Publication
Recent work for The Wall Street Journal on First Travel scam, one of the biggest frauds in Indonesia’s history: $63 millions from nearly 60,000 victims.
Asmana, the streetside noodle seller portrayed on the cover, saved her earnings to pay a trip to Mecca. The agency took her money without booking her trip.
Portrait of Asmanah and her husband in their rented boarding house.
Written by Anita Rachman.
Read the full story and see more photographs here.
Photographs from my detour around Croatia and Serbia to cover the European refugee crisis in the Balkans are published by Marie Claire Indonesia, January 2016 edition. With an insightful write-ups by Nina Hidayat.
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.
Sometimes, you just have to arrive back in a place to see what you're missing. Last June, I visited Taichung, the third largest city in Taiwan, assigned by Destinasian Indonesia. I have been to Taiwan two years ago exploring the area around Taipei for a different magazine. But I had no interest (and time) to go beyond that. And then Taichung came as a pleasant surprise.
Let's make it really short, here are some photographs from the trip.
An eccentric biker in Taichung.
Taichung's food feast.
Lanshu Chen, the Asia's Best Female Chef 2014.
Taichung city view from a skyscraper.
Taichung's youth.
Xaio long bao served in a roadside restaurant.
Liz Silva enjoying beef satay.
This is how the publication turned out in Destinasian Indonesia September-October 2014 Issue.
Few days back, I just realized that it has been more than a year since my last post. Time passed so quick and that's terrible for this blog, extraordinarily terrible. For now at least, no second glance, I'm up for blogging again. Will I post regularly? Honestly, I have no idea yet. But will see if this new blog outlook will bring something good. So, back in March, I was shooting around Magelang, Central Java, for a main travel feature in the May-June edition of DestinAsian Indonesia, the second edition of the magazine. I've been in Magelang before, but that was long time ago. And to my surprise, just like Tony Wheeler who've been always ignored this city in his Indonesia edition of Lonely Planet, I've actually missed many charms about this place, literally.
The trip itself took me to Oei Hong Djien Museum, Selogriyo (the Ubud of Central Java), some less visited temples (you'll meet no other curious tourists other than yourself, and there are more than 70 other temples around), and some great resorts (I didn't usually find any resort stay worth to be the highlight of my trip but who can resist the joy at Villa Borobudur).
The shooting conditions were great, and a lot of photo opportunities around. I just can't complain.
Well, here's the complete tearsheet and you can read the whole story here in Bahasa.
The pictures and words report from my trip to Kruszyniany, a Lipka Tatar village in eastern part of Poland finally published in recent edition of Garuda Magazine (Middle East Edition). It is nicely put on the cover and run six pages inside. What I'm so happy about, my favourite image displayed really well for the double spread title page :)
"These days, along with their muslim tradition, some thousands Lipka Tatars still live in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus."
Lipka Tatar is a group of Tatar who initially resided in Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the 14th century. Their ancestors can be tracked back to the Golden Horde, the later Mongolian Khanate famous for its nomadic style of living. But instead of bringing their shamanistic religion from the east, the Lipka Tatars are Sunni Muslims.
Tatars, along with their ancestors are famous thourghout history for one thing: horse-riding. In the war-infested medieval times, the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth saw this as a great chance. This was a right decision. By waging them as soldiers, the commonwealth won some crucial battle, including the Battle of Grunwald against the Teutonic Knight. As the result, the Lipka Tatars gained a noble status which granted them spacious lands to live on.
***
These days, along with their muslim tradition, some thousands Lipka Tatars still live in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. My visit to Poland on summer 2011 has brought me to Kruszyniany, a small deserted village near Belarus border (there are also another village called Bohoniki). The inital plan was to do an in-depth photo reportage there. But everything wasn't going too well. I messed up the planning with a bad last-minute research.
Special thanks to (Jedrek Wojnar)
Few weeks of silence, that's what happened again to this blog. Yes I was quite busy lately. Last week, I spent 6 days in the southern part of Sulawesi (Celebes) for a special assignment. The reportage along with photographs will be published soon. And then, in the tiring month of Ramadhan, I found myself busy of writing some travel stories. The stories from my last European trip. Let alone this blog, I even don't have time for myself. So here is the last portrait I made and published by TEMPO English Edition. A portrait of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. He was in Jakarta several days before I was leaving for Sulawesi. The shot itself was in a rush. 3 minute available time since he had plane to catch. So I ended up with only 7 pictures in my compact flash. Fortunately, all is usable :)
Anwar Ibrahim TEMPO English
Anwar Ibrahim, TEMPO.
That's all for now.
A very short post.
P.S: I personally like the original color better, but somehow it was adjusted for publication.
A quick post. An intermezzo from my European travel posts if you really tired of it. Last week, I had a chance to photograph Rudy Hartono, a former world champion badminton player for TEMPO. It was a special interview regarding nowadays Indonesian struggle for its long tradition in this sport. In the last few years, Indonesian reputation in badminton is getting worse and worse. Interviewing Rudy hopefully will give the Indonesian some idea why. And he did it. He eagerly stated his personal point of view.
Talking about Rudy Hartono, he's one of the few national sport heroes of Indonesia. More than a hero, he's a living legend. He won men's singles of All England Badminton Championship as much as 8 times, which 7 consecutively from 1968 to 1974. Making him a record of no one can beat until today. No wonder he is one of the most famous player in the history of sport.
And these days, if you are interested to know, he roles as a successful businessman.
Rudi Hartono, TEMPO.
You can read the whole interview in TEMPO 5 July 2011 edition.
Rudi Hartono, TEMPO, English
Thank you for visiting :)
