Exotic Tillandsia

By Sim Eng Hiang FRPS

From the moment he saw his first Tillandsia in New Zealand, Sim Eng Hiang has worked tirelessly to cultivate, preserve, promote, and photograph these exotic treasures. Here, an esteemed member of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain shares his lifes work as a naturalist and photographer for one of the plant kingdoms finest creations, the Tillandsia.

His photographs were taken throughout the year with only the natural light of the morning. To showcase the dramatic colour changes the plants display as they prepare to bloom, he photographed them against a darkened background.

He also presents more formal portraits of his subjects, carefully lit and artistically arranged for the camera. The plants are mounted on wooden blocks or hung from fishing line such that readers will experience the Tillandsia in all its glory.

Devoted to one of natures finest gifts, Exotic Tillandsia is also a call to end the destruction humans unleash on natureand ultimately ourselves.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Dec 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9781482829501

Sim Eng Hiang FRPS

Sim Eng Hiang was born in 1943 in Sarawak on the island of Borneo during the Japanese Occupation of World War II. His parents had emigrated from China when Sarawak was under the rule of the White Rajahs, members of the Brooke family from England, whose dynasty ruled for almost a century (1841–1946). Eng Hiang received his Chinese education from the local Chung Hua School in his early years and later became a secondary school science and mathematics teacher, after graduating from the Teachers Training College in Sarawak. In 1966, he was offered a Colombo Plan scholarship to pursue a course in teaching English as a second language at Wellington University, New Zealand, where the natural environment awakened him to the fascination of Mother Nature. His devotion to photography and gardening started at an early age. However, after a friend introduced him to the world of Tillandsia, nurturing and photographing these exotic plants became a lifelong passion. He became a member of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain in 1988, and he was elected a Fellow of the Society in 1993. He retired from active teaching at aged fifty to pursue his dual interests of growing and photographing Tillandsia.

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Copyright © 2014 Sim Eng Hiang, FRPS. All rights reserved.

ISBN

978-1-4828-2949-5 (sc)

978-1-4828-2950-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014959964

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

04/01/2015

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Dedicated to my Father

Sim Soo Khoon

And to the memory of my Mother

Tan Cho Siang

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My father was a simple man. Each day he would ride his bicycle to work at dawn and return home late at night. He worked very hard to earn a living for his family of nine. He loved keeping plants and animals, and when I was a young boy I would help him take care of them. Years later I would take a keen interest in gardening.

These days almost everybody takes photographs, unlike in the ’60s where few people owned cameras and photography was considered an expensive and luxurious hobby. One day my father brought home a camera to record certain events in our lives. No one in the family then knew how to use it, so being the eldest child I took up the challenge and spent what little money I had to learn how to take good pictures.

Here I must sincerely thank the late Mr. K.F. Wong, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, FRPS, who achieved world fame through his lifetime work with his subject, the indigenous peoples of Sarawak. He was someone who guided me and gave me