A Journey through Wonderful Indonesia

Rarindra Prakarsa is a photographer from Jakarta, Indonesia, who has been recognized internationally on several platforms for his outstanding photography. A consummate professional, he has spent several years documenting the myriad sights and natural beauty of Indonesia. A native of Indonesia himself, Rarindra has special affinity for the people of Indonesia and their cultures and traditions, and this love comes through beautifully in his work. His photographs can be found online at http://photo.net/photos/rarindra.

How did you get involved in photography? What made you pick up your first camera?

My journey in photography started during my college days, at the Polytechnic University of Indonesia. My major subjects were Graphic Arts and Publishing, and Photography was included as part of the course structure. I was really passionate to learn how we, as people, communicate with each other through any kind of visual medium – be it with pictures, colours, signs, layouts, designs, or any other aspect of non-verbal communication. During college, I became intensely involved in two kinds of visual communication especially: Graphic Design and Photography. Clicking pictures and developing them in a darkroom were processes that fascinated me greatly, and I spent many hours exploring different areas of the same. I didn’t have my own camera until I got a job after graduation. I finally got my first one – a Nikon FM2 – in 1995, a year after working as a graphic designer in a newspaper in Jakarta.

What drove you to focus your photography skills on the myriad sights that Indonesia has to offer?

My photography has always been driven by my love for my country Indonesia. Its beautiful nature and exotic

people and culture enchant me, despite being a native of this land, and I constantly want to capture them. In fact, I bought my first camera after I was inspired by a TV commercial campaign aired to celebrate 50 years of Indonesia’s independence. Its footage tried to depict just how beautiful Indonesia really is, and I was instantly hooked. I knew that I had found the subject of my photography. Our nation is comprised of about 17,000 islands, each with their own unique natural and cultural diversity. I have wanted to capture them as much as possible since the time I started photography. Indonesians live in the Ring of Fire with the constant risk of natural disasters and calamities, but God has also blessed us with majestic volcanoes, beautiful hills, breathtaking highlands, and very fertile soil that keeps the land green and full of crops; all of these are excellent subjects for photography. Mount Bromo, Dieng Plateau, Mount Rinjani, Mount Krakatau, Toba Lake, Kintamani Lake, and several other gifts of Nature and God continue to enthrall photographers from around the world with their beauty and splendour. Now, it has become my passion to showcase the exoticism of the people of this country against the backdrop of their beautiful habitat in my pictures.

I can’t help but notice that all of your images feature people and their lives prominently. Why the focus on human life, and not the landscapes and flora and fauna of Indonesia?

I am not sure why. I believe that what we capture in our photography is mostly based on our environment, our past, our knowledge, and our interest. I love to analyze different aspects of people. How they live, their characters, expressions, gestures, faces, costumes, customs, cultures... all of it fascinates me intensely. For me, every person is a “landscape” in himself/herself. It is us who have to explore this wondrous “landscape”, and discover the parts that are good and unique, and need to be captured. I do like landscape and flora and fauna, I don’t deny it. But I can’t resist including people in my photographs, because they add “soul” to my images. Actually, I do have some images which are just landscapes, but I usually don’t publicize them much in an effort to maintain “consistency”. I want people to know me as a

photographer who enjoys “human” photography.

How has photography helped mould your understanding of your nation and its people?

I am currently on a trip to Lombok Island. It’s a small one, compared to several other islands in Indonesia, but it has several beautiful beaches. The people here have a very unique culture. They are 90% Muslim, but some Hinduism influence can be seen in their daily activities. I know this only because I have observed them as a photographer, and spent time in understanding my subject(s). Some photographers I know don’t care about the stories behind the pictures they take. They only care about the artistic and creative side of their work. Hence, they can’t tell stories about the pictures they click. For me, this is just a terrible waste of time. I believe that photography can be a great tool to understand people and their environment. There is always something we can learn from our subjects. We can experience, and capture, some truly unforgettable moments if we spend some time exploring and interacting with our subjects. For instance, interacting with the locals I photograph has taught me many new things, and helped me develop respect, about the cultural diversity of Indonesia. Apart from clicking pictures, I also organize some photography-related

activities; one such activity is a photo safari. I try to bring people from as many countries as possible to Indonesia, and we try to learn everything we can about our destination, and the people who live there, and their nature. Exploring a wide range of sources for information contributes greatly to our understanding of Indonesia and its people.

The lighting in almost all your images is very striking, and develops the image’s mood profoundly. How much investment and pa- tience is needed for a photographer to be able to capture such spectacular images?

For me, lighting is the most challenging aspect and element of photography. Proper lighting can make a plain and generic picture special. What is important is to identify and choose the best way in which light falls on the subject. I personally like backlighting and sidelighting the most, because in my experience, it creates a wonderful dramatic effect in any scene. Even the simplest of moments and subjects can be made to look more dramatic, and suddenly everything in the frame becomes like a giant stage or canvas to compose a dramatic piece on. Getting the right kind of lighting of course depends on how and where we shoot. Sometimes I have been very lucky to get just the right kind of beautiful lighting in a place; in such a scenario, it should be second nature to me to make the most of the moment and capture my subjects in the available natural light.

If I do need to enhance lighting in a scene, I usually use speedlights. They are really helpful in helping me shape the subject. I used to avoid using flash, and I know many photographers who still do, because they fear it will create unnatural shapes and features in their subjects. But, if we know how to combine flash lighting with available light, then the result can turn out to be truly fascinating.

Some professionals might complain that similar effects can be achieved even through post-production via Photoshop. What is your view on digital editing and retouching of an image after it has been captured?

I have always believed in the maxim: “A good picture could be a very good picture; a very good picture could be a great picture; but, a plain picture will be a plain picture”. Editing cannot create the full depth and combination of lighting, expression, gesture, dimension, and perspective. Let’s say, that someone is an expert in Photoshop, but their basic photography knowledge is lacking. If such a person tries to create a picture similar to that of one with excellent photography skills but working knowledge of Photoshop, the former’s output will be weaker in quality. In my opinion, it’s very naive on the part of a photographer if he/she doesn’t know how to edit, or even worse, if they avoid editing completely, in this digital era. It’s oldfashioned thinking to believe that what I shoot with the camera should directly be the final output, or it may be caused by a lack of appropriate knowledge, causing many professionals to believe an edited picture is no longer a “true” photograph. For me, editing is just another way of perfecting our imagination. We should know how to use it wisely and properly. Knowing its limitations and when it is too much is just as important. Today, in commercial photography, what we can “photography” is only limited by our imagination and creativity. Editing and photo-manipulation break these limitations and make everything possible and easily achievable... and cheaper too. However, I do believe that for certain kinds of photography, like journalism and documentary photography, editing should be kept limited to the barest minimum, so as not to interfere with depiction of “facts”.

Note: SmartPhotography would like to thank Mumbaibased photographer Natalia Arantseva for helping us co-ordinate this article. Ms. Arantseva will soon be organizing a workshop in Mumbai, in conjunction with Mr. Prakarsa, and for queries, can be contacted at natalia. pardesi@gmail.com.