I have been shooting since the age of 18. Armed with nothing more than a camera, I’ve tried to record every place I’ve been to. I am a theoretical physicist by training (MA, Balliol College, Oxford, graduated age 16) and left my job in the corporate world of finance and consulting to pursue my passion for photography.
I started out shooting everything and anything, but eventually combined my other interest and specialised in wristwatches (with several famous Swiss manufacture clients), then wildlife. After a while, I found myself increasingly drawn to the humanistic. There are only so many photographs you can take of an inanimate object: but of people, the possibilities are infinite. Variations in behaviour, expression, moods - then multiply that by about six billion.
Watching my little neighbourhood in downtown Kuala Lumpur change around me in barely a few years has driven me to document daily life around me. I feel the need to preserving the moment for posterity - not just so future generations can see how we lived, but also as a reminder for our generation of how far we’ve come.
Street photojournalism is fantastic training for honing one’s eye: unlike an event where the unusual unfolds everywhere you look, street work demands that the photographer assess the entire scene rapidly and continuously to pick out the moment. 50% of a successful shot depends on your ability to anticipate and pick out details, and the other 50% your instinctive photographic skills.
But there’s no point in just recording an event or an act in such a way that it does not compel the viewer to pause and contemplate the content of the image. A good photojournalist must challenge themselves to achieve the strongest aesthetics, composition and finest image quality possible. He might edit each image, but not for content; ethical integrity is the most important thing in photojournalism - especially in the present day and age.
I want to apply the skills I’ve learned to a worthy cause. To give a face and voice to those who need it. To show the world things that are normally unseen - and to do it with the highest integrity and most arresting way possible. This is photojournalism.
Ming Thein
London, October 2009
Assignments undertaken
Email: mingthein@gmail.com
Phone: +44 7514 806601
-Editor, Click! Magazine, Malaysia
-Youngest fully accredited Nikon Professional member (at joining)
-Co-founded Agenzia VM with fellow photojournalist Pein Lee; we also run the regularly updated blogroll The Brass Ring (www.ringofbrass.blogspot.com)
Additional work may be found on my flickr page www.flickr.com/mingthein