Thoughts and processes of a creative bootstrapper
Long form, slow journalism from the field.
Winner, IACP Food Writing Awards 2022‘Plates, Vol.4: Seeds‘ | Published 2021 Set across several villages in the Karo district in North Sumatra, Indonesia, ‘Orange Was the New Black’, the cover story for Plates, Vol.4: Seeds explores the underreported story of the resilient coffee seed that survived two natural disasters and the people intertwined with it. …
‘Plates, Vol.2: Durian‘ | Published January 2020 | Co-reported with Emily Ding Photo in opening spread (above) by Emily Ding. All other photos here by Dee May Tan. After several months of discussion and planning, we journeyed into several Orang Asli villages (of the Temiar ethnic group) to observe the impact of the a growing …
For the main feature of Plates, Vol.1: Rice, I travelled to Long Semadoh, near the Kalimantan-Sarawak in Borneo to document stories from the fields of the marginalised rice farmers of the Lun Bawang ethnic group.
‘Plates, Vol.3: Water’ | Published November 2020 The School by the Sea discusses geopolitical themes, beginning with the questions of migration, identity, belonging and human rights in the story of the unrecognised Bajau-Suluk community in Teluk Layan Village, on Sepanggar Bay in Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia. A two-week long storygathering trip to Teluk Layan and Kota …