Fairest of them All
Guntur Soekarno blends culture and photography into a Gitano-themed body of work
As a hobbyist photographer who primarily focuses on portraying models, I have captured hundreds of portraits over the decades ranging from a toddler to a grandmother. I have recorded many people from all walks of life through my cameras, such as the simple Kodak Instamatic Baby Box and the advanced Hasselblad 500C. Even today, with digital cameras, I remain actively casting models from a diverse background of professions and ages. The models this time were Andini Effendi, a professional journalist and a leading presenter, and Hanika Febriane Ibrahim or Nika, a director at a private company. Both were photographed with natural lighting and only aided with a reflector to add some lighting. Many thanks to my assistant Meidy H Krisnadi, a fellow photography enthusiast, for helping me out.
Coming from my background as a musician and a socio-political observer, I am rather fascinated with the Gypsy people’s music and social behaviour. “Gitanos” thus became the theme for this photoshoot, where I portrayed both ladies as part of the Gypsy people. The idea was further cemented as I listened, in the stillness of the night, to some songs from the Gipsy Kings: Un Amore, Cominando Por La Calle and Amimanera. Furthermore, I discussed with them to incorporate more colours into the makeup to look more lively.
Two focal points of expressiveness were the colour red for lipstick and dark mascara, which translated well into either colour or black-and-white photos.
I also added some details to their wardrobe to enhance the Gitanos feel, such as a blood-red headband for Nika. For Andini, I added a multi-coloured one together with a red rose in her hair. Of course, some electric and acoustic guitars added nice touches to the compositions, such as an electric Fender Stratocaster guitar and a nylon-acoustic Arista guitar made in Bandung.
Overall, all these combinations of different elements and colours resulted in an elegant and vivid concept.
Guntur Soekarnoputra is one of five children of Indonesia’s first president, Soekarno, from his marriage to Fatmawati. Sharing the same penchant for the arts as his father, Guntur has trained his focus primarily on photography and business. On the political stage, he is not actively involved in the public eye but continues to write socio-political articles for Harian Kompas, Media Indonesia, Suara Pembaruan and Berita Satu, among many others.
“Coming from my background as a musician and a socio-political observer, I am rather fascinated with the Gypsy people’s music and social behaviour”