Any photographer that’s spent time in Jakarta has probably been to this Chinese temple in Jakarta which for hundreds of years has heard the fervent prayers of jakarta’s Chinese community and an equal number of prayers from photographers praying for a great picture. It was badly burnt Monday with the main temple completely destroyed.
Happy Chinese New Year
Happy Chinese New Year everyone! This Year is the Year of the Goat/Sheep/Ram – Heyyyy three for the price of one Everyone’s a winner
From Instagram – Department of Neighbourhood Characters
Master Of Disguise. Jakarta
A neighborhood beggar shaves his head under a highway overpass. Over several years, I’ve seen him working a corner near my house with a variety tumors. and head injuries And once even a very realistic second nose, all skillfully applied with makeup.
The now Ubiquitous Black and White Challenge
I don’t know where the B&W challenge started but I’ve seen a lot of it. Last week my friend Mark Baker challenged me which meant that for the following 5 days I had to post a B&W image everyday. Since I’ve been recovering from ankle surgery, that meant dipping into my archive everyday – I really enjoyed it and hope everyone else did too. I originally posted the pictures on Facebook but thought I’d give them a run here.
Vroooom – portraits of Extreme Vespa modders
Massive Flooding in Jakarta
Gold Rush
After a lengthy hiatus recovering from knee surgery, I’m back to work; and first up, is a story about the dark and dangerous world of the artisinal gold miner. Artisinal is a term of art which really means small groups of guys tearing up mountains with prybars and digging holes deep into the ground without the benefit of engineering know-how or equipment to go after the shiny yellow metal which has been rising in price. Consequently, men who have spent most of their lives fishing or farming are now tunneling and often these tunnels are just narrow holes propped up by old sticks and hope.
evening lights, Bangkok
Great New Book of “Phone-ography”
This is a great opportunity to see the intuitive, quirky, beautiful, observant, inventive vision of four of Indonesia’s premier photographers ( Ahmad Zamroni, Dita Alangkara, Mast Irham, and Yuniadhi Agung) explored through their phones’ camera. The book can be ordered here for only Rp 150,000 – thats less than 15 bucks for my non-indonesian friends – check it out!
Indonesia’s Air Gun Capital
all images copyright Getty Images/Ed Wray
In every corner of the world, people feel the need to proclaim their fame. To shout out to the universe that “we are significant and here’s the reason why” – There is a “carrot capital of the world”, Holtville, California, the “selfie Capital of the world”, Makati, Philippines and my home state, Idaho seems to be known throughout the world as “famous for potatoes” (at least from the number of people who say potatoes after I tell them that they’ve probably never heard of where I’m from). The small village of Cipacing, Indonesia is one such capital. It is the “Air Rifle Capital of Indonesia.” Dozens of homes in the village have sophisticated metal lathes, and woodworking tools with which the villagers have been turning out firearms since at least the late 1800’s. Although since the 1960’s when Indonesia banned guns, the community has mostly been making air rifles which people buy to hunt small animals and birds; but the skill of the villages gunsmiths sometimes gets used to make illegal firearms which are then sold to criminals or terrorists. Its a fascinating place.