Canon Malaysia has refreshed her line-up of EOS ambassadors for 2020 to uplift their branding with two categories, the EOS Youth Ambassador and the open category – EOS Ambassador.
Relying on spokespersons to represent a brand is quite common but some products need specialization and professionalism in its own field. If a brand collaborates with an ambassador who does not carry their weights well, the brand image will be on the line. With the announcement of Canon’s 2020 EOS Ambassadors with two categories, Mr. Albert Mah, Head of Imaging Communication Products Division at Canon Marketing Malaysia says “The Canon EAs and EYAs were elected based on different levels of experience, their united passion in photography and their unique flair in photography skills…”
So, what are the roles of both Canon Malaysia‘s EOS & EOS Youth Ambassadors? To summarise their roles (which are pretty much the same, just different audience segments), they have to:-
- Increase Brand awareness/relevancy ranging from photo enthusiast to semi-professional and professional photographers
- Strengthen the brand’s position as the choice amongst the enthusiasts and professionals
- Promote and build affinity amongst other enthusiasts and professionals within the photography industry.
- To become workshop speakers to share experience, passion, and knowledge.
Okay, now we know the roles they have to play, let’s see who are they, some are existing and some are new.
EOS AMBASSADOR
Andrew Koh
Andrew’s first camera was a classic Canon camera. It was then, he picked up most of his photography and technical skills. He has dabbled in much commercial work for renowned brands. He is the co-founder of Thirty Three Production, a production company specializing in corporate and magazine shoots, with clients ranging from Gap Malaysia, Samsung, to Adidas, EcoWorld, Yves Rocher and more. Known for his minimalist wedding and commercial ad campaigns, he values facial expressions in a natural setting that truly reflects the emotions and moment in time. Plain and simple will best describe his style, with his favorite genre being black and white photography.
Asmady Ahmad
Asmady is based in the northern region. Being an avid Canon user, Asmady conducted many workshops and classes. He is also a two-time winner of our Canon PhotoMarathon (CPM) and was also one of the CPM 2018 judges. Being one of the top wedding and portrait photographers in his region, Asmady has been in the wedding and portrait photography business for almost 13 years.
Bonnie Yap
This outspoken lady started her photography career back in 1990. Her 12-year stint with The Star publication enabled her to broaden her photography portfolio. Bonnie is best known for her indoor studio food shoots to entertainment, travel and fashion photography. This versatile photographer has also made a foray into video production. She has come a long way from a junior event photographer to a professional she is today.
Edwin Lay (NEW)
From a humble beginning as a part-time wedding photographer back in 2006, Edwin now specializes in capturing moments, particularly of sports and adventure. He started covering corporate events in 2007, and through word-of-mouth and blogs, his skills became one that is sought after. This led him to pursue a full-time career as a photographer. 2009 saw him conducting workshops under the renowned Alvin Leong Academy, sharing his passion with budding photographers.
Fazry Ismail (NEW)
Fazry is a Malaysia Chief Photographer for European Pressphoto Agency (EPA). After graduating from UiTM with a degree in photography and creative imaging, he joined Malaysia’s English newspaper, The Star and online portal Malaysia Gazette before EPA. He has covered major events such as the mass protest in Hong Kong, the Winter Olympics in South Korea, the Summer Olympics in Brazil, the APEC Summit in Papua New Guinea, the Mecca Hajj in Saudi Arabia, the FIBA Basketball in China, the US-North Korea Summit in Vietnam, the China-Taiwan meeting in Singapore, as well as the Songkran Festival in Bangkok to name a few.
Glenn Guan
A photojournalist and assistant chief photographer with The Star, Glenn has an interest in action photography, having learned the ropes whilst starting off as a nature photographer. He is a winner of multiple awards of local and international awards and is considered a veteran in global sports assignments.
Grace Tan (NEW)
Grace brings a wealth of storytelling experience from her background in film and television production, where her early works spanned award-winning TV programs and full-feature films. Being a renowned photographer for over 10 years, Grace specializes in family and personal portraits under the brand Stories.My, and has worked with a number of high-profile personalities and celebrities. Grace is passionate about developing young people in a creative capacity and organizes photography workshops as well.
Johnson Wee
Malaysian wedding photographer Johnson specializes in pre-wedding and engagement shoots. Upon entry into professional photography competitions for 4 and a half years, he racked up more than 300 international awards, including bringing the first-ever Asian photographer to score a perfect 100 points in WPPI competitions, winning the prestigious 2015 MPA Overseas Master Photographer of the Year, and being the SWPP 2017 20×16 Print Competition Overall Winner Grand Award. He is now the most awarded wedding photographer in Asia. As a Master of WPPI, a Fellow of the MPA (UK), he is also a veteran judge for various reputable photography associations. Johnson is also regularly invited to various photography events and seminars around the world.
M. Hamdan Ruhimin @ Adam R. Adzim
M. Hamdan Ruhimin @ Adam R. Adzim (or Adam) is a Sabahan-based photographer who specializes in fashion and portraiture photography. He has conducted various conceptual photography workshops throughout Sabah since 2012. To date, he has opened his own photo studio.
M. Safuan Salahudin (NEW)
Mohd Safuan hails from Alor Setar. He started his photography career back in 2013 taking photos for official government events and major sporting events in the country. To date, he has won numerous photography competitions; namely PhotoMarathon (Asia, Malaysia, Singapore), Perlis Photo Fest, MBPJ Wonders of PJ Photohunt, Selfie GTR Photo Content and the GEMPAQ V6 Ipoh, to name a few. He was also the winner of the cable TB history channel reality show, the Photo Face Off Malaysia, and he has competed with other winners in the country in the final of Photo Face Off Asia.
EOS YOUTH AMBASSADOR
Acacia Diana
Acacia Diana is an architectural graduate who started photography in 2014. To date, she has traveled to over 40 countries and enjoys capturing and sharing architectural, landscape and lifestyle photography from around the world. She curates visuals for renowned global brands and has worked with Microsoft, Starbucks, L’occitane, and Vans. She also contributes work for tourism bodies, travel publications and various humanitarian NGOs, including Four Seasons Hotels, Turkish Tourism and Lebanon and Camps. Her works have been exhibited at multiple venues, including Galeri Petronas and the Shah Alam Convention Centre.
Annice Lyn
Former national figure skater turn documentary and sports photographer, Annice Lyn believes that the art of photography is able to articulate and transpose fragments of moments into timeless imagery. She is the first female photographer from Malaysia to be accredited for the XXIII Olympic Winter Games. Her work has been picked by the Associated Press, the Washington Post, USA Today, Yahoo, ABC News, and various other news online platforms both locally and internationally. Annice was shortlisted for Southeast Asia Women of the Future 2020. She seeks to visually document mainly humanitarian interest, sports, and visual artwork photography and hopes to inspire young emerging creators and storytellers.
Barathan Amuthan
Barathan Amuthan is an acclaimed celebrity hairstylist and photographer. He was inspired by his father in becoming a photographer and expands his works between Malaysia and India. The art of capturing memories in a click has always fascinated Barathan. His art has captured local festivals, international concerts, and celebrity profiles. His love and knowledge of photography has inspired him to share with others who hold similar interests. Barathan also holds regular photography workshops.
Reuben Liu
Reuben Liu picked up his first camera in 2012 and has since been creating content. What started out as a nostalgic desire to document his university days slowly became a passion to tell stories, one frame at a time. In the day, Reuben leads a young creative team in a digital agency as an Assistant Group Head, and at night, he pursues his passion for storytelling under Roundtable Studios, a production and photography studio he founded. He aims to cultivate a culture of collaboration amongst creators in Malaysia through the #LEGGOSHOOT initiative which he started with another Canon EOS Youth Ambassador in 2018.
Rhiannon K.
Rhiannon K. is a self-taught fine art conceptual photographer from Sabah, Malaysia, who ‘creates’ moments rather than capturing them. She began developing her skills in photography at the age of 13, exploring food, landscape and event photography. In the midst of building her personal style, she discovered her passion for conceptual portraiture and has never stopped since. Being a true believer that photography is an outlet of expression and a platform to share experiences, Rhiannon aspires to be an inspiration for youths to channel their inner thoughts through art, namely photography.
Samuel Goh
As a corporate commercial photographer and filmmaker, Samuel Goh has worked on content for brands such as the World Bank, Petronas, and TNB. As a marketing and communications graduate, he understands the impact of visual content in building strong brand messages. He is currently pursuing work in a production and photography studio he co-founded with fellow ambassador Reuben Liu, called Roundtable Studios. For him, photography has always been an avenue for him to share and connect. Besides hosting workshops, his current social media network includes a community of over 40,000, where he shares stories and technical knowledge to the photography community. He is also deeply passionate about film photography and can be often found photographing the streets of KL.