ME AND MY CITY

english version

TOMMY N. ARMANSYAH

GYAISTA SAMPURNO & SARI ASIH

WILSON GUNAWAN

ANTONIUS RIVA SETIAWAN

LEICA STORE INDONESIA and PANNAFOTO INSTITUTE proudly present

Plaza Senayan Mall, Jakarta

5 March - 8 April 2016

ME AND MY CITY

LEICA STORE INDONESIA and PANNAFOTO INSTITUTE proudly present

TOMMY N. ARMANSYAH

GYAISTA SAMPURNO & SARI ASIH

WILSON GUNAWAN

ANTONIUS RIVA SETIAWAN

Plaza Senayan Mall, Jakarta

5 March - 8 April 2016

ME AND MY CITYPlaza Senayan Mall Jakarta5 March - 8 April 2016

Published by PannaFoto Institute & Leica Store Indonesia

Pictures copyright belongs to photographers

Catalog design by Sari Asih

Online Catalog2016

Anyone can take a photograph. But not all photographs can spin a rich, vibrant tale. The technique of visual language in photography aims to capture not only that moment in time, but also be able to draw us into its story. In a sense, photographers that utilise that technique essentially become storytellers.

Leica Store Indonesia and PannaFoto Institute proudly present the photo exhibition “Me and My City”. This exhibition showcases the many facets of these storytellers’ respective beloved cities, as seen through their personal, artistic perspectives.

FOREWORD / Leica Store Indonesia

This collaborative effort aims to raise the awareness of photojournalism and photoessay on our young photographers. It is in line with the vision of PannaFoto Institute, a non-profit organization concerned on improving photo documentary and photojournalism in Indonesia through educational activities.

STOREIndonesia

Me and My CitySeeing, feeling, and recording KOTA

FOREWORD / PannaFoto Institute

This online catalog accompanies the photo exhibition Me and My City, held from 5 March until 8 April 2016 at Plaza Senayan Mall in Jakarta.

Five photographers from different backgrounds present their storytelling. Each defines his/her preference on visual approach, understanding and interpretation on the theme. They use either black-and-white or color photography as a technique to express intimate and personal within their documentary.

The exhibition is part of Aku dan Kotaku program, a joint initiative by PannaFoto Institute and Goethe-Institut Indonesien in 2013. The program uses photography to address city issues beyond definitions and limitations on the way to see the city. It is an invitation for the participating photographers to interpret the theme, explore the creative process, and present their visual opinion to public.

Along the way, PannaFoto Institute continues the program through partnership with photo communities in various places, such as Bukittinggi, Malang and Kupang. The project Me and My City is the first project in 2016, implemented with Leica Store Indonesia.

PannaFoto Institute would like to thank our partner and individuals who have given tremendous support in making this program happen: Goethe-Institut Indonesien, Bukittinggi United Photographers, Rimbun, Sekolah MUSA, Indigo Resto, Karolus Naga, Alfred W. Jami, Rizki Dwi Putra, and all the

participating photographers. For this particular exhibition, we give thanks to: Leica Store Indonesia, Romi Perbawa, Rony Zakaria, Bobby Haryanto, Bapak Stephanus Wijaya, Edi Yuwono and Tejo Ariwibowo.

Last but not least, we would like to express our appreciation and thanks to the photographers and the artists (Tommy N. Armansyah, Gyaista Sampurno, Sari Asih, Wilson Gunawan and Antonius Riva Setiawan), Sasa Kralj and Edy Purnomo for the enthusiasm, commitment and the moments in which we shared our creative process and faith in photography.

Jakarta, March 2016

Ng Swan Ti

Program Manager

PannaFoto Institute

As the theme of the project says, Me and My City, both are equally important – the “me”, an individual, observer and active creator of the environment, and “my city”, the whole, which is always more than just sum of its parts.

With unique talents and approaches, the participants do not just provide a view, they also provide experiences for the viewer. Some intimate, others critical, showcasing issues that may not affect us personally, but touches us as a society. This exhibition with its separate stories will touch everyone as much as it enriched us as facilitators.

The black and white photographs of Tommy N. Armansyah entitled Jakarta, My Adopted City, depict the colorful life of Jakarta and its inhabitants. As a professional, working from nine to five, a husband, and a father of three children, Tommy’s insights guide his encounters and go beyond facade of his adopted city.

For partners in “photographic” crime, Gyaista Sampurno and Sari Asih, they did not put the city as the main focal point. They took the “me”, and shone a light like on it, like in a magic shadow puppet show. The urban backdrop is just a screen, a background

for the tale. It is a start of a collaborative long-term project to document their everyday lives. Keeping integrity as photographers, yet not turning it into the goal, their images are sequenced to form an emotional symphony, almost like musical cords. Fast and sharp or slow and blurry, in major or minor key, it is a music of their intimacy and true feelings within their personal life that they expose to us. All it takes is to close your eyes and feel their intimacy through the images.

Wilson Gunawan’s images reveal his concern for, what others perceive as, black and white aspects of life. He decides to take us on a journey, closer and deeper, into Kalijodo. It is an area that he frequently drives pass like so many of us. Saturated alleys, stuffy and pungent, smelling of sweat and reeking of poverty, attack us and attract us simultaneously. Life that happened in those tiny rooms, personal belongings left behind.

Lost Souls is a quest to dig into a psychology of identity, of belonging. Antonius Riva Setiawan’s investigation takes us into souls of those who choose to belong - the youths who struggle in their search for idealism – and then disillusioned by the manipulations, finding themselves again alone at the mercy of the winds. The Movement that gave them collective identity ultimately swallowed their unique identity. His chosen visual approach, portraiture with their testimonies and single photographs, creates a surreal feeling. Riva kept the youths on the photographs unidentified to respect their privacy and safety.

We wish you enjoy the exhibition.

Jakarta, March 2016

INTRODUCTION / Facilitator Team

Edy Purnomo, Ng Swan Ti and Sasa Kralj

Jakarta,

My Adopted CityTommy N. Armansyah

I was born and grew up in Bandung, but Jakarta is the city where I developed myself. It is a fascinating city which offer its inhabitants with the best thing you can afford to the worst you may encounter. It is predictable and yet at same time full of surprises. It is a city you can hate so much but somehow you always miss it, longing for it. These are the pictures of my adopted city, taken from my daily interactions with the “big kampung”. It is my personal take, my point of view.

Tommy N. ArmansyahAs a child, Tommy is fascinated by graphic images from comic books and magazines. In 2006, he began his rather serious interest in photography and his infatuation with anything photography grew ever since. He joined several photography workshops including PannaFoto Institute, Kelas Pagi Jakarta and Foundry Photojournalistic Workshop. He is a co-founder of Photobook Club Jakarta. He holds a legal degree from the Padjadjaran University and works as a corporate slave. His main interests are his family and his collections of stuffs (photobooks, die-cast cars, old cameras etc).

Today,No Matter

What it Takes,

We Ride Home

Together

Gyaista Sampurno

and

Sari Asih

As partners, we rarely live together. His work needs him to be away from her, from the beginning of the relationship itself. We grew by absorbing different kind of reality. In a way, this makes us stay true to ourselves, searching life in our own direction, only to share the finding as ours. But this also means that we have to work harder than others to keep the ship sailing by maintaining hope and expectation, merging personal value to be shared value, relying on love as the foundation.

This ongoing project will be our way on sharing personal day-to-day reality in a form of visual diary. The objection is to document the everyday life, can be mundane or more profound into the feeling or thinking, and making juxtapose images out of the finding.

Gyaista Sampurno Having work as a geologist since 1996, I have live most of my life far away from home. Taking pictures is my way to ease the distance, an emotional way out, turning time into explicable moments. Personally, photography has serve me as mirror, which I can then reflect upon the realities of my life.

Sari Asih Change is good, change leads you to a new discovery, a new territory. That’s how I relate myself with photography. I’ve been educate as a graphic designer, and for years been doing it for living. Yet, I constantly need outlet for my passion and emotion. That is what I found in photography.

Farewell My Mistress

Wilson Gunawan

Kalijodo is one of Jakarta’s infamous red-light district area. Even though prostitution is illegal in Indonesia, it is still widespread in many major cities. In a recent effort to eradicate prostitution, a proactive effort by the governor was taken to shut down the area and convert it into parks.

In this seedy underbelly of society, the sex, drug and alcohol trade run rampant. In these series of photographs, we glimpse into the lives of the sex workers that once populate this area. Unhygienic and dreary living conditions are common. Unplanned pregnancies are not unheard of.

Despite their expected jaded viewpoint of life, they are also no different from the youths of today. They, too, have dreams and indulge in popular culture. However, they are forced to grow up fast as they ply their trade in these squalid neighbourhoods. As the aggressive demolition effort continues, as hundreds of families are relocated. What that remains are fragments of lost youth and innocence.

Wilson Gunawan is a photography hobbyist. He continues to improve his knowledge by learning more about the techniques of photoessay and photojournalism. He is currently based in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Lost

Souls

AntoniusRiva Setiawan

“I was angry, sick and tired with corruption and injustice in this country. You may say radicalism among youth is big problem in this country, but underneath that is hopelessness and a belief that there is no fairness. We’re upset and frustrated and look for something to do.”

- AS (2016) opposite page

“I turn on my TV and saw the news about 63-year- old women who get sentenced 15 months prison for stealing timber from plantation owned by state logging company. It’s not fair! A month after my friend approach me and ask me to join a movement that will make this country better .....”

- S (2016) next page

My photos portrays AS and S, two young educated and idealist but yet lost souls, who are in desperate search for their presumably right identity. Though their search for their identity and their strong desire to take action and do something good for their society led them to encounter with a radical group movement.

Antonius Riva Setiawan was introduced to photography at the age of 16 from his father. Along the way he developed his interest in documentary photography while working with YCAB Foundation in Indonesia. Riva holds a bachelor degree in industrial engineering from the Trisakti University. He attended Photojournalism Masterclass by VII Agency in 2005 and World Press Photo Photojournalism course at PannaFoto Institute in 2006.

STOREIndonesia