Photos show a diverse, colorful urban landscape

Photos show a diverse, colorful urban landscape

Fritz Kuhlmann, Contributor, Jakarta

The transsexual in his shabby apartment stares at the observer,
proud in his glamorous attire. A fisherman puts on a pair of
dirty woolen gloves, preparing to dive into the dark ocean to
prey upon the green mussel.

The multicolored stroboscope flashes at the dance floor,
almost blinding in its intensity.

All that is Jakarta, seen by five young photographers. All
that is on the borderline between documentary realism and
artistic expression.

Urban Horizon: A Visual Opinion, an exhibition of the Galeri
Foto Jurnalistik Antara at Erasmus Huis, also provides insight
into the state of modern photography here.

"This kind of photography is only about to emerge in
Indonesia," curator Oscar Matuloh from Antara news agency said.

"We are kind of late."
`The exhibition, he hopes, will contribute to stimulate the
development, but the pictures of the transsexual are already the
result of five years of work.

Freelance photographer Mohamad Iqbal, 32, did a long-term
investigation to obtain "a different view", he said. "Normally,
the photographer has full power over the subject, he determines
the picture of someone else."

Mohamad Iqbal gave the transvestites -- who are often looked
upon by others as objects as sex workers in Menteng, South
Jakarta -- the opportunity to alter this relationship. They
selected the photographs to be exhibited, choosing how to pose.
And he even posed for them.

Not all of Mohamad Iqbal's collaborators, however, seem to
have gotten the idea.

"It was a great experience being a model," one transvestite
said enthusiastically. "I'm a natural."

His work is a remarkable sociological experiment.
Unfortunately, a lack of technical precision and skill disturbs
the impression, which is a problem of some other pieces in the
exhibition as well.

Done in a very classical style are the laconic black and white
photographs of Arief Sunarya, 30, portraying the diver. Classical
as well are the grim city-landscapes of the already well-known
Kemal Jufri, a successful photojournalist for 10 years who has
shot for magazines like U.S. Time, who emphasizes the contrast
between glitzy skyscrapers and the urban poor scraping by on the
dusty streets below.

It's almost too classical, Firman Ichsan, in charge of
photography at the Jakarta Arts Institute, said. When one does
pictures in the style of famous Frenchman Henri Cartier-Bresson,
who also enjoyed his own Jakarta sojourn, it's hard to stand out.

"It's more interesting to try something completely new,
something more experimental," he said.

Paul Kadarisman, 29, did just that. A woman in a shiny, tight
red skirt delicately sits down on a cactus; through staged scenes
like this, he gives comment on sexual taboos and the theme of
pain. Whether deliberately provocative or just playful, the
pictures are artificial to the extreme.

Photographs by Timur Angin of Jakarta youth dancing the night
away in a discotheque most interestingly place themselves right
between the documentary and the expressive.

The 25 year old succeeds in visualizing the wild sound of
trance music in colorful flashes. The photographer seems not to
be an observer but a participant in the scene.

"I make quite a lot of money by shooting advertisements,"
Timur said. "But the exhibition shows who I really am. This kind
of photography is not a job -- it's a lifestyle."

Firman appreciates this, but the market of fine arts will not,
he believes.

"The collectors just don't understand -- not yet," he said.
"They just come from a certain part of society, a certain income
and age."

Still, he thinks it's good that the young photographers are
not overly market-orientated.

"Photography as an art form, although this medium comes from
commercial use in the advertisement business, for instance, is
ironically less commercial than the fine arts."

Nonetheless, it proves to be alive and kicking.

I-box

Urban Horizon: A Visual Opinion
Erasmus Huis, Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said, Kav S-3,
Kuningan, South Jakarta
Tel. (021) 524-1069.
Until June 12.