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BookWorm: Erik Prasetya: Literature as door to the world
JP/DMRRenowned street photographer Erik Prasetya says that literature is his first love as it has opened his eyes to the world
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JP/DMR
Renowned street photographer Erik Prasetya says that literature is his first love as it has opened his eyes to the world.
'Before becoming a photographer, I was first an avid reader,' Erik said.
His love for books bloomed as his father always read him a book every night, cutting it at some point before continuing the following night.
'I remember when he read me a book by K'tut Tantri, I couldn't wait for him to continue the reading as I couldn't get the story out of my head,' Erik said.
He said he liked reading thick novels, such as Don Quixote, that he borrowed from his elementary school's library. But it was his encounter with Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana's books that made him fall deeply in love with literature.
'For the teenage me, his books were like treasures as they talked about a lot of things, thus building my curiosity,' said Erik, the husband of author Ayu Utami.
As he got older, it became more difficult for him to find titles that could really satisfy his need to read good books, he said.
'I think the risk of being old is that you feel like you have learned everything. At the same time, you lose that freshness, curiosity, and greed that you had when you were young,' he said.
The 57-year-old Erik released in 2011 a photography book, titled JAKARTA Estetika Banal, a laboriously compiled collection of black-and-white pictures that he had taken between 1990 and 2010.
He is currently preparing his next book, a photo-essay, slated for release in November this year before his retirement as a lecturer at Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ).
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Books by Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana
I was born in a small town, Padang (in West Sumatra), but had big dreams to see the world. I could see what the world had to offer thanks to his books. The trilogy of Grotta Azzurra is my most favorite one. I learned about women's emancipation, communism, liberalism, arts, politics and sex from the series.
Classic drama scripts
I really enjoy reading drama scripts because I can imagine for myself the scenes, and being there at the same time. Many drama scripts are much better being read than adapted as stage plays. Panembahan Roso by WS Rendra, for example, when it was adapted into a play, people had to watch it for eight hours, and that was tiring. But when you read the script, you can totally grasp the intrigue, the tension and when you're tired, you just close the book and continue it later.
