'For Malaysian photographers, it is important to exhibit alongside their peers from other countries so that there is comparison and exchange.'

The blockbuster of the biennale is The Loke Legacy: The Photography Collection of Dato Loke Wan Tho, which will run at the National Art Gallery (NAG) until March. Collected in the 1950s and donated to the NAG in 1963, the exhibition comprises 539 pictures by 173 photographers from more than 25 countries. It's the largest collection of pictorialism in the region and possibly the world.

Co-curated by Moh and Chong Li En, the exhibition consists of three components - landscapes, still lifes and studies, and portraiture - and features pioneer photographers such as Ansel Adams from the US, Canada's Yousof Karsh, Hong Kong's Francis Wu, and Yip Cheong Fun of Singapore.

Born in Kuala Lumpur in 1915, Loke Wan Tho was the ninth child of tin magnate Loke Yew. Loke Wan Tho expanded the family business into property, hotels and film studios. He was also a bird photographer of international stature.

'Dato Loke Wan Tho was a privileged man who made his collection available when the country was still very young,' says Chong. 'His fellow Malayans who had no chance to travel could experience the diversity and cultures of the world through the photographs.'

Sabah-born artist-photographer Yee I-Lann shows a series of digital montages, Sulu Stories, at the biennale. Yee created the works from photos she shot of the region and images she bought from archives. Yee says she had only a vague idea about Sulu until she started researching this southern province of the Philippines in May. 'When you do an [Internet search] on Sulu, there's so little information - as though it's an area that's fallen off the map,' says the 34-year-old, who has exhibited in Asia, Australia and Europe. 'And yet, it's an area where all the metaphors of the modern world can be found.'

Part of Sulu is Islamic, but the activity of the Moro National Liberation Front has led to the province's isolation over the past 30 years. Sulu has long links with the outside world, however. Its colonisation began 1,000 years ago, with visits by Chinese merchants and the Arab traders who brought Islam - long before the arrival of the Spanish, Dutch and British.

'As far as I'm concerned, globalisation started in the 15th century, right here in Sulu,' Yee says. 'I'm in search of the temperament and the genetic memory of Sulu. I'm like a historian or a researcher in this project. The images produced are like a by-product.'

Sharon Lam's photo-murals of man-made landscapes are part of the Blink exhibition of international photography the Darling Muse Art Gallery, from August 17 to 31. Using a medium-format camera, the Malaysian photographer hopes to document what she calls the fake realities we've constructed in our environment. 'Have you wondered why people have stopped talking in lifts, although nobody has made it a rule?' she asks. 'And what would compel you to bring exterior structures into interior spaces?'

Lam's work lacks a human presence, but she says it's an ongoing investigation into the 'ritual of living'. The images 'are really a final consequence of a lot of reading into human behaviour', says the 31-year-old, who has recently been selected for Changing Faces, a residency programme in Britain initiated by the International Photography Research Network.

Perhaps the most extraordinary exhibition in the biennale is Insight, which runs until Saturday at the Photographers' Gallery, in Jalan Ampang, and features images by 48-year-old Leong Siak Yin, a masseur who works at Kuala Lumpur's Brickfields community for the blind.

Leong focuses with his ears, triggers by instinct, and shoots with his heart. His photos are honest and unpretentious - a relief from works by photographers who are driven by the supposed glamour of war or arcane concepts. Before the project, Leong didn't consider himself an artist or a photographer. However, his photos are proof that compelling art is always driven by a compelling story.

Leong calls his collection The Silent Scream. Before he embarked on the project, he hadn't shot anything for 15 years. His previous experience with a camera was to take holiday snapshots.

When he was a 29-year-old administrator, Leong learnt he had a disease that would cause him to lose his sight. He became a masseur and one of his clients was professional photographer Gillian Tan, who later became a friend. She encouraged the articulate masseur to voice his frustrations and thoughts through images. At her urging, Leong began using disposable cameras seven months ago.

'At first, I was very reluctant to use the camera,' he says. 'Trust me, I can sense my subjects' reactions: here's a cuckoo with a cane on his right hand and a camera on his left hand snapping away.'

But the camera grew on Leong. Whenever his photos were developed, Tan would describe each image to him and ask for the rationale behind the shots. 'Being blind isn't synonymous with being stupid or useless,' he says. 'From my exhibition, you can see that I'm very much alive. I don't want to be a blind man. I want to be a man who just happens to be blind.'

Kuala Lumpur International Photography Biennale, National Art Gallery, 2, Jalan Temerloh, Kuala Lumpur, 10am-6pm, daily, until Oct, free.

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