The Fallen Memories - Azrol Afendy

The Fallen Memories

“Poetry has always been part of my creative process...Sometimes, the inspiration to write comes from an image I’ve taken, and other times the written piece gives birth to a visual concept that I can pursue; they enhance one another, and allow me to tell a full story.”

Finding a balance between the visual and written arts is a dilemma that many artists face during their career; while the two areas can be viewed as interrelated, the unique techniques and practices respective to each field beckon the question: Which best represents my artistic vision?

Rather than harbouring uncertainty and allowing indecision to hinder his ability to create, Malaysian-based photographer, Azrol Afendy, embraces and embodies the essence of duality, combining vivid poetry and surreal photographs to further relate and convey emotion to his audience.

“Poetry has always been part of my creative process,” Afendy admits, “Sometimes, the inspiration to write comes from an image I’ve taken, and other times, a written piece gives birth to a visual concept that I can pursue; they enhance one another and allow me to tell a full story.”

In his renowned Wonderland series, Afendy depicts the heartbreaking tale of a man wrought with familial tragedy, desperate to find solitude within his imagination. Symbolizing the process of healing and finding one’s self, the series portrays the use of pain as a source of inspiration.

“In those days, I was struggling with depression, anger and the unbearable weight of guilt, but I tried to repurpose those emotions and turn them into something positive— changing pain and negativity into beauty and reclamation.”

Afendy reflects on his mindset when he first began the project:

“In those days, I was struggling with depression, anger and the unbearable weight of guilt, but I tried to repurpose those emotions and turn them into something positive—changing pain and negativity into beauty and reclamation.”

The Wonderland series draws inspiration from Kirsty Mitchell’s “The Pure Blood of a Blossom”, demonstrating the importance and equivocal hardship of

self-reflection. Assiduously crafting each facet of the project, Afendy spent nearly five months delicately perfecting the butterflies, headpiece and attire to embellish the dreamlike scenes that doubled as an escape from his own hardships.

In the “The Fallen Memories”, a piece introducing Wonderland, Afendy meticulously crafts scenery from his imagination to emanate a sense of calm and nourishment towards the recovery process.

Amid a dense forest, the model stands with her arms outstretched, palms open, welcoming peace to heal her wounds. An ornate headpiece, composed of rich lavender flowers, boughs of green ivy, and electrifying blue butterflies, accentuates an intricately crafted violet gown.

“I used butterflies as my subject to represent the recreation of life. They acted as the saviour to the man, guiding him through his pain to reach a place of tranquillity,” Afendy confides.

Symbolizing the “Self” with a female subject, Afendy captures flowing ends of a garment to represent the chaotic nature of life, each strand equally as integral to the Self’s prosperity, yet all pulling simultaneously from opposing directions. A striking arrangement of blue butterflies speckle the garment, contrasting the turmoil of “Life” and shepherding the man to the ethereal scene to find freedom from his pain.

The accompanying poem, “The Journey of Healing”, composes a narrative of

the man and Life, which Afendy uses to intensify further the arduous journey depicted in his imagery. The man begins in a place of unrest, struggling to make sense of the adversity Life has shown him, questioning why painful, lingering memories continue to plague his mind. As the poem progresses, the man demonstrates acceptance toward things beyond his control, beginning a transition into a place of realization that Life’s hardships have taught him more than they have taken from him.

As the poem reaches a close, the man illustrates a positive outlook for the future, discovering his imagination as a place of tranquillity, a place to which he can escape the toils of life and find himself once again. Afendy, in his emotional entanglement of words and images, shows us that sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, and sometimes words can paint a thousand pictures.