Some random images from the recent two-weeks trip around Central Europe for DestinAsian Indonesia.
Refugee Crisis in the Balkans on Marie Claire Indonesia, January 2016
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.
Free e-photobook: Return to Aceh
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.
Random Scenes: Stretched
Cameras are just like musical instruments, different devices produce distinct imageries. Here are my few takes on the toylike Russian made Horizon S3 panoramic camera. While operating this camera requires some degree of patience and the control also got some real quirks (but yet also very simple), I might find some real use of it in the future.
Onboard inter-island ferry from Sabang to Banda Aceh.
Tsunami relic in Aceh's western coast.
Bogor railway station, West Java.
Rough sea north of the island of Wetar.
Chinatown, Padang, West Sumatra.
Port of Sunda Kelapa, Jakarta.
Taiwan Beyond Taipei: Taichung
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.
DestinAsian Indonesia May - June 2013
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.
A Glimpse of Iran
Well, it's been a while since the last time I posted something. The plans to fill this blog regularly remains just as that—plans. But today I'm trying to keep up, updating it with something new. It will be brief, but with pictures :D
So now I'm in Iran, traveling to some parts of the country for 13 days (that's kind of short). Arrived in the middle of last week, my first impression of this country was a little more than I ever expected. Probably that's because of the everlasting impression created by the Western media—they made us think that Iran is not a safe place to go, and above all it's on the United States list of the Axis of Evil.
The reality is just far away from that. Many times I found out that much of what media said about a country is wrong. And in Iran almost all of it are wrong. I can see how this country which full of kind-hearted Iranians is treated unfair by the world. For me it will be always likely to be on my list of the Axis of Good.
My travel was begun in Tehran. Unlike most of my travel before, I'm enjoying Iran with a good friend of mine, Mohammad Safir Makki from the Jakarta Globe. But we don't have a lot of time. Instead of spending more days in the capital, we rushed to Yazd, a city flanked by never-ending desert in Central Iran. Here, where the weather is always burning during summer, we found a warm hospitality of the Iranians even more.
There are a lot of stories. But I'm prefer to save it for later. This will be just the first.
And today, I'm in Esfahan.
Lipka Tatar's Trail : Garuda Magazine
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.
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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)