`Tempo' photojournalists exhibit work at Antara gallery

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): Works by four Tempo photographers are currently on exhibit at the Antara Photojournalistic Gallery in Pasar Baru, Central Jakarta.

The photographs were originally prepared for a traveling exhibit commemorating the 20th anniversary of Tempo in 1991, but, due to organizational problems, were never shown. Ironically, the June press bans that led to the closure of Tempo instigated gallery curator Yudhi Soeryoatmodjo to recover them and set up a modest exhibition of the color photographs.

The photographers each focus on a particular region in Indonesia. Hidayat S. Gautama presents a photo essay of Jakarta Kota's train station, Rully Kesuma questions the sprawl of a Chinese "gravetown" in Cikadut, Robin Ong records the celebration of Cap Go Meh and the daily life of Chinese descendants around Pontianak, while Donny Metri portrays life in the remote Baliem Valley of Irian Jaya.

Hidayat S. Gautama's photographs of the Jakarta Kota station were taken in response to rumors that the impressive Deco-esque station was going to be demolished like Gambir Station.

"Gambir meant a lot to me and my family. It symbolized arrival in Jakarta, not only to myself, but also to my elders," Hidayat, who is better known as Dayat, remarked. Therefore, he wanted to photograph the Kota station as a way "to preserve the memories that once existed there" before they were "lost and no longer retrievable."

Photographically investigating the Kota station, Dayat discovered the essence of the train station beyond its fascinating architectural features. He tried to portray the notion of transition and movement. This he places in relation to the entity of the station, that is, its architecture. One photograph shows two men sitting and waiting, seen through an intricate turn of the century grill. They are in a temporary, stationary state. A figure with a bag, sitting on the base of a steel column, is contrasted with a glimpse of the grand hall of the station through which many people move. Amongst the crowd, a woman, also carrying a bag, balances the composition. Both the bags, and the contrast between the sitting figures and the swiftness of the woman enhance the notion of movement.

To fully understand the train station, Dayat went out of his way to investigate the least public of spaces. His third photograph shows trains on the station's tracks, viewed through a window. The scene is not from any generic space. The red and green flags rolled and placed by the window specify that the view is from the control tower. The juxtaposition of the control tower, the "brains" of the station, and the trains on the tracks, the "guts" of the station, expresses another significant aspect of the railway station.

Celestial

Starting with a fragmented image of a coffin, in front of which is placed offerings, Rully Kesuma places the existence of a Chinese cemetery in Cikadut, near Bandung, at the focal point of his work.

The second image is a shot of the ornate architectural details of a structure in the cemetery which diverts our attention from the grim aspect of decay associated with graveyards. Instead, it leads the viewer to a notion of celestial deliverance. Then, an image of an abandoned gravestone is also captured. It stands crooked amidst tall coarse grass while a water buffalo lurks behind. Through this rather humorous photograph, we are reminded again of decay.

The final two images of Rully's work places the cemetery in a broader context. One shot shows a guard standing nonchalantly in front of the gate leading to two ornately embellished circular structures joined together, resembling a double royal umbrella, the details of which appear in a previous photograph. In the other photograph, clothes are placed on the posts of the cemetery's fence. Beyond the fence is an empty lot bordering the main area of the cemetery. The images "presents a reality between the dead and the ones that are still alive," states the interpretive label.

Cap Go Meh

During an assignment to cover the fight between boxers Elyas Pical and Raul Diaz in Pontianak, in 1988 sport photographer Robin Ong decided to cover the Cap Go Meh celebrations at the same time. Despite the predominantly Chinese population of the town, permits for public Chinese holiday festivities were not issued. Therefore, the celebrations were limited to the Chinese temples and small villages outside of town.

In a temple in Pontianak, Robin captured a fortune teller in action. Playing a central role in deciphering future auspices, he is surrounded by lingering onlookers. Another photograph taken in the vicinity of the temple portrays the suffering of a dancer torturing himself as a gesture of repentance.

The image symbolizes the hardship endured by the Chinese around Pontianak. In the villages, boys celebrate by dancing the barongsai dragon, which they have assembled using scrap material. There, the ethnic Chinese live in shanties. Many of the people's immigration status is unclear and they tend to shy away from photographers. Hence, Robin had to use a 300mm lens coupled with a 2x converter, to capture images of the daily life of the Chinese, offering an alternative to the stereotyped perception of Indonesian Chinese.

Human interaction

Donny Metri's images of the Dani of Irian Jaya's Baliem Valley captures glimpses of human interaction around Wamena. Three of his five photographs were taken during a blessing of a church in Hitigima. Two Dani men intimately share the light of a cigarette. Their facial expressions show a sincere appreciation of the deadly smoke. Amidst the smoke of their potlatch, Dani men cooperate in a stone roasting "bakar batu" ceremony. Meanwhile, waiting for the food to be ready, a child sleeps in his mother's embrace.

Donny's two other photographs depict men in their surroundings, one urban, the other rural. A Dani man, clothed merely in a long holim penis sheath, stands in front of an amenities store at Wamena's Nayak central market eating boiled corn on the cob. Through this juxtaposition, a banal occurrence at that particular marketplace, the photographer shows a bizarre collision of modern urban merchandise in remote rural settings. The final image portrays a lone man, carrying a log on his shoulder, on his way home to one of the villages in the valley. His figure seems to be diminishing, perhaps even dissolving, into the mountainous landscape.

The works presented in the show, most of which are uncommissioned photo essays composed as "by-products" of assigned work, represent the relentless investigative spirit of the four Tempo photojournalists. The exhibition will last through Sept. 20.