NESTLED in one of Malaysia’s oldest verdant jungles is a 30-year-old beach resort with a gallery celebrating the grandeur of its people, and the flora and fauna. 

In black and white, of course.

The resort is The Datai Langkawi on the island where the jungles and mountains are even older than Mount Everest and the Hindu Kush range. 

Of course, the difference in years is too wide for us to imagine; Langkawi jungles are 220 million years old, while Mount Everest and her sisters are just some 50 million years old. 

Yet, what you can see in The Datai Langkawi gallery are 53 photos of the beauty and majesty of the seas and jungles of Langkawi, coupled with some of the inhabitants of the Malay peninsula captured by Malaysia’s top photojournalist S.C. Shekar. 

There are sweeping views of the area and also other parts of the resort island. There are soaring peaks covered in a morning’s misty gauze, snaking rivers and pristine shores. 

More than that are photographs of some of the people captured by Shekar’s eyes – and indeed his lens – over his entire career, slightly longer than the resort’s 30 years in existence. 

His pictures are now framed and displayed in an interactive gallery that runs through the resort’s corridors and main building as part of its 30th anniversary. 

Why black and white? As Shekar said, for the audience to see the beauty of the scene and portraits without colour as a distraction. 

Limited-edition prints are for sale with the proceeds going to The Datai Pledge, a private trust for the wellbeing of the environment, wildlife and local community in Langkawi. – April 2, 2023.