On the President's Trail for Bloomberg News

It came as a suprise when I was given a rare access to follow and photograph Indonesian President, Joko Widodo, to accompany an exclusive interview led by John Micklethwait for Bloomberg News last October. During one full day, I followed him around the city of Surakarta, Central Java (his hometown) and ended with a five minutes portrait session in a makeshift studio that I set at airport's VIP room.

I feel so lucky that I happened to photograph him during two decisive times. The first was five years ago, shortly before he was running for presidency. And this one, shortly ahead of his second inaugration.

Rebel Riders in Silkwinds

Rebel Riders, my project about Indonesian so-called extreme vespa community has just been published in Silkwinds, Silk Air Inflight Magazine, June 2018. It includes some new images that I just shoot and developed recently.

Waste Universe

Being sick & laying myself on the bed for the last 3 days is terribly frustrating. I'm wondering what I can do other than reading over and over back issues of National Geographic and following the news about Japan's current crisis. Last week, me and Rafi Tanjung, both a colleague and good photographer went around for a photo opportunity. Some place came in our mind, but at the last we pick the garbage disposal located at the northern tip of Padang, a place that we hardly visit since a year ago.

The city of Padang is growing, and so with its garbage. I still can recall, upon our last visit, the area occupy smaller part of the mountainious landscape of Air Dingin. Now it is expanding. Why the authority decide to put all the city's garbage here remain a question to me. It's undeniable that the area around is one of Padang most valuable water resource.

What both amazed & thrilled me the most is the people; the scavengers. Some of them are too young. Some work so they can go to school while the others stop going to school so they can work. Well, I'm not in the mood of typing today, let's see more pictures. There's no specific issue that I captured, just a general insight to the waste's universe.