IN ENGLISH: Visual documentary instead of my poor (and never up to date) English writing :)

The truth being told here, every time I sit in front of my notebook or computer, the Czech sentences start to pop up in my head automatically. While writing in Czech seems to be natural, very smooth and enjoyable process with a lot of emotions swirling around, in English, I have to really force myself to find the right wording as well as I have to forcefully stop the constant dissecting and doubts. And yet, no matter how hard I try to keep them away, they are still there. Writing in English is difficult and it’s very far from being an enjoyable process, partly also because I once hoped for a certain level of writing which I haven’t been able to achieve. As pretentious as it sounds, I don’t like being somehow mediocre, especially in my own eyes. Therefore a lot of times in my mind I quit before I even start.

However, in my pretty much non stop searching for a proper writer’s identity and unique voice, I also know that I don’t want to quit the English writing completely. 

Since my twenties, I have longed for adding good photographs to my writing and yet never did much for it. Recently, while living in Kuala Lumpur, thanks to my neighbors, I met a group of photographers which I now belong to. For past half a year, I have the opportunity to fullfill my dream, learn and visually document stories that resonate with a place I currently call home and topics that are critical importance to me. I am not transitioning from a writer to a photographer, but I am trying to combine these two passions together. The writing in Czech language will still be a priority, giving me a job as well as an opportunity to express my deepest thoughts and emotions in the language I was born with and I am most familiar with. The photography, on the other hand, leads me to the role of photojournalist whose visual stories combined with the short accompanying text in English can reach much further than my writing and advocate important issues not just in the country of my origin, but around the globe. 

Therefore, since now on, in this section of my blog, I would like to show you parts of my learning process of becoming a photojournalist, particularly on the visual documents I had covered. The story or Joanne Leong’s store in the heart of China Town in Kuala Lumpur is the very first assignment and project I would like to share here. Let me know in the comment section how you like it. Thank you!