On a quiet morning, I decided to take my trusty 50mm fixed lens and hit the streets for a casual photography walk. There’s something special about starting the day early, especially in a bustling city like Kuala Lumpur, where the back lanes hold stories of their own. This time, I found myself drawn to the back lane of Chow Kit Market—a place that perfectly blends the old with the new, the rustic with the modern.
Armed with a monochrome camera, I set out to capture the raw and gritty beauty of the market’s back alleys. The simplicity of a monochrome palette adds a timeless feel to the photos, allowing the textures and contrasts to really stand out. The narrow, worn-out paths, with their uneven stones and scattered debris, tell tales of a city that’s rapidly modernizing yet still grappling with subpar infrastructure like poor water supply.
There’s a sense of calm in these early hours, with only a few vendors and workers preparing for the day ahead. The scene I captured was both mundane and poetic—a man fetching water from a ditch, surrounded by old buildings and exposed wiring, with the towering modern skyline in the background. The 50mm lens, with its natural field of view, perfectly framed the scene, making it feel like you were right there, experiencing the moment.
Walking through these lanes, you get a sense of the contrasting lives coexisting within the city—a reminder of the beauty that lies in everyday struggles and the stories etched into the urban landscape.