Personal Best vol.23 | Joie Koo

Joie started creating his own world of images when he was still wearing his high school uniform. Simply but deeply into exploring the different possibilities of getting the best angles in human portraiture has got him helplessly in love to speak his mind with images. But he never made it a career until his early 30s. Began as a freelance wedding photographer, he finally decided to dive into the world of fashion to embrace his uncontainable desire for conceptual photography. Being one of the major fashion photographers in Malaysia, he transforms ideas and stories into still visuals. His cover shots for BACKSTAGE PROFESSIONAL (Malaysia leading Chinese fashion beauty magazine) is probably the best-spoken example in stylish, trendy and, probably one of a kind fashion photography. He has had twice solo exhibitions of his own photography projects, and one of them became the permanent collection of Ministry of Tourism Malaysia.
His fashion and beauty photography journey has so far covered top models and celebrities such as Malaysia top model Amber Chia, actress Chris Tong Bing Yu, TV host & DJ Cheryl Lee Xin Yi, Asia Film Award best supporting actress Yeo Yann Yann and many more.
He founded Allspire Photography back in 2009 and apart from clicking camera shutters for printed medias, with the aim to produce more inspiring photos. He was trained as a Ballet and Contemporary dancer back in Malaysia, and later a stage lighting designer before he becomes a professional photographer. Joie incorporated these passions – dance and stage lighting design, into projecting the true beauty of photography.
His well-known ability in capturing the awe-inspiring moments on the stage is the reason being the appointed as the lead photographer for one of the major Asian art-events, GEORGE TOWN FESTIVAL for 3 consecutive years. In 2015, he has been appointed as the official photographer of D’Motion International Dance Festival, and 2016 being appointed as the only official photographer for the BEIJING DANCE FESTIVAL opening performance has marked another milestone in his photography career. With his fond passion and heavy involvement in performing arts and stage lighting design, he integrates emotions and movements and freezes them well amazingly. He has seized countless split seconds and transformed them into breath-taking moments for internationally renowned dance performances by Akram Khan (U.K.), Sidi Larbi (Belgium), Shaun Parker (Australia), Riki Von Valken (Germany), Yuko Kawamoto (Japan), Joyce S Lim (USA), Rojas and Rodríguez (Spain) and Aida Redza (Malaysia).