Beauty and the beast: What the camera doesn't show

Beauty and the beast: What the camera doesn't show

By Sam Greenhill

JAKARTA (JP): It is the wisp of cloud above the crater that adds the magic touch. But for all the admirers of the breathtaking shot of Mount Semeru in the morning light, there is one person who doesn't like it: the man who pressed the shutter.

Balinese landscape photographer Deniek G. Sukarya says his photograph, which appears in the Indonesian Engagement Diary 1996, has a small but significant flaw. It is not a problem with the lighting or the way the shot was framed. In fact, it has nothing to do with the scene at all. The trouble was caused by a group of American tourists who were making too much noise when Deniek was taking the picture.

"When I look at my picture now, all I remember is the disturbance in the background," he said. Deniek had climbed through the night to be in position for a spectacular morning shot of the mountain, at Bromo in East Java. "Whenever I click the shutter the most important thing is that the scene before me is able to move my emotions. It must have soul," the chirpy executive-cum-photographer said.

"On that morning, with the cool air, the noise of the wind and the tremors in the breeze, the atmosphere was so absorbing and the mountain looked magnificent. Then all of a sudden there was a terrible row behind me -- yap, yap, yap. Even though it didn't change the picture for others, it was ruined for me."

Deniek's engagement diary, published by the creative design company he founded in 1985, is a collection of colorful photographs promoting the beauty of Indonesia. There is a different landscape for every week but Deniek, who takes all the pictures himself, says it is not hard to find new scenes to shoot, even though the diary has come out every year for almost a decade.

"I am basically a lazy person. I don't go out looking for good pictures, I just spot them when I'm on my way somewhere else. I never wait for things like the perfect cloud to come along."

If this is true, Deniek is a very lucky man, as anyone who has spent days sitting with their camera, waiting for that special sunset, will testify. But although he acknowledges his good fortune, Deniek doesn't rely on it, especially if there is something important at stake like a lazy sleep-in.

"When I'm in Bali, I have my houseboy watch the eastern sky early in the morning. If it is clear, he knocks on my window to wake me up. I go down to the rice fields with a thermos of coffee and wait for things to happen. I've got a lot of good pictures that way, just sitting there watching life unfold in front of me."

Deniek returns to his roots twice a year and finds many of his pictures -- which range from beautiful natural landscapes to awe- inspiring temples like Prambanan in Central Java -- on the road to Bali. But despite his magical luck, he does come unstuck occasionally.

"It's my laziness problem again. I see a picture and think 'Oh, I'll take it on the way back'. But there is never a way back. Either I'm still too lazy or I can't find the place, no matter how well I marked it. I once spent hours just looking for a tree."

Deniek, who trained as an English teacher and was later an advertising executive, dreamed up the idea for the engagement diary in 1987. "I had lots of good pictures lying around and thought, why not let other people enjoy them. And pay for them too!"

The 50-odd landscapes in the diary -- selected from the 40,000 pictures that Deniek snaps in an average year -- are ordered according to the time of day they were taken. Pictures of dawn are put in the January section and daytime festivities and blue- sky shots are used for June and July. Sunsets are always found in December.

Pictures of people are rare in the diaries, mainly because Deniek thinks it's immoral to invade someone's privacy for his own commercial gain. In any case, he says, he's happiest working with nature.

"It reminds me that we have this beautiful place to live in. And sometimes it is so fantastic, even if it is a wonderful sunset that only lasts a minute. It sticks in your mind and that's what I love about nature.

"I get so angry when a gorgeous panoramic landscape is ruined by power lines or an ugly building. There must be somewhere else they can put them."

Deniek says his mission in life is to promote Indonesian beauty to as many people as possible, because he wants them to be aware of how the face of Indonesia is changing. "Many of the landscapes I've photographed don't exist any more," he says ruefully.

Lucky, easygoing but lazy, Deniek nevertheless looks set to spend the rest of his days pursuing the one thing that has always eluded him: that tree. "I still want to find it again -- flamboyant, alone and in full bloom. That tree had so much hope in it. I will never give up the search."