Portrait of a Chinese Medicine Man, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Portrait of a Chinese Medicine Man, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Chinese herbal medicine, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

This was the second portrait I took yesterday, not far from where I photographed Mr Keong, which I discussed in my previous post below.

Mr Bin is a Chinese Medicine man and he has this incredible shop with one wall complete with these beautifully hand crafted wooden drawers that look like they had been made back in the day when things were actually made by a craftsman. Talking with Mr Bin, I learnt that the shop had been in his family for 50-years. Wow. Those beautiful drawers have been around for a long time!

Initially Mr Bin didn’t seem that enthused about me taking his portraits, but after I showed him the results on the back of my camera, he became more interested. While the first couple of photos were okay, I really needed something to connect him to what he does for a living.

Initially I envisaged a shot of him against the wall of drawers, but not only were they black holes for light (I was already in the ISO 1600 realm), he would just look like a guy standing next to some, well…old wooden drawers. Not much going on in terms of connecting him with being a practitioner of Chinese medicine.

Having him hold a drawer did the trick and the portrait above is the result.

Apart from the 10 to 15-minutes of conversation, the actual portraits we took lasted no longer than about 8 to 10-minutes. Not long, but then again, people don’t have all day for a total stranger to photograph them.

And in case you were wondering, the photo on the right is a remedy Mr Bin made up for a sore back that I have had for part of this week. Initially he reached for a packet of Panadol, to which I responded:

“Mr Bin, I’m in a Chinese medicine shop – I would like a Chinese remedy!”

As for what I do with my Chinese remedy, Mr Bins’ instructions were:

Take 3-cups of water and bring to the boil.

Add the contents (photo right).

Simmer until only 1-cup of liquid remains.

Let cool for about 1-hour, then strain and drink.

I guess there is a first time for everything.

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