Lot 033
SULTAN ISMAIL NASIRUDDIN SHAH
b. Kuala Terengganu, 1907-d. 1979
MAY '69 - KL BERKURONG, 1969
Gelatin silver print
50cm x 60cm
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Kuala Lumpur.
ESTIMATE RM 4,000 - 6,000
PRICE REALISED RM 7,840
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These two pictures of deserted Kuala Lumpur streets in May 1969 after the outbreak of internecine racial strife brings back searing memories of the blackest mark in Malaysian history, yet they are timely reminders not to raise the May 13 spectre again.
The photographs were taken at two spots, namely, 1) Jalan Bukit Bintang with the Cathay Cinema (showing a Mandarin film, Young Love), the Malayan Hotel and the Seagull Chinese medicine shop opposite; and 2) the Jalan Tun Perak (previously Jalan Mountbatten) intersection.
The photographs were taken by Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah, who was the 4th Yang diPertuan Agong (Sept 21, 1965-Sept 21, 1970). He was installed the 14th Sultan of Terengganu on Dec 16, 1945. Sultan Ismail, who was an avid photographer since the 1930s, died on Sept 20, 1979.
There are more to the “bleak” pictures as Tuanku Ismail’s grandson, Raja Mohd Zainol Ihsan Shah, a prominent art-dealer and custodian of Tuanku Ismail’s photography archive, found out fairly recently, from a former butler, who is now in his 70s.
“My grandfather originally titled the works, Kuala Lumpur Masa Berkurong (after the old spelling). He went around taking photographs of the city, with only a small escort. When the prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman came to know about this, he insisted my grandfather stay inside the Istana Negara precincts, for better security.
“My grandfather had erstwhile chose to stay in the kampung-like setting of Istana Terengganu at 34 Jalan Kia Peng and commute to Istana Negara on a daily basis,” said Raja Ihsan.
He recalled that he was nine then, and May 14 was to be his birthday party at Istana Negara, but his grandfather had used up all the films in the camera shooting an ‘empty’ Kuala Lumpur instead.
The original photographs in gelatin silver prints on fibre-based photographic paper were in limited editions of 5 each. |