Asia's revered humanist photographer Eric Peris went into a paean of the rural Malay landscape and therein the life and soul of a land once dubbed the Golden Chersonese : The Paddy Fields.
Eric has been toying with the idea of putting Beethoven's Pastoral to work, on the gold-tinged rice fields of Kedah and Perlis, ever since he went there on assignment for the New Straits Times in 1977.
Result of that assignment : Pastoral. His tribute to the Malaysian Rice Fields and Farmers. "I was struck by the inherent beauty of the padi fields - in all seasons, rain and shine - and how hardworking the workers were.
There are many rice fields. But no padi fields are the same as those in Kedah," recalled Eric. It is also reminiscent of his ode to rural Malaysia in 1990 based on the Malay pantuns (rhymes).
"I was instantly reminded of Beethoven's Pastoral, and had thought of reinterpreting all the movements (there are five, one more than usual), like coming into the countryside and harvesting, the bad weather ... but the pictures are not specific to the sections (movements)," he said.
"Pastoral is universal. It can apply to any countryside, wheat fields as well as rice fields. Mine are not paintings.
Like listening to Beethoven's music, everyone can appreciate it," he said. Still, the colours don't follow what the eye sees but what the heart feels.
"I know the kind of mood when the pictures were taken. I colour it the way I feel, the rice fields which are very tranquil, like cemeteries, and the canals which are like rivers.
We are talking about feelings." Green is predominant, with generous doses of orange, yellow and brown and also sky blue, grey and white.
The pictures were taken, in spurts.
Image below: In my private collection. Pastoral : By Eric Peris.
