TOP TO BOTTOM
© Kurniadi Widodo
My friend, Kurniadi Widodo, is a talented young photographer based in Yogyakarta, a home for many talented artists. He shoots almost (as far as I know) exclusively in black & white and has a knack for finding and aligning the geometrical pattern into his composition. The latter is, perhaps, due to his architectural study background. He’s currently a member of Unposed, a group of street photographers in Indonesia.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the President of Indonesia, is selected for the 2009 Time 100.
“The coming presidential election promises to be good to Yudhoyono, 59, thanks in no small measure to his having for the most part delivered on his promises. The history of Indonesia’s democratic journey may not be that long, but it has thus far shown that the country’s people will not re-elect a President who falls short of expectations.
Congratulation, Pak SBY, for being selected in the 2009 Time 100. It is a good start for the upcoming presidential election. Now all you need to do is, like the quote above, to deliver your promises, no less, no more, because we definitely will not elect or re-elect a President who falls short of expectations.
I have been following Dani Subagja’s blog for a long time and enjoying his pictures from Hong Kong. He is indeed one of Indonesia’s talented photographers. Dicky Jiang contacted him and help me pass along these questionnaires. About Dani himself, to borrow the words from Dicky:
“ I came across Dani’s work while browsing around through another fellow photoblogger. The way he could capture random moments in an urban environment, with the interaction of the streetscapes, the people and the elements in a blink of an eye, is amazed me.
—
Hi Dani, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I’m male. I like going out, but I’m not an outgoing person. I’m part of generation X (what the heck is that!) or young adults in some of age group theories. Aw…aw…
When was your first encounter with photography? Do you still remember your first camera and first picture ever taken?
I took some photos with my father’s Yashica when I was in Junior High for documentary purpose (family and friends photos). However, I consider myself started doing photography in 2005. Back then my camera was Panasonic FZ-3 with first interest on Hong Kong skyscrapers.
You’re Indonesian who takes pictures in Hong Kong (and on early posts, pictures of Vietnam). What do you do for a living?
I’ve been residing in Hong Kong for several years. I’m helping with one of Hong Kong registered charity organizations and doing photo documentation for several social events.
You have a day-job and a family, yet you have to find time to take pictures (and edit them) and maintaining a blog. Any practical tips on how you do it all? I believe there are many people with the same case.
I’m lucky that my life and my daily living is not complicated and quite flexible. I prefer evening to night time to develop the negatives, scan them, and doing the blog. I’m bringing my camera wherever I go and therefore, I give myself opportunity to take picture almost every time.
How important is it for a photographer to have a blog?
I think having blog is very important for photographer who wants to share his/her creative works with others. Furthermore, for me it is the way to enjoy my own photos.
We see that you have a special interest in human on the streets (thus your blog name “Street Moments”). What prompted you to start taking pictures on the streets?
Street represents the dynamic communal place/environment; where “split seconds” are happening all the time. There are lots of unexpected encounters. There are also chances to be close with others while I am still able to opt to be stranger to them or not. Other than that, it’s a wise way to make use of good pair of walking shoes [“Get a good pair of walking shoes and …fall in love” is Abbas advice for young photographers in one of his interviews].
We also see that you have a keen eye on geometry. How important is it as a factor in your composition?
I guess l naturally like geometry . I can say I rarely prepare what I’m going to photograph. While taking photos, the geometry just comes naturally; especially in the place like Hong Kong which is rich of geometrical scenes. I find it’s pretty interesting to get composition of combined geometry + people + (specific) moment.
Why black & white?
In my opinion, black & white photo somehow is more able to tell the depth of the story; something beyond the color (black & white) itself since it might be easier to get disrupted by the colors of photo with more colors. I agree both colors and black & white work better for certain subjects. I think colors photo describes the subject while black & white photos narrates the subject. As additional to that, I guess it also has to do with my personal taste. I find black & white photos appeal to me and inspired me better.
What is your most memorable picture? Can you share the story?
This is difficult; I’m very fond of many pictures I have taken. Among them are the photos I took in southern Vietnam. I think I’ve been obsessed with Vietnam and its history. I traveled there for about 14 days and did some tours to the interesting historical places with cool travel guides. I made new friends who took me to distinctive local eatery and to try distinctive local cuisine. I met cyclo driver who requested me to take photo with him and his cyclo without any reward. I met a war veteran who was very keen to be photographed as well as to exchange email addresses. I felt quite safe there although it’s a strange land. The food fit my taste buds. What else I can say; it’s sort of a perfect journey to me.
What do you want to achieve in photography? Your goal, plan or even a dream.
As simple as to capture the specific moment and scene, then to tell them in the present time; as ambitious as to rewind the photographs again in the future.
Who is your inspiration in life & photography?
In life: my better half, feeling of comfort, good days, nights, and music.
In photography: black & white photos, especially magnum photos.
What do you like to do when not taking pictures?
Spending time with person(s) I’m comfort with, watching movies, sleeping, and doing computer/internet-related things.
What is the meaning of photography to you?
I couldn’t find suitable words to describe it well, please advise me :)).
Photography is a real deal to me; I have loyal feeling to it, it relates closely with my mind and my character, it simply helps me to figure out myself and to record my encounters with other subjects.
—
ALL IMAGES © Dani Subagja
You can see more of his works on his blog, Street Moments.
All images, from (“Saving Angkor“)
© Rony Zakaria
“The Temples of Angkor undoubtedly has an important position in the life of Cambodian people. Not only in terms of tourism but also in their culture, religion and national identity, the latter is shown clearly in the national flag. The Angkor Archaeological Park, located in northern Cambodia, is claimed as the most important archaeological site in South East Asia.
Stretching over 400 square kilometers, Angkor has been a major tourist destination in Cambodia. But along with the increasing number of tourist visiting the site, the original condition inside the temples are deteriorating. To preserve this valuable heritage and culture of Cambodia, an effort to preserve the artifacts is currently under progress at Angkor Conservation Office (Conservation D’Angkor) where approximately 7,000 items from the temples are kept and registered.
After studying photography at Galeri Foto Jurnalistik Antara in 2006, Rony Zakaria has been doing some personal documentary projects. In 2007, he was selected among several young photographers across Asia to join the photography workshop at Angkor Photography Festival. Saving Angkor was his project during the festival where he document the preservation of the heritage and cultural artifacts in Angkor.
I’ve been following his works for a while, and I think he’s good, but I can feel he’s changing after the 2007 Angkor Photo Festival. He’s shaping and developing his personal style nicely after that and growing to become the future of Indonesia documentary photography.
When I first set my eyes on the works of Karolus Naga, I can’t take my eyes off of the rich black & white pictures. But that’s not all, it’s the content that really seduce you. He sees the world around him, the simple daily life, and turns it into a beautiful picture along with beautiful texts. Yes, I think he writes as good as he takes pictures, no doubt about it. And while I think he’s a good photographer, a really good one, I think he’s bigger than that. I think we’re seeing a philosopher with a camera and a big dream ready to set his feet in the big world out there.
“I’m so tired but I can’t sleep
Standing on the edge of something much too deep
It’s funny how we feel so much but
We cannot say a word
We are screaming inside but
We can’t be heard
— Sarah McLachlan
Tell us a bit about yourself?
I’m twenty something male, with underexposed brain and overexposed dreams. And sad to say to all the chicks out there, I’m taken.
What do you do for a living? How does photography get along with your life?
Freelance photographer, that’s what the dictionary says. But you should try my brew, ha-ha kidding.
When did you first learn about photography? Initially, what did you wanted to be?
First taking pictures at 10, latter at 18 started to opened my eyes and dig inch by inch about what the heck photography is. Wasting my time in the dark room of my campus by my self, at age 21 each time I got a new lesson, there always thousand new things that I don’t know (about it). Even until now, I am as blind as the first time I started to be in love with photography. Love is blind anyway…
As a beginner, I learned most of its fields. Landscape, studio, portrait, stage performance, still life, street, macro, etc … and now I’m focusing on documentary photography. It’s funny how our life – I mean our ordinary life – looks great on a still frame.
What do you enjoy when not taking pictures?
Chess game, killing my time by reading books although I’ve already read it for many times, playing with my dog, Friday night futsal, fishing, chit chat with LSD, blog walking, news browsing etc…
But the most enjoying thing to me is in the dark room, developing the films. It’s my personal pleasure.
What is/are your special talent(s) beside photography?
To tell the truth, I don’t have any talents even in photography. But this just between me and you, I just pretend to look like a talented person.
When did you start your blog? How important it is for a photographer to have a blog?
I think it was 2006, started with personal stuff – writings and pictures – then I changed the content at 2007 to show off my photographs – once again just to pretend that I am a photographer that loves to blog. For me, a blog is similar to an exhibition gallery of who the hell I am.
The world is a global village, said Marshall McLuhan. If you read again the words from Sarah – one that I put on the very first place of this interview page – you can figure out the meaning of an online page to everyone, no matter if you are photographer or not. Internet it self has become a ‘world’ where everybody from all round the globe connected through it. With an online page – blog in our case – we can introduce our self to the worldwide (our way of view), making connection, learning from the others works and develop our own style.
We notice on your blog that you write as good as you take pictures. While there’s a saying that a picture worth’s a thousand words, what do you think of the connection between good texts and good pictures? Which one do you enjoy most, writing or taking pictures?
I used to trust on that phrase, long time ago. I used to trust that a one point three mega pixel picture worth’s a thousand words.
But when 2002 – the first time I ‘met’ Roland Barthes – I decided to re-think about the phrase once again. I’m a barthesian for sure and ‘a picture cannot tells me the things that I wanted to see’. It worth’s nothing if there is no viewers, who have great power to put words into it. I’m not going to talking about visual semiotics craps as Barthes did on his works but indeed, his works influenced me specially when I seeing a photograph. For me, making a photograph and seeing a photograph is two different things. Writing and photography do have one thing in common, they ought to tell something. For instance, If I wanted to tell you about the East Channel Project, I can write it down in thousand words about those who lived in the Kali Adem riverside – North Jakarta easily. I will stay there for a month; dig out their stories and choosing the topic of which I wanted to tell with such style so that when you read it, you going to feel like you live there. But can I tell it with a photograph or a series of photographs. Yes, it has the same process as writing. The hard part is to stay on the track, focusing on what you want to say in each frame. I heard that when one applying on ANTARA as a photographer, he/she must entering the journalistic course where they must learn to be a reporter (writer). It’s a great lesson to learn from the writers. How they keep the simplicity in telling without blurring the reality, like those collaborating works on NatGeo magazine.
Writing is just another hobby like photography, writing is a way to put my way of view – documenting – about something. My writings on a project used to covers up the things that my pictures can not tell and so as my pictures to my writings.
You have some series going on your blog. Do you have a long term photography project?
Yes, I have two long term projects and they’re being started since 2005. My goal is to make a book to each project.
What kind of photographer are you?
If you wanted to know about my specialization in photography, I would say that I am a documentary photographer. I documenting things that I encounter on my everyday life. Trash bins, art performances, my visits to a place, gathering with friends, temples, and so on…
Where is your favorites place to take pictures? And what is your favorites subject/object to photograph?
Linked to the previous answer, I photographed everything that I wanted to photograph. You can photograph everything now said Robert Frank.
Why black and white?
It’s a simple romantic format.
What/who has the biggest influence in your photographs?
There are many names. Photographers, philosophers, painters, writers, singers, street performers, comedians, movies etc…
I really enjoy essay’s or stories, one that thematically built by those great person who talk about something freely through photographs. Sometimes they speak about something that most of us wont. The Swing from Rama Surya, Sugar Cane Blues by Edi Hasby, Paris de Nuit by Brassai, Oscar Motuloh’s Art of Dying, Tippi Nicole Thole work with Pamela Sullentrup and many more. It’s great to learn from those by exploring their works. I always started with questions, why she/he choose this topic, what he/she tries to tell, why he/she takes it like this, what’s the mean of these dark area, why it’s so elegant and so on and so on …
What do you think of photography in Indonesia?
Photography is not an exclusive thing anymore in this country. There are lots of Indonesian photographers with world class reputation, they even younger than I am. You can lug a camera, learn the basic, go out and capture the world and introduce yourself as a photographer.
What is the meaning of photography for you?
Sontag wrote on her book, ‘to photograph is too appropriate the things photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge-and therefore, like power’. She added on the same book, ‘to collect photographs is to collect world’.
For me, photography is an act of creating – the world; the world that we – photographers – passionately built, a world that we built on every photographs that we make. Still with Sontag, she said ‘in teaching us a new visual code, photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at and what we have a right to observe. They are a grammar and, even more importunately, an ethics of seeing’.
We develop images in our head and printed it into a photograph. We choose the subject, see it from different angle, calculating the amount of lights and then pull the trigger. Bang, a world created on a click – not in seven days. We are murderer at the same time. We kill the subject, frozen them into a thin film and wait for their resurgence when displaying them to the viewers. Signification as Barthes said, turning analogon to a world. We see a picture, tracking the stories on it, tracing every outlines of juxtaposed, reading it and asking to our self why this photographed. Kertész gives reason on everything he encounters with his camera, Arbus sees secret of a secret and Winogrand sees life on his photographs.
—
More of Karolus Naga can be seen on his blog, The Author Is Dead.
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.
—
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.
—
More of Dicky Jiang’s pictures can be found on his Flickr photostream or through his blog.
It was yesterday, Saturday morning. Nothing unusual except my friends asking me about an earthquake. What earthquake?
Apparently my lack of TV watching activity has kept me uninformed about this. To all my friends worldwide who’ve been asking about my well being: Thank you, I am okay. Bandung is in West Java while the earthquake was in Central Java, quite far from my city.
I was only told via SMS.
The city was badly damaged. People died, 3,000 people and still counting. More people were hurt. The airport was damaged and have to be closed down. Some of the candi were damaged. The railway were damaged. Communication not working well. And learning for the disaster in Aceh, people were afraid of tsunami from the south sea.
After so many things happened in the past couple of years, I don’t know what to say anymore. Right now I just want to help them anyway possible. My deepest condolences to all the people in Yogyakarta. Many have died. Many were hurt. Many were scared and confused. But believe me my friends, this will make us all stronger in the future. Have faith and pray.
p.s. Apparently the earthquake also hit some other Pacific nations a day after the Java earthquake. Hold on tight, everyone.
To read the story from people experiencing this, you can read BBC’s Java Earthquake: Reader’s Experiences.
To see pictures taken after the earthquake you can see it on BBC and Flickr.
Read more news about Java Earthquake:
CNN: Indonesia quake kill more than 3,000
BBC: Search for Java quake survivors
other website related to Java earthquake on Google
80′s Never Dies! is an Indonesia blog about anything 80′s. Since I grew up in that era, I recognize most of its content. Cool! [via Enda]
I love blogs and I love movie. That’s why I love this blog: Sinema Indonesia. It’s all about Indonesian movie review (it’s written in Indonesian). It’s fun and refreshing. [via Enda]
Tempo Photostock. It is believed to contain 2 millions (I didn’t count it myself) of photos about Indonesia starting from 1971. That’s huge and that’s old. But surely interesting. Link from JalanSutera.