Ismail Hashim's iconic photographs seek to capture the hidden beauty in the simplicity and uniqueness of everyday scenes and objects. Almari Lauk is a type of wooden cabinet with a meshed panel used to keep cooked food, plates and utensils. These types of cabinets were used in earlier days. The kitchen is recognised as the heart of the house, a place of connection of family members and friends. Celebrated for his hand-tinted technique, art historian T.K. Sabapathy commented that Ismail Hashim "expanded the medium of photography to encompass themes constructed from observed everyday reality". He employed the grid format in his work as a mode of presenting a variety of photographs within one assemblage. Such technique serves as "an aesthetic device and a means of storytelling" in the artist's view. Ismail Hashim was the first Malaysian photographer-artist to be given a retrospective exhibition. The honour came from the Penang State Art Gallery which hosted it from November 2 to 30 in 2010. Most of his important and often scathing socio-cultural-environmental commentaries were on display. Ismail was also a passionate academician having taught at a school for the deaf before he joined Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), lecturing on Graphic Design from 1979 to 1995. He returned to teach part-time from 2006 to 2007. It was at USM that he received his BA in Fine Arts in 1972 and he studied for his Master of Fine Arts (majoring in Graphic Design) at the Washington State University in the United States in 1979. Unpack-repack: Archiving & Staging Ismail Hashim (1940-2013) was presented at the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur in 2015.