“To be creative you need to push, you need to go beyond boundaries, and most times trying to be creative leads to crap, work that is average at best. But after trying a “million” times, some gems are created. And here it comes a key step in creativity – only if you are able to eliminate the “average” you can reveal the good work.”
“ Why don’t we shoot this next job on film. Everything is starting to look the same with digital — too clean, too perfect, too normal… ”
There are plenty of jokes about how people know more about Bali than Indonesia. How people thought that Bali is a country next to Indonesia. How famous is the island of gods. How you have not trully visit Indonesia without ever visiting Bali. While, I believe, there are lots of pictures of Bali around the internet, these pictures by Magnum photographers should give us more perspectives of Bali through the eyes of some of the legendary photographers.
Indonésie. Bali. © Raymond Depardon (Magnum Photos)
INDONESIA, Bali. © Burt Glinn (Magnum Photos)
INDONESIA. Bali. Close to Ubud, in the Central Highlands. Terraced rice fields. 2000. © Stuart Franklin (Magnum Photos)
Indonesia. Bali. Rice plantations. 1993. © Peter Marlow (Magnum Photos)
INDONESIA. Bali. Kuta. 1993. © Martin Parr (Magnum Photos)
INDONESIA. Bali. Kuta.1993. © Martin Parr (Magnum Photos)
KUTA BEACH: One of the favorite surfer spots. © Harry Gruyaert (Magnum Photos)
INDONESIA. Bali. Town of Ubud. Ladies of the court wait at the palace during the cremation ceremony for King Tjokorda Gede Agung SUKAWATI. 1979. © Bruno Barbey (Magnum Photos)
Elaborate preporations made in the dressing of a Legong dancer for a performance. Training begins at five for these dancers and retirement is 12 or 13. Firstly they prepare the frangi-pani flowers for the head-dresses, the faces are heavily powdered, eyebrows shaved and reshaped with black paint. The rich costumes of the Legong are treasured as village heirlooms and are considered holy. © George Rodger (Magnum Photos)
INDONESIA. Bali. 1949. In a little village 5 kilometers away from Ubud lives the Guru (teacher) of the dancers of Ubud. The guru is also a farmer like everyone else. This picture shows him giving a dance lesson to his little daughter Ikakol in his yard. The method of training consists in guiding the movements of the pupil, leading him energetically by the wrists until by sheer repetition the pupil acquires the “feeling” of the gesture and can do the movements by himself. © Henri Cartier-Bresson (Magnum Photos)
Indonesia. Bali. Traditional Balinese dance of good overcoming evil. 1990 © Ian Berry (Magnum Photos)
INDONESIA. Bali. 1996. Cockfighting, Scalpel-like knives are fastened firmly to the feet of the gamecock. Their beaks are sharpened as well. The area around the pit is a scene of wild confusion during the few minutes before the fight begins as fans place bets. © Hiroji Kubota (Magnum Photos)
INDONESIA. Bali. Bedugul. Boys pray in the mosque. Bali has a majority of Hindus, descendants of Javanese who refused to embrace Islam and fled to the neighboring island. 1989. © Abbas (Magnum Photos)
INDONESIA. BALI. Kuta-Tirtagangga. 28 February 1983. © Mark Power (Magnum Photos)
BALI. Fashion story with Celia Forner. 1989. © Ferdinando Scianna (Magnum Photos)
INDONESIA, Bali: fashion story with Celia FORNER © Ferdinando Scianna (Magnum Photos)
Cover of the German magazine “Heute”. 21 June, 1950. Henri CARTIER-BRESSON’s photograph: Indonesia. Bali. 1949. © Henri Cartier-Bresson (Magnum Photos)
reflected © Dicky Jiang
morning © Dicky Jiang
hospital window © Dicky Jiang
I have known Dicky Jiang for a while now. We live in the same city and we share the same passion in photography. I like his pictures because he sees things differently than most of the other photographers in Bandung. He mostly take pictures of things that most of us overlooked or thought to be mundane or insignificant, yet they’re precious to him. Which is a nice reminder to us all, photographers, to take pictures of what matter most to us, something that only you can take pictures of, something special in your heart. In short, if you look into his photo archives you look into his life. And somehow he can always find the empty, serene, and peaceful side of the city of Bandung which is kind of surreal compared to the complex reality.
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Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m a 36 y/o, a husband, a father, and a screen printer.
What do you do, when not taking pictures?
Developing negs, Flickr-ing. Ha ha, kidding, I run a small screen printing business, and do most of the t-shirt designs, so when not clicking the shutter, I’m clicking a mouse. And of course taking times with my family.
What is your first picture ever taken? Can you share it with us? And what’s the story behind the picture?
Well I’m not quite remember it, since it should be taken when I was 13 y/o, but I can give you a story behind the camera, it’s a brand new Yashica FX3 ( I still use it occasionally ). That’s my first camera, I was winning some cash as a prize for a drawing competition (I can’t remember how much, but it’s quite big for a 13 y/o back then), so my dad decided to buy a camera for me. ( way to go dad! ).
We feel emptiness and loneliness in some of your photos. What are you trying to tell us here?
Ouch!, I got that question a lot ( especially from my wife ha ha ). Well, I cannot really describe it either, I thought and try to explain it for myself sometimes.
Maybe it’s got to do with my Melancholy Personality. The dark, gloomy, emptiness & loneliness evokes questions, lots of questions rather than answers. And do you know that, finding the right questions are so often more important than the answers we find? Or maybe I listening to Suede too long.
What do you like to photograph the most? What is your favourite subject?
Many things, I like capturing the mood so I’m not really object oriented. But if I have to pick one it’s got to be birds, flying birds
When you’re walking down the streets and looking through the viewfinder, what do you see?
I typically find myself attracted to a photographic composition because I happened to see it from a certain angle. I’ve learned to just give in to my intuition, with the faith that my subconscious sometimes knows better than my rational self. I cannot rush this delicate process. I’m a slow photographer.
I can’t leave you without asking, why do you collect so many cameras? How you decide to buy a camera?
Well, I don’t collect, in a way as a collector. I just like to experience with different camera, systems, lenses, etc. I think it’s GAS (note: Gear Acquisition Syndrome). Ha ha ha. But once I tried to work with them, and if I don’t feel comfortable with it, I’ll sell them, and try another. so it comes and goes. That’s why I don’t consider my self as a collector.
How much cameras do you own now? Which one do you use the most?
Right now, I have only 6, I’ve just sold many of them recently. Mostly I use Yashica Mat 124G, Hasselblad 500C/M, and Olympus OM2. but as you’ve already knew I just got Rolleiflex 2.8, it’s very comfortable to use very smooth, heavier than Yashica Mat but smooth. I think it’s going to replace the Mat124 .
I understand that you’re preparing your own book now. Care to share with us about the process?
I’m working on photobook about the city I live, and try to capture it on a square format.
What is the meaning of photography for you?
I think photography is a great medium for people to see things the way other people (a photographer) saw it.
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More of Dicky Jiang’s pictures can be found on his Flickr photostream or through his blog.
It’s 2009 already, well, happy new you!
If you have been following this blog out of the feed reader, you should have already noticed that I’ve added a feed from my Tumblr account. If you haven’t seen it, please do, I promise it’ll be fun. I was on Tumblr for quite a long time but, back then, I didn’t know what to do with it. Now I do. It’s some kind of a melting pot for me. A place where I can put everything interesting, everything that caught my attention, quote, video, text, link, audio, chat, and most importantly, photos. It’s growing into quite a collection now, it might come in handy some day.
You might also noticed about some other blogs that I’m doing now. The Indonesia photobloggers is a group we started on Flickr back in the 2006 where Indonesian or foreigners who take pictures about Indonesia can gather and have some fun. The Indonesia Photobloggers blog has been reactivated to showcase some of the best pictures we have on the group’s pool. I don’t know if I can keep it up for long enough but I know I have fun browsing through the old awesome pictures from friends all over the world.
The Grain project is a place where we can share and learn together. As photographers and friends. You may call it a photography collective or a group or a playing ground or whatever it is. We share the same dreams and we hope for a better future. The truth is, it’s never been easy to gather 4 – 5 photographers with our own egos and ideas, together in a group. But it’s something we have to learn too. We are still very early in the beginning, we’re still trying to figure things out, and frankly we’re still in the middle of chaos. But more interesting things to come out soon, I promise.
With all things, new things, going on around me I started to get confused. Which to post where and when. I know this personal blog here is meant for me to post my personal photos, or ongoing projects, but look here I posted someone else’s photos. No pictures from me for now. But I do have some potentially good posts which I still don’t where to post. For now, just hang on with me.