Villa views: A man walks across a recently harvested rice field in Kuta, against the backdrop of new luxury villas. The image is part of a photo essay by The Jakarta Post’s contributing photojournalist Zul Trio Anggono in an exploration of the theme of mass tourism in Bali. Courtesy of AJI Denpasar
A diverse picture of contemporary Bali emerged last week when seven young photojournalists took a brief break from their duties for local and international news outlets to participate in a weeklong workshop.
The workshop, organized by the local chapter of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), aimed to improve the local photojournalists’ skills and knowledge.
Two established photojournalists, Eddy Purnomo, of the country’s leading photo agency Jiwa Photo, and Lukman Siswo Bintoro, whose works have graced various international publications, were recruited as the workshop’s leaders.
The workshop was divided into an outdoor session and a classroom session.
Lukman selected “Bali Sekarang” (Present-day Bali) as the major theme of the workshop. Each participant was expected to select subjects to narrate a visual story reflecting that theme.
“Bali has always been associated with arts and beauty,” Lukman said. “It is no wonder that the visual portrayals of the island are dominated by beautiful scenes of people praying in majestic temples or Balinese girls in glittering costumes performing exotic dances.”
The theme, he added, will force the participants to look deeper and search wider for the different, yet equally valid, sides of the island.
“This topic will stimulate them to capture and produce a unique story,” Lukman said.
The participants were told to take at least seven days to complete their visual narratives before entering the classroom session. One thing most them found was that seven days was not sufficient.
“In typical Indonesian photojournalist fashion, they waited until the last moment before starting to think about what topic they would choose,” Lukman said, in apparent disbelief.
Naturally, therefore, three days before the classroom session, all seven participants were in disarray.
Iron man: A member of Bali’s punk subculture bares his face and piercings in this portrait by freelance photojournalist Christo, who explored the subculture in his photo essay Bali Hard Music. Courtesy of AJI Denpasar
“It was a truly depressing period,” said one of the participants I Made Nagi. “I am Balinese and have spent most of my professional life photographing every imaginable aspect of this island and its people. So when I was told to find something new, my brain simply went static.”
Nagi, who works for the European Photo Agency (EPA), is one of Bali’s brightest young photographers.
The Jakarta Post’s contributing photographer Zul Trio Anggono dwelled in that depressing place much longer than his colleagues. It was not until two days before the start of the classroom session that Zul reportedly took a drastic step to invoke his photographic muse.
“Zul said that he would take a power nap and immediately he fell asleep right there on the floor of the AJI’s office,” said AJI member Ni Komang Erviani.
After a two-hour sleep, Zul regained consciousness, grabbed his camera bag and sped away on
his battered motorbike. Apparently, the muse had visited him in his dream.
In the classroom session, the participants submitted their work for selection and review. It was a lively process as each photographer was required to defend the chosen topic and point of view. Assisted by
the mentors and with input from the other participants, each photographer selected their best shots and used them to construct a visual narrative.
“It is a new experience for them,” Lukman said. “Their daily routine usually comprises taking several shots of a newsworthy event and selecting the best frame to be printed in their newspapers.”
What made this different for them, he pointed out, what that they no longer had words written by a journalist to tell the story.
“In this workshop, they were forced to construct a story solely using images,” he said.
The results of the workshop were an array of visual stories both captivating and surprising.
Zul, of the power nap method, presented an exploration of the onslaught of tourism development. Although this is a regular theme in local news outlets, Zul’s works gave a visual testament to the theme. The pictures of plots of rice fields besieged by the towering Greco-Roman villas and wooden placards, advertising new villas and land for sale, that dominate the island’s roads speak louder than written words about the island’s dying agricultural sector.
Another participant, Christo, brought the island’s punk subculture to the surface. In an island
famed for its magnificent cultural heritage, this subculture, and any other subcultures influenced and inspired by the modern West, is often overlooked by the mainstream media.
Christo’s works prove that the punk subculture not only exists in Bali but is gradually gaining ground among Balinese youths.
Miftah, a photographer for the local publication Radar Bali, explored the daily life of a mixed marriage couple, legendary surfer Piping and his Swiss-born wife Isabelle.
Yet under the sharp eyes of Lukman, nothing was perfect.
“Their works are still haunted by several basic flaws,” he said. “The participants agreed to revisit their topics to create more powerful images.”
The results of the workshop and the ongoing improvement process will be displayed in a photo exhibition in December.
