Yesterday I went to a contemporary photography exhibition from the Netherlands, entitled Dutch Dare. Didn't go alone, I asked Sasha to come along with me. Well, more like forced her actually. We originally planned to go there in Friday, but the shitty weather got in the way... the plan was postponed two times already, so yeah I got kinda pushy. Sorry Sha. :p




Anyway, it was fantastic. Probably the best exhibition I've seen since the late Kartono Riyadi's photojournalistic works nearly a year ago. There were around 12 Dutch photographers participating in this exhibition, each exploring a different theme. Some of them I really dig. After I went home I searched their names on the net and found some interesting links. I'll list 'em on the last part of this entry.


One of my favorite photos from that exhibition. "Still Life Milk" by Elspeth Diederix.



Osama watches you! This T-shirt was part of the exhibition, along with other torn up shirts who originally belong to Papuan people, though the garments themselves were given by outsiders. The portraits of the original wearers of these shirts were the subjects of a series done by one of the photographers, Roy Villevoye.


There weren't many people in the gallery, I liked it.




Anyway, here are a few links of some of the photographers involved in this exhibitions that I found interesting.

Marnix Goossens
Check out his "Regarding Nature" and "Super Natural" series!

Elspeth Diederix
.....I really don't know how to describe this lady's works. Just check it out, I'm sure you will find some unusual beauties.

Gerco de Ruijter
Aerial photographs using kites. You guys having the hots for shapes, colors, patterns and textures will love his images.

Hans van der Meer
This guy... makes photos that mix landscapes photography and sport photography (more specifically, football). As weird as that sounds, it really is so, and it's actually pretty cool. He manages to capture the essences of both genres and present it in a single frame without making neither of them lost its individual charm. You can adore the compositions and the view of the landscapes (where the football players amusingly become a part of the visual elements), yet at the same time you could also see that there's indeed an interesting moment happening within the sport context of that particular frame. If that hasn't floored you yet, dig this: he did it with a fucking view camera.

Gert jan Kocken
He photographs places in which a tragedy happened in the past. There are rarely signs of the tragedies themselves in the photographs, we only know about it from the captions of the photos, but this actually makes these photos feel really eerie. Can't find his personal website, seems like he's in some group called Solar Photography. Some of the names found above are also on this group, do check out the rest of the names.

Hope you will find some of those links interesting as well!

Yet another set from the Sekaten fair. This time going with the guys from the architecture campus who take photography class this semester. I was mostly walking around by myself though, since I don't really fancy shooting around too much people who also hold camera on their hands. Nothing personal, I just hate getting spotted more often. ;) I wonder if I should go to the fair again, it's gonna be over this weekend... then I have to wait for another year to see a fair this big.

But anyway...

I don't feel like writing much in this entry, so just try to enjoy the pics! :)

All photos by FM2n + 50/1.8 + TMAX 400 normal. The most expensive BW film in town, it's considered a luxury to use this film here, haha. Bought two of these, and consequently getting broke after it. ;p



An example of a lousy timing after prefocusing... kinda too bad, I like this frame.




Dunno why I took this. ART stuff. I think.



Remember this guy? I didn't either, at least not until after I took this frame. He took out his glasses from his pocket, put it on, and I only realized then that he was the funky cig vendor I met in Ngasem. Pretty cool, I talked with him for a while afterwards. Gonna give a print of this to him later. :)




No, it's not a hail. ;p He's inviting people to get on an amusement ride he's working in.



Aand... that's it for now. Take care, you all!

This entry will be mostly about dogs. Not Elliott Erwitt's kind of dog shots (I wish!), these are just a couple of snapshots taken on some event called Jogja Dog's Day 2 about 3 weeks ago...

Anyway, all photos by Nikon FM + 50/1.4 + Superia X-tra 400.

...Wait wait, isn't that a different setup than the one I usually use? Well, yeah. See, I was asked by Mita's dad (A very nice man, btw) to sell his old camera, which happened to be a beautiful black FM with a 50mm f/1.4 MF, both still in a very good condition albeit the body had gotten dirt inside the pentaprism. I could just put it to some camera shop to clean the prism, but this baby is just pretty darn irresistible. So I took it out for a walk, and considering the time it had spent inside a jar (seriously, with like, 4 or 5 lens.....) I was pretty impressed by the results it delivered.

The FM feels pretty much like the FM2, though the maximal speed of 1/1000th sometimes get in the way when you wanna make shallow DOF in bright daylight (compared to max speed of 1/4000th in the FM2) . It also lacks a multiple exposure lever present in FM2, but most people don't use it anyway.

There was some terrible disaster though concerning this camera... more on that later.

Anyway, where was I? right, dogs photos.

Hipshot. I like all the little details in this frame.





......Yes.





My friend Tommy, with someone's pup.




Camera geeking with Mita. Shooting daylight film in a yellowish interior wasn't really a good idea...

As you can see, the lens is still really sharp. Haven't tested it wide open though. The colors are off in some frames, but I think it's just me being a retard and overexposed them, and I'm too lazy to correct the color balance.

And about the disaster mentioned earlier... See, I accidentally dropped my bag from a table. With the FM inside. Ouch. The first thing I noticed was the advance lever which got loose. Ouch. Just a couple of days ago I brought it to a camera shop to get it repaired, only to find out that aperture blades of the lens were not working either. Ouch. It would seem that I trashed it big time. :-s They said it was gonna take about 2 weeks to get it all done. Sure hope everything will be working properly again. *crosses fingers*

Last Sunday I went to Prambanan temple with school friends to shoot Tawur Kesanga, a ceremony before the day of Nyepi (Day of Silence, the new year of Balinese Hindu). Only brought the D50 with me, I'm currently too broke to afford films. :(

Since it's a cultural ceremony, it's only normal to see so many photographers --serious photojournalists and hobbyists alike-- around the place to cover the event. But you guys knowing my style... could already guess that I was more interested in the totally random scenes I found instead of the ceremony itself. ;)

Besides, we got there 2 hours too early anyway, so we got some time to fiddle around the temple before the ceremony started. Anyway, on to the photos:




Don't usually do that kind of shadow self-portrait, but I couldn't resist.


My school friend, Very. If this were on film I'd try to print this at grad 4 or heck, 5.


Yet another shadow self-portrait. It's getting pretty addictive.


There were some school kids on study tour that morning. ...Still with my shadow. :o Last one of these, I promise.



....Perhaps not. Btw the only people here is me and a friend of mine, frame left. The other shadows are temple ornaments.


Which one do you like better? It was a clear blue sky morning, just had to take these. Also looks pretty good in colors, but I like the b/w better.


On the way to the ceremony ground:



And some random scenes around the ceremony ground:

....yeah, me being a retard.


Some panning actions!




A dancer helping another fellow dancer fixing his make-ups.


And to end this entry... kids! Hope this finds you all well!