Malaysian artist Kok Wan Lee is hosting his debut photography exhibition for charity.

All of the show’s proceeds will be donated to the Sunshine League which supports and assists young people.

The exhibition, Dialogue to Nature, features images, mostly of trees, taken in New York, Japan and Bermuda.

Lee came to Bermuda as a chef more than twenty years ago and is known within the art community for his abstract paintings and charcoal drawings.

The artist told ‘The Royal Gazette’: “All these 15 years I have been painting and people have never seen my photography.”

Unusually, he used a “very old camera”, a 3-megapixel Olympus C300 Zoom digital camera.

“I don’t think they make it anymore. Aren’t you amazed you can get this kind of result? I don’t use any camera tricks. All these are just straight from the photograph,” he said, laughing.

“I can do tricks with painting but not with photography. No cheating. A lot of photographers now are using the computer, they really can manipulate everything. For me, this is an honest work.

“I’ve always loved giving back to the community. I picked Sunshine League because children are the future. I am quite fortunate compared to so many people.

“By giving you don’t need to need to have $10,000 to do it. Everyone can give. It doesn’t mean you have to give money. You can give your time, your ideas and your knowledge.”

He chose photography for its accessible price point.

Nzingha Ming, the gallery director at the Bermuda Society of Arts, is excited about the exhibition.

“It’s a great idea that he decided to make it a charity event,” she said. “I know that will increase the interest as well, but the fact that Lee, who has always done abstracts, who uses charcoal and oils, is now doing photography, that alone in itself will have everybody saying, ‘I got to see it, I just gotta know’.”

Sunshine League programme managers Lisa-Jayne Metschnabel and Richard Bassett said they were also excited about the exhibition and very grateful for his contribution.

Mr Bassett said: “He’s a really great artist. The area of photography is new for him, but we’re very excited and grateful that he’s decided to support the Sunshine League and the programmes that we’re running.”

Their ‘Pathways to Independence’ scheme is a residential programme for young people between the ages of 18 and 25 who can get support in areas of education, employment, health and ultimately permanent housing.

Mr Basset said: “Our main focus is to help them achieve their goals. To help them develop life skills so that ultimately they can live independently once they’re out of the programme.”

Ms Metschnabel said the charity was aiming to launch a learning centre in January.

“We’re really hoping to recruit young people from 16 and up to join us there, really to develop different life skills like budgeting and banking and interview prep,” she said.

“Lastly, we are looking to develop what we’re calling our floating support programme, which is really targeted towards 16 to 18 year olds in foster services. As they enter their age-out process we want to be able to prepare them and help equip them with the necessary life skills they need when they transition out at 18.”

Lee’s exhibition at the Bermuda Society of Arts features 36 8x10in framed images, with a limited number of ten editions each.