Jakarta's street children take a closer look at themselves
Jakarta's street children take a closer look at themselves
By Des Price
JAKARTA (JP): Recent initiatives for working with street
children, such as the David Glass Ensemble, where children took
part in drama and music workshops and performed the play The Lost
Child, have taken an imaginative direction.
Street children, who usually spend their time begging, busking
or selling, also took time off to try something new: becoming
photographers in a new project to document their lives and the
communities in which they live, able to take photographs of
people without creating inhibitions as an outside photographer
might.
The project was the initiative of 33-year-old English
photographer Jonathan Perugia and is a part of A Child's Eye
Action Group, a nonprofit organization created earlier this year
by Guruh Soekarnoputra and Choki Rezia. The organization supports
children's initiatives in Indonesia and around the world.
Perugia, who is the art and technical adviser, has been involved
at every stage, from finding sponsors to arranging exhibitions.
No expense was spared in equipping the 30 children. They went
out into their neighborhoods armed with good quality pocket
cameras; only two of the 30 cameras issued found new owners.
The project was run in conjunction with Atma Jaya University's
Studio 51 photographic club. Street children were selected for
the project by five local non-governmental organizations, who
chose children from a range of social situations and locations
around the city.
The children participated at every stage, attending workshops
by professional photographers at Atma Jaya University. They then
took photographs and assisted with editing, layout and selection
of the photographs, which will grace the walls of the National
Gallery in Jakarta from Nov. 17 through Nov. 23.
The workshops were designed to bring out the children's own
creativity as well as to help them develop basic composition
skills. They ran around playing musical statues and photographed
each other with Polaroid cameras, seeing instantly the results of
their work. In other workshops they learned the need to get close
to their subjects through a "treasure hunt" -- finding items of
certain colors, shapes and textures and photographing them. The
children even were assigned homework, on one occasion
photographing places and people they dislike.
Fourteen-year-old Kokom, like many of the children on the
project, enjoyed the experience.
"I was very happy taking part in the project. I had never held
a camera before, so I wanted to try it out. Some of the time we
could photograph whatever we wanted using our own ideas and
imagination. I photographed street singers at a market. Before
this I couldn't take a picture, now I can."
Throughout the project, the children could be creative and get
positive feedback and guidance, which was beneficial for their
self-esteem. The children could use this medium to tell their own
stories, and for some this was the first time in their lives that
they had contact with adults who were willing to listen to them.
Agung, 16,, a street child since he was nine years old, was
eager to learn from the experience: "I was curious to find out
what it would be like taking photographs. It felt awkward in the
beginning, but I was interested to learn. I learned more about
life outside. I got to know lots of new people."
He photographed a disabled man who was on his hands and knees
crawling between motorcycles begging. The children were asked to
write comments on the back of the photographs.
Agung wrote: "This is a crippled man with his imperfect body
begging for money to buy one spoonful of rice. He has been
abandoned by his family."
Agung talked about his conversation with the man and his
aspirations.
"The man said to me that this was his only job, and that he
was forced to beg for money. What he wanted was for some
organization to accept him and give him somewhere to live."
A group of half a dozen boys was asked what they thought of
the project and responded with a chorus of "Bagus" (Great). Asked
if they would take part in a similar project, they responded with
a resolute yes.
During the time spent on the project, the children took
hundreds of photographs which clearly define the environment of
urban decay in which they exist. The subjects of the photographs
-- often the street children themselves -- portray the sorrow and
struggle of their lives, the drug and solvent abuse and the
squalid living conditions.
But they also depict moments of happiness where poor people
share a collective spirit of survival, retaining their sense of
humor and dignity; qualities which not even abject poverty can
completely erode. Young people were photographed larking around
while others simply sat smiling, whiling away the hours in the
midday heat.
Perugia sees the photographs as covering a broad spectrum of
life in the capital. "The photographs the children have taken
show all sides of life in Jakarta -- the good, the bad, the joy
and the poverty."
Jonathan is satisfied with the way the project has developed
and sees its impact as lasting. "It has been a dance of
synchronicity and chance, with people everywhere offering to
help. This will not be just an arty-farty thing, quickly
forgotten, but will leave real grassroots social and creative
legacies."
A Child's Eye hopes that the photographic exhibition will
provide an arena for discussion, attracting individuals,
government officials and non-governmental and community based
organizations. In particular, A Child's Eye Action Group wants to
bring attention to issues concerning children's social welfare,
and to stimulate interest in funding for welfare initiatives. It
also wants to organize further arts projects for children.