Photo gallery offers promising talents

Photo gallery offers promising talents

By Samsudin Berlian

JAKARTA (JP): Promoted as the first journalistic photo gallery
in the country, Galeri Foto Jurnalistik Antara shows promise of
great things to come through its current exhibit.

The gallery, owned by the Antara News Agency, is nestled
amidst bustling stores at the entrance gate of the Pasar Baru
shopping complex in Central Jakarta. The modest gallery occupies
the ground floor of the Graha Bhakti Antara building on Jalan
Antara 59, which also houses the Antara Museum.

Originally opened two years ago, the gallery has only sprung
to life recently, after Antara asked Etnodata, a company
specializing in cultural promotion, to manage it in January this
year. Etnodata assigned as curator Yudhi Soerjoatmodjo, a young
and energetic photojournalist.

Yudhi, 30, studied photography at the Parsons School of Design
in Paris and at the School of Photo Documentary in Newport,
Wales. His experiences include a period of time as a photographer
with Jakarta Jakarta magazine and a photo editor with Tempo
newsweekly.

Currently, he is also teaching at the IKJ Jakarta Arts
Institute and is an editor of Matra magazine.

Gloom

As soon as he was put in charge, Yudhi listed a series of
activities -- exhibits, workshops, seminars, lectures -- to be
scheduled until the end of next year. Bimonthly lectures on works
of world photographers are already being held regularly.

Yudhi chose eight youths in January to be trained in a three-
month workshop on journalistic photography. The selected works of
the group of eight are being exhibited until June 29, from 10
a.m. to 5 p.m.

The works show how the youths -- six university students, one
university graduate and one high school student -- share their
views of "Old Jakarta" through photography.

Almost all of the 28 works on display reveal the gloom that
hangs over Jakarta's old buildings as they await their demise in
the ever renewing metropolis.

In most of the photos, the people are insignificant. The ruins
seem to cry out in silence over the neglect they suffer while the
city's residence busy themselves elsewhere.

The four black-and-white photos of Nur Wahyonno, 22, a PR
student at the IISIP Political and Social Sciences Institute,
depict the neglect and continued deterioration of Taman Prasasti
Park in the Tanah Abang area, which was a cemetery at the time of
the Dutch Indies.

His Penguburan (Burying) shows wild vegetation growing at the
feet of a beheaded guardian angel statue. The head of the statue
lies nearby on the ground. A shovel rests beside the statue. The
title suggests that the statue will soon be buried.

Nur complements his photos with an explanation that the 1.2
hectare park was formerly part of the 5.5 hectare Kebon Jahe
Kober public cemetery. The area was supposed to be preserved
through a previous renovation, but on it now stand the buildings
of the Central Jakarta mayoralty and the National Sports
Committee.

"I chose this as the subject of my photos because I found
unexplainable ... [divine] communication there," Nur told The
Jakarta Post.

Hary Subastian, 26, a graduate of IISIP's School of Social
Sciences, displays three black-and-white photos portraying old
buildings in downtown Kota. His Di Pinggir Jalan (At the
Roadside) shows a solitary, old food vendor in front of a row of
closed two-story wooden shop houses facing an empty street. Part
of the wooden wall is covered with lichen. The scene is
depressing, yet Hary said: "I want to cultivate beauty through
things that are old."

Evelyn Pritt, 16, the youngest of the group and the only
woman, interprets "old" primarily in the sense of "decay." She
uses color photos to capture the dark and shadowy ruins of a
neglected house in Pulomas area. Her Rumah Tua (Old House)
displays the silhouette of the ruins at sunset.

Zalchairi, 20, a photography student at IKJ, said he was
obsessed with the old, neglected houses in the Kwitang and Cikini
areas in Central Jakarta.

In Wanita Tua, Gedung Tua dan Gedung Megah (Old Woman, Old
Building and Majestic Building) he contrasts the three elements,
seemingly to protest the partiality of fate.

His more artistic piece Gedung Tua dan Pohon Mati (Old
Building and Dead Tree) frames dead branches in the dilapidated
window of a wall in ruins.

Umar Widodo, 22, also an IKJ photography student, tries to
find life in a dead building. His Kodok (Frog) shows an amphibian
resting in a damp hole at the crumbling base of a house in Jalan
Salemba, Central Jakarta.

Gibran Galeb, 20, a tourism student at the Trisakti Tourism
Academy, zooms in on old professions rather than buildings in
North Jakarta.

However, the people in his works are as insignificant as those
in other photos. They are a just trivial element in the machinery
called development. In Kuli dan Peti-peti Kemas (Dock Worker and
Containers) a small kuli (port worker) walks in front of a double
row of massive containers.

Handri Ramdhani, 20, currently studying communications at the
University of Indonesia, is the only one in the group besides
Evelyn to use color photos. His photos contain nothing "old." He
does not focus on specific objects, but lets the images in the
photos -- a bystander's face, part of a taxi, segments of words
from a store, a lizard on a wall, a tree -- all speak for
themselves of their struggles in the city.

Indra Prapurna, 25, a public relations student at IISIP,
presents the inside story of the Kota railway station. Hidup
(Alive) and Mati (Dead), two pictures in one frame, show a small
plant in a vase under a window.

In Hidup, taken in February, the plant is healthy and freshly
watered. In Mati, taken a month later, it lies on its side, its
leaves -- still green -- touch the ground, and a doormat cover
its roots.

The melancholy undertone of all the works is no doubt the
message intentionally conveyed by the photographers, who Yudhi
has encouraged to share their perceptions.

The photos try to speak to the viewers. That is what Yudhi, as
one of the workshop trainers, wants photography to do.
"Photography should be a functional language that tells the
viewers what the photographers experience," he said.

"Now they have a tool with which they can express themselves,
their happiness, their sadness, their protests," he said about
his pupils, adding that this goal is what makes the workshop
different from other training courses, which only offer a way to
make money.

He seems to have been successful in influencing them as
several of them said they would prefer to be photojournalists
rather than professional photographers.