Zoomby, the artist - my friend
I first met Zoomby Zangger on a quiet stretch of beach in Phuket back in 1978. Quiet and unassuming, he approached me when he heard I was a travel agent from Singapore, to enquire about travelling to Sarawak. Having made several trips there, I was able to give him some information about the capital, Kuching.

Several months later, he appeared at my office in Singapore, having come straight from the harbour after sailing back from Borneo. All excited, he was eager to share his stories with me. We met for drinks that evening and then it began, a friendship that has lasted till today. We travelled to Jakarta and Bali afterwards and there we parted company. A few months later, I received an invitation from him to visit him in St Louis, France, in the Alsace region bordering Basle, Switzerland. He would be home before Christmas and I was invited to spend Christmas with him and his family. So in December 1978, I flew to Zurich and spent about a week there.

That started an almost annual ritual for me to visit Zoomby in France and later in Switzerland, after his move to Basel. I knew he was an artist but in all the time I spent with him, he never really spoke much about his works. I stayed with him and used to look at all his works which were all over the apartment. I liked many of them but I had no idea how much he was selling them for and was too embarrassed to ask in case I couldn’t afford it. In 1988, during my visit there, I saw a painting he did called “Exotisme a l'envers” (Reverse Exotic) which caught my eye. He explained that the painting was really about me – my then obsession with skiing and living in the tropics. It showed my ski glove and stokes on a window sill with bamboo hanging out. In the background, was the sea and there is a boat with a few people in it. At the time he painted this piece, his two brothers were with me and we were on our way to a nice tropical island off Malaysia. Of course I felt a strong connection to the painting and summed up enough courage to ask him the price. I bought it and subsequently became more and more fascinated with his paintings and by his unique style and subject matter that I started to buy his works regularly.

Over the years, Zoomby and I have travelled quite a few times together. We did quite a lot of things together over the years - like celebrating Bastille Day in Paris, spending a quiet winter in Venice, running around the Indian area of Kuala Lumpur looking for incense and Sarawak pepper, savouring the delights of local food in a market in Phuket, some après ski fun in some ski resort in France or Switzerland, or just simply having a quiet talk in a bar or café in Basel or Singapore, Phuket or wherever we happen to be. The one thing I could count on was always his good company and stimulating conversations. His observations of life is both realistic and down to earth. Highly principled, kind, considerate and witty. As a friend, I have found none better.

A. Rahman Talib