PIXERF marked its official launch in Malaysia and its third visit to
Kuala Lumpur with an official event where it will showcase its brand, new offerings and products to businesses and agencies.
PIXERF had previously had held two engagements in Kuala Lumpur with
photography communities across the city. It also collaborated with Pop Digital Sdn Bhd’s annual event, The Cooler Lumpur Festival, melding
two theme’s – the former’s own Definer series, where it showcases influential photographers from its community that have defined themselves through their art, with the latter’s #SuperCanggih theme for the
2019 edition.
PIXERF revealed these #SuperCanggih Definers at a forum co-hosted by Cooler Lumpur on the 5th of October at the Black Box, Publika. They are Tom Potisit from Thailand, Nadirah Zakariya and Yaman Ibrahim from Malaysia and Xyza Cruz from Manila. Their selected works will be exhibited during the week long event for all attendees to view.
SuperCanggih Definers Forum – 5 th October, Saturday, Black Box@ Publika.
The forum, which focused on their art and their work, was moderated by Ho Ming Han, or better known by his immensely popular moniker, @themingthing .
Starting with his usual brevity and candour, he went on to
talk to them about the current state of photography vs social media, why they do what they do and what inspired them to take such powerful images.
Focusing on each Definers work, the forum was a way for attendees to find out the methodologies and mindsets behind the powerful images that each of them have used to speak loudly on issues that affected them and society at large.
“Definer is a series we started to discover and platform Asia’s most inspiring and powerful creators so that we can amplify their stories to the world. Each Definer has a special story and conviction weaved through
their art and they have used their visual prowess to spark conversation on a mass scale. This partnership with Cooler Lumpur is just the kind of platform we need to push these narratives to a large audience,” Sa’at
Ismail, Founder and CEO, PIXERF.
Xyza Cruz Bacani is an award winning street and documentaty photographer who has been awarded theMagnum Foundation Human Rights Fellowship in New York on her work to bring focus to migrant workers in Asia.
Formely a domestic worker herself, she redefined her life and used photography to speak about issues she was passionate about. Her solo exhibition “We Are Like Air” is a showcase of her work on migrant workers.
Tom Potisit is a flamboyant and highly regarded fashion photographer that has made his mark all over the world – from Thailand to Berlin to Miami, but what sets him apart ishis advocacy work. From organ donations to the conversation of endangered marine animals, his photo exhibitions defies taboos to stimulate conversations. He has been featured in Art Basel Miami, Saatchi Gallery in London and TedX Bangkok.
Nadirah Zakariya is a Malaysian photographer and a shooting star in the industry. Her most memorable work was a self-potrait on Vogue Italia that brought awareness to a skin condition known as vitiligo –something she has and wanted to use that platform to bring attention and dispel rumours on the condition, at the same time refedine what traditional beauty was.
Her other works include “Girlhood”, a collaboration with Leica that looked at sisterhood and was present in her first solo show in New York.
Yaman Ibrahim is an awared winning veteran with 15 years of photography under his belt. His photobook, Malaysia, the Walk of Life, combines his knowledge of his home country and his natural storytelling gift to a moving homage to his roots. He is also a mentor first, and is passionate about inspiring budding creators in Asia to fulfi their potential.
He uses his photography to preserve a way of life and
history that he says is disappearing.
PIXERF also launched its brand to a crowd of brands and creative agencies from all across Kuala Lumpur on the 4 th October 2019 at the White Box at Publika.
On the invite list were some of the most influential names in the industry and top brands, from Celcom Malaysia to agencies like Grey, in a sharing session that highlighted their plans for Malaysia, and how they can benefit from PIXERF’s community of 80,000 visual creators in Asia to help them power their campaigns with authenticity and relevance.
Opened by former creative veteran and ex-chairman of TBWA Malaysia Sa’ad Hussein, he greeted old friends and industry players before handing the stage over to the two founders Sa’at Ismail and Michele
Lee.
They spoke about their experience as agency owners and the lack of authentic Asian images for use in commercial or editorial campaigns in the region. They also lamented about the difficulty in connecting with
or discovering new talent to use. All these reasons and much more is why they decided to launch PIXERF in 2017, and they have grown from strength to strength, working with brands like Honda Malaysia, GOJEK Indonesia, ComfortDelGro; amongst many others.
They also touched on their business offerings – the Marketplace , an area for visual creators to register and upload stock visuals for purchase, Crowdsource Mission , a platform where multiple submissions can be garnered from a single brief for agencies and brands to reward and choose from to get that unique visual, and Custom Commissions , a project based system where businesses can choose the visual creator they wish to work with, whether in a single country or multiple areas across the world.
To cap it off, PIXERF also runs a blog that talks about creative space and the creators behind it, in Asia.
“I came from a creative agency background and the problems we had were always the same when planning out campaigns for brands in Asia – curating authentic Asian content and creators and empowering our visual communications with the relevance needed to talk to our audience. Asia is diverse, complex and culturally variant, and there was no one solution to help us.
“That is why we created PIXERF and this is why we are expanding rapidly in SouthEast Asia – with Malaysia being one of our key markets,”
Michele Lee, Co-Founder and CFO, PIXERF.
Sa’ad Hussein CMO of PIXERF, also spoke about the Under/Exposed initiative, a polar opposite of the Definer Series, which seeks to discover talented visual creators from across Asia who do not have the platform or means to take their craft to the next level.
The initiative started in Thailand earlier this year where PIXERF met some extremely talented photographers, from an undiscovered concert photographer to a monk whose photography can stand toe to toe with some of the best in the world.
Nominations for both Definer and Under/Exposed are open and interested parties can nominate someone else or themselves here : http://defineasia.pixerf.com/
To further cultivate Asia’s visual community, PIXERF has established strong relationships with industry professionals from across 20 Asian countries. These PIXERF Ambassadors contribute photos to the Creative Marketplace and are present as mentors and advisors at offline community-building events, organised by PIXERF, to exchange tips and ideas, and discuss the latest visual trends.
“Creating an inclusive community where visual creators from all backgrounds can gain access to jobs and other ways to earn as well as to learn from their peers is the future.” Sa’at Ismail, Founder and CEO,
PIXERF.
Since its launch, PIXERF has accumulated over 250,000 curated photos and close to 80,000 active users. PIXERF is on the web and available for download as a mobile app on iOS and Android .
SuperCanggih Photowalk– 6 th October, Sunday, citizenM Hotel, Kuala Lumpur
On Sunday, in partnership with The Cooler Lumpur Festival and citizenM Hotel as the official hotel sponsor, PIXERF launched the #SuperCanggih Photowalk where its four Definers, Tom Potisit, Yaman Ibrahim, Xyza Bacani and Nadirah Zakariya led participants across the streets of central Kuala Lumpur, from Chinatown to Rex Theater on a journey of street photography that started at 9 am.
Following the theme of #SuperCanggih or extraordinary, each Definer led a small group of photographers across a set journey but with the freedom to frame and capture moments, items and people that they thought best fit the theme.
After a good two hours on the streets, each group had a break-out session where they received reviews and critiques from their leaders, and then selected the best few images to showcase to the entire collective at
the end of the day.
The results were varied, unique and truly captured the individuality of each photographer, who each had a story they wanted to tell through each image.
The #SuperCanggih photowalk was a massive success and best of all participants are able to submit to an on-going Crowd Sourced Mission with the same namesake, and stand to win cash prizes totalling RM 1,800. This photo contest is open to all Malaysians as well and interested photographers can submit via this link .
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