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Tubagus Rachmat: Living and documenting Jakarta’s urban kampungs
Tubagus Rachmat, 52, has been living in Jakarta and taking photos of urban poor since 2010 for the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC)
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Tubagus Rachmat, 52, has been living in Jakarta and taking photos of the urban poor since 2010 for the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC). ((JP/A . Muh. Ibnu Aqil)/(JP/A . Muh. Ibnu Aqil))
F
or Tubagus Rachmat, urban kampung life is not just the subject of his photographs, it is also his personal reflection and life experience.
Kampung life has always been part of the 52-year-old.
In his hometown of Palembang, South Sumatra, he used to work from market to market selling various products, such as Idul Fitri postcards, while befriending local artists.
In 2002, Tubagus was introduced to the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) by a friend. Two years after, he started taking photographs of his own with a used analog camera.
Tubagus was then invited to attend training for community officers of the UPC in Jakarta in 2004, and upon returning to Palembang, he became more involved with activism for the urban poor.
He continued documenting the life of urban kampungs, despite having never officially been trained in photography.
“I learned as an autodidact, such as by taking pictures of people near a river or shooting random videos. I never got the theoretical education [on photography],” Tubagus said.
