Bali

So somehow, I already arrived in Bali last night. It sure feels strange not knowing what exactly you're doing in a place but yet there you are. I got a basic plan laid out way before I decided to go here but it seems that none of those original plans will be carried out... so I guess I'll just get a feel of the place and decide what I'm going to do as I move on. But I do have some personal search to do and getting my mind straight on a few things... so wish me luck on finding what I'm looking for. I'll be staying here for about a week and to cut some budget I wouldn't be online as much as usual.

So anyway, cheers from the island of the gods... or so they say!


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note: these two pictures are not from Bali.

Kompas Images

Good news for Indonesian photojournalism enthusiasts. Kompas recently launched Kompas Images, an image bank website containing works from the photographers of Kompas Gramedia group.

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While the website itself is currently still in beta version with many issues to overcome --for example each photographer page hardly showcases the defining examples of their respective works, and I personally find the images resolution too small to be pleasantly viewed--, I think this is a good step up for the online photojournalism scene in Indonesia. Up until this point, it is very hard to find good resources on Indonesian photojournalism in the internet, be it individual photojournalist works or even any kind of insights and stories regarding photojournalism in general. Personal websites are scarce, good photojournalism blogs are few and far in between (so far I only find Matanesia). It almost seems like good photojournalist is hard to find in Indonesia... though the images in the photobook Mata Hati clearly says otherwise. Hopefully the launch of Kompas Images will change that. Time will tell.

Thanks to Feri Latief for posting this news in his Multiply journal.

Group Exhibition

From January 22nd until 24th there's going to be a photo exhibition in the Vredeburg fort, Yogyakarta, organized by ASA 06, a photography community from Institut Seni Indonesia. The opening will be tonight, Januari 21st at 7 PM. One of my photographs will also be displayed along with around 90 other photographs from nearly 40 artists. I'm not familiar with the other participants, but among all the names I spot Bronto which I know makes good journalistic photos.

So anyway, if you happen to be around during those days be sure to check it out!

EDIT: The opening was postponed to January 22nd, still at 7 PM.

Scratch

...is the theme of this entry. Thank you, Central Photo. Tri-x @ 3200, meant as a test roll, FM2 with 50/1.4.

Not much to say about these other than they're taken in quite a long period so it's really random. Anyway so here goes.



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Reading Kertesz and Capa. With some tea and coffee. In the dark. Scratch. Art!

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Imam Priadi

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Alwan, Lucas, and Erik. Erik looks like a complete sissy in this frame... I have a more badass shot of him in this roll, but for some reason the scanner wouldn't properly scan it. Perhaps it got scared shitless out of his badass-ness. So you will have to imagine a horizontal frame of Erik staring at you with half his face covered in dark shadow, with a nicely composed shadowplay on the background. Badass, I say!

Anyway, other than his ability to look badass (sometimes), Erik also makes some nice photos. In fact, his intriguing way of seeing the world around him was one of the early influences I had when I first got into photography. Thanks to him I found the courage to experiment more with my own photos. Other than the kind of photos you can see in his gallery there, he also does some more serious photography sometimes but unfortunately there isn't anywhere on the web where we can see it... bummer. But bottom line is, he's a great guy. Got a cool dog too. Which has completely nothing to do with all this.



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Electricity.


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Woah, three frames of Sukma in a row. Well what can I say, he's quite the photogenic bastard... He's currently working hard to gather all the information he needs to design a disc jockey community center as his final project.


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Already printed this one, looks pretty nice. Aside from the scratch, that is.


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The dead author himself. Gonna borrow a new toy he got soon.


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A Canon 7s with a 50mm lens that has a ridiculous max aperture of f/0.95. Wtf.


That's all, hope this finds you all well!

Drextermagz

As I mentioned earlier in past entry, I got some of my photos featured in an article in Drextermagz, a newly published Indonesian Art & Culture PDF Magazine. The article I'm in also features one of my favorite Indonesian street shooters (at least when she's not being lazy ;D) Atik Nursiana and Japanese photographer/DJ Junku Nishimura. Definitely check him out if you haven't already, amazing stuff.

You can download the magazine here. It's obviously in Indonesian, but I suppose people from outside the country can just enjoy the pictures. ;)

08-01-2008

Amazing title, I know.

Some photos from the first day of the year. Spent it with people from FN, it was pretty nice though actually I wish I could pass through the seconds of year change with my closest friends... but alas they were busy with their finals and stuff, oh well.



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Hello sunshine!



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On the way to Kaliadem. Don't you get tired of this kind of shadow photo? Yet you can't help taking it when you see one.


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This place used to be a viewing point to Mt. Merapi in the background, but it was devastated by pyroclastic flow during the eruption in mid 2007, killing two volunteers who were too late to runaway. I found it interesting that this particular ruin's shape somehow resembled the mountain.


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The house we stayed at.


There was a playground near where we stayed which was packed with families since it's new year. Found it much more interesting than the Merapi landscape we visited earlier. Hey, it got more people. ;)

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Barely got this frame. Waited like forever for that little girl to show up and interact with the little boy.

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Lusy. Lucy. I dunno, ask Naga for the correct spelling of her name. ;)


Coming up next, disaster with the pushed Tri-X... stay tuned. :p

2008

There isn't much traffic in this blog... but still, I want to wish a happy new year to everyone! Good luck to all of you, for whatever you're doing now or planning to do in this year... May all of us can keep our spirit to go after all of our dreams, no matter what obstacles there will be in our way. Cheers! :)


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Best regards,
Wid