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Inner Periphery Photo Exhibition

It’s a good start for 2020!

Along with six other photographers, I will be exhibiting my unpublished work in ‘Inner Periphery’ exhibition, curated by Leandro Quintero. The exhibition will be on from 15th to 25th January 2020 at Rubanah Underground Hub, Jakarta (Jl. Timor No.25, Menteng, Jakarta Pusat). An artist talk is scheduled for 23rd of January. Please come if you’re around.

Participating photographer:
Anton Ismael, Chris Bunjamin, Leandro Quintero, Martin Westlake, Muhammad Fadli, Nadia Razak, and Nate Lawrence

Curated by:
Leandro Quintero

Text by:
Allysha Nila

Supported by :
Table Six, Ekta Imaging, DGRA Printing, and Whiteboard Journal

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Indobaruna Bulk Transport Corporate Photo Shoot

Some images from corporate shoot for Indobaruna Bulk Transport, a cement vessel company based in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was one of the most fun shoot since there were a lot of freedom to create imageries, capturing people’s portrait and activites without too much interference.

Based on the brief, the company preferred natural looks for the images. Since the light could be pretty bad in the tropic, some artifical lights were involved but they were mostly used as fills.

Will share more soon!

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Google's Local Guide Rolling On: Sri Lestari

Last August, I got a chance to produce a short documentary for Google's Local Guide Rolling On, a series which focuses on how people with disabilities navigate the city they are living in. The short film features Sri Lestari, a disability rights activist living in Solodiran, Klaten, Central Java. In the production, I worked with Giri Prasetyo, a really good friend of mine who happened to be a great cinematographer and director. Apart from being the producer, I also capture the scene as the second cameraman. Sound was amazingly handled by Mirwan Arfah, a native of Yogyakarta.

Sri Lestari in her parents house © Muhammad Fadli

Sri Lestari in her parents house © Muhammad Fadli

The production days were pretty straightforward with one shooting day reserved to capture Sri's daily activities, and another day for B-roll.

Watch the finished documentary below.

Client: GOOGLE Inc
Producer: Muhammad Fadli
Director of Photography and 1st Cameraman: Giri Prasetyo
2nd Cameraman: Muhammad Fadli
Sound: Mirwan Arfah

Free e-photobook: Return to Aceh

This week marks the tenth years anniversary of the massive Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. So I did my best by compiling the photographs that I took on two recent trips to Aceh, the region which hit the worst by the tsunami (more than 130,000 recorded death), into an e-photobook. Looking at the scale of the disaster, I feel the urge to tell the story of how everything goes there nowadays. And the good thing about this e-photobook it is free. You can get it by clicking the cover page image below or later if you like, you can download it as PDF as well. 

Dedicated for the people of Aceh.

Digital Book Project Return to Aceh - Muhammad Fadli

A Note & Postcards from Pacu Jawi

A picture is worth a thousand words. Yes, you've heard it, and I've heard it too. But now a picture is also worth a thousand dollars. If you're smart enough, in today's not-so-nice situation for emerging photographers, you still can sell a photograph for that amount. But here I'm not talking about that. Instead, by saying "a picture is worth a thousand dollars" I'm talking briefly of how a photograph can actually help a community to maintain their tradition. And they are the people of Tanah Datar, who held Pacu Jawi (you can read my description here). The famous Indonesian bull's racing in West Sumatra.

Yesterday, I visited Tabek to shoot Pacu Jawi for the countless times. This village is somehow really special for me since this was the place where I did the Community Development Participation (Kuliah Kerja Nyata or KKN) during my college years in back in 2005. Here, I experienced one of the most happiest moment in my life: shared a real life with villagers for two months. So when a good friend from Tabek called me few days ago telling Pacu Jawi will be held there, I felt like I was facing an offer I can't refuse (citing The Godfather). Departing from Padang, I accelerated my car passing the winding road that decorate the land of Minangkabau.

"If you're visiting, you're guaranteed a tasty local food and the sweet 'kawa' without having to be ripped off."

What I found surprised me. Pacu Jawi today, is being celebrated more than ever before. Three years ago, when I first shot Pacu Jawi, there were only very few outsider watching the raging bulls running through the wet unplanted ricefield. Most people were locals. But then, there were more and more outsiders came, especially after the photographs of Pacu Jawi were published widely (almost all were done by local photographers and you can see my first photo of the festival

here

). Yesterday there were two Indonesian national TV (with their beautiful hosts), a horde of photographers, and tourists. This is good!!

The more ousiders come, the more of the local economy will develop (it's pretty obvious, so I actually don't need to tell you this). In Pacu Jawi, locals sell anything from foods to toys. If you're visiting, you're guaranteed a tasty local food and the sweet kawa (like coffee but different) without having to be ripped off. And I can see that they are started making good business. By looking at this I couldn't be happier.

So be sure to spend some of your money here.

P.S: If you're a photographer, the local usually will also ask you to register as a guest. They will ask you for some donation too. Please kindly fill the box as you wish. Don't mind. This will go directly to the community and making sure the bulls keep running.

(Pacu Jawi is held almost every Saturday somewhere in Tanah Datar. The series in Tabek will be celebrated until early February 2012)

Amok

Last night, as me and a friend were driving down a crossroad in Padang,  we saw dozens of men gathered at the roadside.  They shouted out loud indicating a trouble. My Indonesian curiosity led me to park my car at a distance. Before long, I was there among them, sneaked in just to find a man, without his shirt, sprawling and begging for his life on the road. "It's an amok" I said to my friend. He nodded.

"The times when we have to deal with our own anger, we often show our most honest but barbaric features."

The word "amok" derived from a remark in Bahasa "amuk", which literally means a state of fury. But more to an uncontrollable form of it. Psychiatrist would be agree to address this state often occured towards a patient with

Schizophrenia

. Some people may find it's quite intriguing of how could an English word (by spelling) absorbed it from Bahasa identically. Most possible that was because they were unable to find a similar context within their society.

Looking back at history, there were enough account from the Dutch colony era, where the imperialist got used to see the native Indonesians doing the amok. If somebody got caught of stealing or involved in social distruption, then he is in a great risk, great danger. Even so, the act of amok actually wasn't only originated in Malay culture. It's no secret this also happened in many part of the worlds including in Europe.

Back to the man who's begging for his life, he was accused of stealing a bird. Indeed, a bird. He ran into trouble when he and his friend failed attempt came into light by the resident of (how unlucky he was) an Indonesian Armies residential complex. This is smelled not like a good place to steal. He fell from his motorcycle and got punches galore by a horde of amok's fans. His friend was lucky enough to escape the crowd.

The times when we have to deal with our own anger, whatever the causes, we often show our most honest but barbaric features. While the unlucky guy laid helpless, some people still manage to kick him hard. I also saw a muscular man stomped him on the face which likely broke his jaw. We did try to stop, but this step often as dilemmatic as we were hushed. There's always risk of those violent behavior would turn towards us in no time.

A sad, tragic, embarassing, but true post for a weekend.