Ismail Hashim usually captures the precious moments in everyday life through his lens, evoking atmospheric recollections in the viewer. However, this set of three is depicting the aftermath of natural / man-made disaster. Celebrated for his hand-tinted technique, art historian T.K. Sabapathy commented that Ismail Hashim “expanded the medium of photography to encompass themes constructed from observed everyday reality”. He employed the grid format in his work as a mode of presenting a variety of photographs within one assemblage. Such technique serves as “an aesthetic device and a means of storytelling” in the artist's view.Ismail Hashim was the first Malaysian photographer-artist to be given a retrospective exhibition. The honour came from the Penang State Art Gallery which hosted it from November 2 to 30 in 2010. Most of his important and often scathing socio-cultural-environmental commentaries were on display. Ismail was also a passionate academician having taught at a school for the deaf before he joined Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), lecturing on Graphic Design from 1979 to 1995. He returned to teach part-time from 2006 to 2007. It was at USM that he received his BA in Fine Arts in 1972 and he studied for his Masters of Fine Arts (majoring in Graphic Design) at the Washington State University in the United States in 1979. He passed away in a tragic road accident in 2013. Unpack-repack: Archiving & Staging Ismail Hashim (1940-2013) was presented at the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur in 2015.