20/07/2025

ON SUNDAY JULY 20, 2025 VI theSunday Special

Uncle Gedek: Man with a thousand faces

I F, by any chance, you come across a photo of a bespectacled (most of the time) man posing in front of a kopitiam, a roadside food stall or DQ XQDVVXPLQJ Ṙ FH ZDOO ZLWK KLV expression as steady as the sunrise, then \RX¶YH HQFRXQWHUHG 0DOD\VLD¶V GDLO\ VHO¿H king. Meet Uncle Gedek, Malaysia’s unin WHQWLRQDO GLJLWDO GLDULVW ZKR KDV WDNHQ and uploaded a selfie every single day for the past 16 years. That’s over 5,800 selfies, each timestamped, stored and FDSWLRQHG ZLWK D TXLUN\ PL[ RI ZLW DQG TXLHW VHOI UHÀHFWLRQ His 16 years of daily UGNƓGU JCXG NCPFGF JKO KP VJG /CNC[UKC $QQM QH Records BY ASHRAF WAHAB

Earlier this year, Uncle Gedek earned a spot in the Malaysia Book of Records for having the ‘Longest Ongoing Daily 6HO¿H 3KRWRJUDSK\ 3URMHFW¶ %XW IRU WKH 50-something graphic designer from .XDOD /XPSXU WKH DFFRODGH LV MXVW LFLQJ on the cake. The real prize, he says, is the DELOLW\ WR ORRN EDFN DW KLV RZQ OLIH RQH pixel at a time. “ , QHYHU WKRXJKW LW ZRXOG ODVW WKLV ORQJ ´

he said, chuckling.

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ZHUH WKH SULPDU\ IRUP RI VRFLDO PHGLD /LNH PDQ\ RWKHUV 8QFOH *HGHN ZKRVH UHDO QDPH KH PRGHVWO\ NHHSV XQGHU ZUDSV XQOHVV \RX IROORZ KLP RQ VRFLDO PHGLD ZDQWHG WR MRLQ WKH FRQYHUVDWLRQ %XW XQOLNH many others, he didn’t see himself as a ZRUGVPLWK “I’m a very visual person. My back ground is in commercial art and graphic GHVLJQ , QHHGHG D YLVXDO ZD\ WR EORJ ´ KH VDLG $QG VR KH EHFDPH KLV RZQ VXEMHFW A UPHG ZLWK D FDPHUD DQG D ZU\ VHQVH of humour (thanks in part to his stint ZRUNLQJ IRU WKH PDJD]LQH Gila-Gila ), Uncle Gedek turned the mundane into WKH PHPRUDEOH 2̇ FH FXELFOHV URDGVLGH stalls and even the occasional pasar malam became backdrops for his evolving YLVXDO GLDU\ 7KH VHO¿HV SRVWHG GDLO\ RQ his blog Blog Begins At Forty , are usually SDLUHG ZLWK SXQFK\ FDSWLRQV ± VRPHWLPHV DEVXUG VRPHWLPHV UHÀHFWLYH DQG RIWHQ MXVW SODLQ IXQQ\ “ , XVHG WR EH VK\ DERXW WDNLQJ VHO¿HV LQ SXEOLF ´ KH DGPLWWHG “ , VWDUWHG ZLWK VDIH VSDFHV OLNH KRPH RU WKH Ṙ FH %XW RQFH , UDQ RXW RI LGHDV IRU FDSWLRQV , KDG WR VWHS RXWVLGH DQG ¿QG QHZ LQVSLUDWLRQ $Q\WKLQJ LQWHUHVWLQJ IXQQ\ RU EHDXWLIXO EHFDPH IDLU JDPH ´ What started as a novelty soon became a habit. Over the years, that habit turned into a personal archive, one that captures QRW MXVW KLV IDFH EXW DOVR WKH VXEWOH LQHYL table changes of time. “The most obvious difference is my KDLU IURP EODFN WR ZKLWH $QG ,¶YH JRW DJH VSRWV QRZ 7KDW¶V ZK\ , WXUQHG R̆ DOO FDPHUD ¿OWHUV , ZDQWHG WKH DJHLQJ SURFHVV WR EH UHFRUGHG FOHDUO\ ´ KH VDLG

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