Photo club develops long with its members

Start with a boy who is tired of solo “hunting”, Harmando Taufik Gemilang decided to gather Indonesian youths who were interested in photography to join forces and develop their skills together. And so, the Indonesian Youth Photographer Club (IYPC) was established in February 2011.

The group started out with only five members but has now grown to 62 and is still growing. Currently they are trying to develop regional bases for the group members outside Jakarta.

Membership is open to young people aged between 14 and 25 years old across the country who share the same passion in photography and willingness to share their experiences and tricks of the trade. There is no requirement as to the type of camera one must possess to join the group.

Group activities are varied, from casual gatherings to photo hunts. Since the group is actually online, they often upload their pictures to the group’s webpages to let other members evaluate and rate the pictures. As for the hunting, they prefer the older parts of Jakarta, the Kota Tua, as their hunting ground due to its unique architecture.

For the members, aside from the advantage of learning new techniques, they get to meet new friends of the same age range.

“By joining IYPC I got a deeper understanding about the ins and outs, and parts of the camera. I also got a
better understanding of photography terms. My passion for photography has also increased,” said Gita Fitriane, a club member.

Founder Harmando Taufik Gemilang, fondly called Gilang, is a student of the information technology department at the Swiss German University. As an IT student Gilang is fully aware of the power of social networks. that’s why he chose to make IYPC an online group. Besides, it is easier to gather members using social networks to allow members of the group to communicate anywhere at anytime.

“For the future, I hope that there will be more young people who are interested in photography joining this group, so we can share more experiences and knowledge about photography, hunting for good photo shoots and photo editing,” said Gilang, expressing his expectation for the group in the future.

The writer is a student of the Swiss German University. He is currently an intern at The Jakarta Post.