A picture paints a thousand words, so goes the saying and today I really understood what it really means for the first time. In the city of Yamamoto, Japan (Discovery Channel: Rebuilding Japan)when the tsunami struck not only lives were lost but also their homes, belongings and every bit of their precious memories. Their city were destroyed, it will never look the same anymore. A few passionate photographers decided together with volunteers to give back the “memories” to the people of Yamamoto. They collected albums and any pictures they could find from the rubbles and started to clean and restore them. Then all the images were catalogued with face recognition software and the people of Yamamoto were encouraged to come and get back their images. It was so moving to see people who have lost everything, moved to tears when they found the pictures of their precious loved ones. I see photography in a very different light now. These photographers have made a great contribution in helping the people of Yamamoto rebuild their life by connecting them to their past, without even a click of their cameras. Being a photographer is more than just shooting images. It about caring and vision to change things for the better. Never before, I’ve been so proud to call myself an amateur photographer.

Below is the earliest image of my grandma and grandpa in 1949-1950 when they just got married in then Malaya. Precious…