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."