Some leftovers from my last trip, taken around Jakarta Fair 2008. The event reminds me of Sekaten Fair in Jogja, only with a more modern setting and a bigger crowd. But that's probably an over generalization.
Jakarta is a strange place, at least to me. Though I lived there for about 4 years (circa 1997-2000), the city still looks somewhat alien to me. Even the places I used to know no longer look familiar. It's almost like the city itself doesn't want to be recognized, to be identified. Frankly, I don't like the general atmosphere of Jakarta. But that's probably because I've come to enjoy living in Jogja, a small city with a much slower pace than Jakarta. Here, you can feel like you really belong to the place... while in Jakarta it feels like you just sort of being dragged around here and there by the daily rush. I really can't see Jakarta as a place for "living", it just looks like one gigantic workplace to me. You wake up at, what, 5 AM in the morning to prepare to go to work before the traffic gets jammed, then work your ass off through the day, and finally arrive back at home at 8 or 9 PM (if you get lucky), only to repeat it all over again the next day and the day after.
The sad thing is I might have to "live" in there as well in near future, at least for some time, cause all the good career opportunity is practically still centralized in that god forsaken place...
As long as I don't need to stay there until 2025 I guess, heh.
Yeah, I was in the capital for a week. Originally part of my school program, visiting photographers' studios and stuff. But since it was only for two days, I felt too lazy to immediately go back to Jogja and decided to stay in Jakarta for a while. Thankfully Pakde Sani generously invited me to stay at his place, and informed me that Erik was also in Jakarta for an assignment. My biggest gratitude for both of them.
Didn't really go anywhere and shoot anything interesting during the stay cause I simply didn't intend to do that. Aside from the aforementioned laziness factor, I stayed partly because I wanted to meet up with a good friend who recently just started to work in Jakarta. Didn't have a chance to see her in Jogja before her departure so I was really hoping that I could visit her in Jakarta. Unfortunately she was still very busy getting everything on its place so it was no good. To be honest I'm still a bit upset about it...
Anyway, did a little bit of assisting during Erik's assignment to shoot a company profile for a lingerie brand. And no, there wasn't any scantily clad ladies involved since he was only shooting their factory and outlet stores... ;) I had to say it was a quite interesting experience, I got to know how a real commercial shooting session looks like and all the things going on behind it.
Also went to Jakarta Fair with some people from FN, I'll post about it later on.
For the time being enjoy some human absence, in colors! ...Most of them anyway.
Yesterday saw the opening of the 20th Festival Kesenian Yogyakarta (Yogyakarta Art Festival), which is held from June 7th to July 7th in Vredeburg fortress and Taman Budaya Yogyakarta. Events in the festival range from stage performance by local and international artists, art fair, competitions, and many more. See their official website for more information and schedule if you're interested.
Went to the opening parade and met... well, pretty much everyone I guess. Aul, Alwan, Lucas, Suryo, Erik, Naga & Lucy, Sinyo, just to name a few... as there was perhaps a hundred or so shooters in the street.
Few snaps around the event:
Even when I know that I won't really enjoy shooting the show for the rather predictable scenes in the place where the main attraction is (not to mention limited movement due to the crowding), it's still good enough to just walk around the place and basically look at directions that everyone else isn't looking. You're bound to get some good finds if you're attentive enough.
