Photo of the Week: One Monorail. One Skyline. What Brickfields Looks Like When You Look Back.
A single image. A single decision. What I noticed when I stopped.
I'd seen this exact spot before and liked it, but could never place where it was. I finally found it by chance on the Brickfields Heritage Walk Tour, purely because I have a habit of looking back instead of only watching what's ahead (we all look forward, hardly anyone looks back).
I'd seen this angle before, credited to another photographer, and had no idea where it was taken. I looked for it on and off for a while [the kind of half-searching you do without really trying]. Then I ended up on the Brickfields Heritage Walk Tour, which had nothing to do with trains at all.
The tour group was facing forward. The guide was talking. I was half-listening, doing the thing I always do, checking behind me in case there's something the group isn't looking at. You never know what's behind you until you turn around. This time there was a monorail sliding into the gap between two condo towers (still don't know their names), with Merdeka 118's spire filling the space behind it like it had been placed there on purpose.
Merdeka 118 is genuinely hard to photograph well from ground level. It's 678.9 metres tall, the second-tallest building in the world after the Burj Khalifa, and at that height it either dominates a frame completely or disappears into haze. From this distance in Brickfields, it does neither. It sits in the gap between two ordinary residential blocks. The building barely moves. The train does all the work.
I didn't plan this shot. I spent a while looking for it without knowing where to look. The only thing I actually did right was turn around at the right moment on a walk that had nothing to do with trains.
Location: Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur
Read more if you want to know more about Brickfields Heritage Walk Tour
FAQs
Where was this photo of the KL Monorail and Merdeka 118 taken?
Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur.
How do you find unplanned photo spots on a walking tour?
Sometimes you already know a shot exists, you just don't know where. Look back, not just forward. Most people only watch what's ahead of them; the shot worth having is often the one behind you.
How tall is Merdeka 118, the tower in the background?
678.9 metres, the second-tallest building in the world after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
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