Balinese photographer I Gusti Agung Wijaya Utama S. Sn is a changemaker who is endeavoring to reignite cultural memory while inspiring awareness and discussion. Gung Ama, as he is known, doesn’t use digital cameras. He believes technology and the modern mindset are destroying the art of photography. He prefers the manual, handmade processes of the past. His instrument of choice is the Afghan box camera.

Also referred to as the street box camera or kamra-e-faoree, the Afghan Box Camera is a bulky handmade wooden contraption. It is both a camera and a self-contained darkroom. Within the box, mounted on a folding tripod, black-and-white photographs are produced within minutes, without film, by making a paper negative and then photographing the negative to create a positive image.

“Unlike most Balinese, I cannot draw or paint, nor do I have other artistic skills. My artistic sense, however, is very high. Through photography, I can express my talent, learn and grow,” said Gung Ama, an alumnus of the Indonesian Art Institute (ISI) in Denpasar who majored in photography. “I have been interested in Afghan cameras since 2019. Yet I was only able to make my journey of learning through experience happen in 2021. Studying old photography techniques triggered my instincts to seek to experiment with taking these pictures.”

Kamra-e-faoree comes from the Persian Afghani language of Dari and means “instant camera”. It was first used in small towns and villages with no photographic studios. Traveling photographers visited these places and would improvise a studio on the spot. Unfortunately, the box camera is on the brink of disappearing from Afghanistan, having been replaced by digital photography, modern studios and smartphone selfies.

“I construct the scenes for the images either within my studio or outdoors. The subjects are dressed in traditional attire in the studio and sit in front of landscape props and cultural objects to create a coherent old-world ambience. Many young couples are enthusiastic about appearing in photographs depicted as people from yesteryear,” said Gung Ama, who was born in Batubulan, Gianyar, in 1988, and began photography in 2006. “Outdoor photographs require me to look for a specific sight to capture the ideas I wish to express. I also must be sensitive to the natural light and how this may impact the final image. Under these circumstances, the outcome is unpredictable.”  

Gung Ama's camera has a shutter that is operated by a trigger connected to the lens by a meter-long cable. The original cameras had shutterless lenses. The photographer whisked away the lens cap with one hand to expose the photographic paper on the inside of the camera and then replaced the lid.

After the exposure process, Gung Ama inserts an arm through a light-tight sleeve, giving him access to the camera's interior, which doubles as a darkroom. Inside the camera, he develops a paper negative of the image he has just taken in a small tray of chemical solution. He then shoots this negative to make the positive image and finally develops the positive to produce a finished photograph.

“The Afghan camera allows me to touch the photos during their development process directly. Increasingly, I am becoming sensitized to this process. There is a distinct and special transfer of energy between myself and the work in production,” he said. Gung Ama’s learning is through exploration. He seeks to discover the best methods while experimenting with other chemicals, even coffee, during the image development process, innovating to create novel outcomes.

The first photographs of Bali were taken by foreigners and began circulating in Europe in 1920. The image-making process of tourism promotion developed in the 1930s was often selective and concocted, creating ideas about what Bali represented as a marketing ploy. "Images of bare-breasted women, dancing girls and witches dominated the male-centric essence of what represented culture," wrote Adrian Vickers in his book Bali: A Paradise Created. The idea of Bali as a tropical paradise eventually took hold.  

In 2016, Gung Ama initiated Gamaphoto1930, with the theme of Rekonstruksi Project Bali 1930, using black and white photographs representing the perspectives of the Balinese. “Through these images, I wish to ignite the Balinese people’s sense of curiosity and cultural memories of the past,” Gung Ama explained. “To make people remember the past messages of the elders that are fading with time.”

“The pandemic has given people time to reflect inward, upon themselves and what it means to be Balinese. As a result, there is growing hunger within many of the younger and older generations to seek out cultural wisdom and embrace cultural icons to help reinforce their sense of identity. I wish to contribute to this ongoing dialogue, to inspire people to ask questions and ponder the culture lost and the wisdom of our forefathers.”

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