Images: Moving on

Sat, January 30, 2021 / 11:42 am

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Soldiering on: A busker in an animal character costume shelters from the rain with his daughter along a busy street Jakarta on Jan. 26, 2021, in this color-monochrome photomontage. Indonesia reached 1 million COVID-19 cases on that day.(JP/Seto Wardhana)
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Way back home: After overcoming turbulent waves in the wake of larger ships, we, just like the fisherman here in his dinghy, head home to our lands. (Courtesy of Donny Fernando/-)
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Life goes on: A food vendor pushes his laden bicycle past a coronavirus-themed mural of a health worker in Tebet, South Jakarta on Jan. 9, 2021. The prolonged pandemic does not affect people’s spirit to remain active. (Courtesy of JADIGUNAImages/Jerry Adiguna)
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Regenerative sun: Two cats sunbathe on Jan. 26, 2021 in Situgintung, South Tangerang. Sunlight helps trigger the body to produce vitamin D, which is essential to maintaining both physical and mental health against our “kryptonite”, the coronavirus. (Courtesy of Wienda Parwitasari/-)
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Ebb and flow: Traders sort their catches at the Muara Angke Wholesale Fish Market in North Jakarta on Jan. 23, 2021. The period between December and January is a low fishing season, but fishermen and traders know that these difficult times will not last. (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)
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A day at a time: Street vendor Edi, an amputee, waits for traffic to slow down on Jan 22, 2021 in the Senen area of Central Jakarta. He sells pocket tissues for Rp 5,000 (36 US cents) per pack by approaching vehicles idling on the road. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
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Into the light: We are naturally drawn to light and away from the dark, so will emerge into the light once again, like these two explorers walking toward the entrance from the pitch-black interior darkness of Jombang Cave in Gunung Kidul, Yogyakarta. (JP/R. Berto Wedhatama)

Seto Wardhana

The world hasn’t been the same since the coronavirus pandemic hit the world early last year, and it will never go back to what it once was. As of today, the pandemic is still showing no signs of abating, and COVID-19 cases in Indonesia surpassed 1 million on Jan. 26, 2021.

Its impacts have been hard, not just in how they have been felt and experienced by every individual around the world, but also by families, companies and even governments.

No one has been spared. Millions have lost loved ones among both family and friends in their battle against the virus. Still billions may have escaped the virus, only to be hit by the devastating effects of the economic fallout as a result of ensuing lockdowns and other restrictions.

Businesses have found it hard to operate under diminishing revenues even as they try to keep everyone onboard, and some industries have all but collapsed.

It is no different here: A total of 9.77 million Indonesian people were unemployed in August 2020, according Statistics Indonesia (BPS), up 37.61 percent year-on-year from August 2019. And BPS forecast that some 2.67 million workers stood to lose their jobs in November 2020 as a direct result of the pandemic.

The photographs printed on these pages are the work of The Jakarta Post photojournalists who have either left the newspaper or were made redundant between March 2020 and January 2021.

Today’s Images is a tribute to this beloved institution of the Indonesian press and to all our esteemed colleagues who worked side-by-side over the years, even decades, delivering good journalism to our readers in Indonesia and around the globe.

We have to move on, because the world will keep on turning. Just as Bob Dylan once sang: “If your time to you is worth savin’/Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone/For the times they are a-changin”.

But the memories will last a lifetime. And photographs are forever.

Consider this our parting gift. (ste)