prove to be one of the major draws of the festival.

I sincerely hope that the exhibitions manage to attract the volume of people that they deserve after all of the effort by the organisers.
On to some of the other events that I managed to take in and one of my main reasons for attending was to see the photo-book show and in particular the Japanese photographers work that was on display. It’s always so nice to meet the photographers, listen to them speak about their work and enjoy both the books and see the photographs well mounted and displayed as they were here. I always think that brings another dimension to the enjoyment and experience.

I also took the opportunity to buy a couple of the books on offer and chose Hajime Kimura’s handmade ‘Tokyo Etude’ and the lovely Masako Tomiya’s ‘Tsugaru’ both of which I intend to feature in the next Sunday book review which will be very fittingly published from Tokyo next weekend with a bit of luck.

One of the other exhibitions that I liked a lot was a double header that featured my friend KG Krishnan and Wenxin Zhang’s ‘Five Nights Aquarium’. Both of these shows were very nicely printed and thoughtfully displayed.

I am sure that KG will have been thrilled at how good his work looked in the largish prints. Its so nice to see young local talent getting a larger stage for their efforts.

As I mentioned, I was only able to attend for a few days and the organisers had put together a very full programme so I ended up whizzing around from event to event trying to cram everything I could in. The danger with that of course is that you become a bit bewildered and actually see too much to fully appreciate but it was great fun wandering around the unique environment of Georgetown and each new location threw up a nice surprise when I got there.

One less pleasant surprise was the sweltering heat at the photo-book launch and I was also a bit disappointed that much of the work on show was not actually available to buy. I know the guys are aware of this and I am sure that will work out better in the future. One thing that I did spot at the bookshop though was the excellent Singapore TwentyFifteen books. I think they are up to issue no. 8 now and they are very well worth collecting (http://twentyfifteen.sg)

My final slot last night was a very nice slideshow featuring the Asian Women Photographers’ Showcase, curated by the omnipresent Yumi Goto and it was well worth the visit. I particularly liked the ‘Circle’ show by Jung S Kim with its haunting soundtrack. Great stuff all round though and a very fitting end to my own personal visit. I know the festival runs until the 31st of August so if you get a chance, go along, you won’t be disappointed. I think that the events programme ends this weekend though so you need to be quick to take any of this in now. Its obvious if you look at the link to the schedule in the first paragraph that I have only scrathced the surface of the Obscura festival and there were a number of workshops, talks and events that I wasn’t able to sample and so haven’t mentioned in this short taster. I sincerely hope that Vig can find both the energy and support needed to repeat this event again next year, judging from the enthusiasm that I witnessed I am sure that will be the case and I look forward to another, hopefully longer trip back.

I would strongly encourage all of my friends who can’t travel the distance to Malaysia to have a browse through the schedule and look through the work of the artists on show, I think you will find it as educational and interesting as I did.

Colin Steel, Obscura Festival of Photography, Georgetown 18th August 2014