Jajan

These children are buying a cake from a snack seller/vendor traveling in their kampong near Situ Ciburuy (the Ciburuy lake) in West Bandung.

"Jajan", the title of this post, is an Indonesian word for snack (as a noun), eating snack, or buying snack.

A Woman with Two Children

A woman with her two children in the crowd watching the Cap Go Meh carnival on Jenderal Sudirman Street some time ago.

Cap Go Meh Boy

A boy holding a dragon doll on his father's shoulders watching the Cap Go Meh festival attractions on Jalan Sudirman Street some time ago.

Cap Go Meh in the local name of 15th day of the Chinese New Year festivities.

Reading and Creativity Cafe

Today I was invited for a photography exhibition and discussion at S-28, a bookstore cafe and an 'oleh-oleh' store (oleh-oleh = gifts/presents one brings home from a trip) on Sulanjana street.

The exhibition displayed the works of very young photographers aged between 8 and 15 years old. The discussion was on how children express themselves through the medium of photography and how photography education could benefit and help them explore and express their creativity. It was an interesting discussion.

But no less interesting was the place where the exhibition and discussion were held. It was filled with young people who came there not just to enjoy the coffee or snacks but to do some serious stuff too. I saw a couple of groups engaging themselves in what looked like creative project discussions - one over a laptop and the other over some posters of some sort. Then I also saw quite a few 'loners' reading books and scribbling what looked like some serious academic notes.



Frankly speaking, I was surprised and pleased to see this. The scene reminded me of some American university towns that I have visited, where cafes were not only a place for relaxing and socializing but also a place where students would come together to read books and have some serious discussions about their academic projects.



Then it came down upon me that this cafe was located near ITB (Bandung Institute of Technology) and a couple of other university campuses. That might explain why many of its visitors are engaged in what looked like some academic activities.

That aside, I was once informed by some students of mine that there were actually quite a number of cafes in Bandung that are quite popular among the creative youth communities: musicians, bloggers, web designers, and photographers. I have yet to explore them. But this and a couple of other cafes that I have often visited convinced me that cafes in this city are the nursery of creativity. It is part of the engine that makes Bandung one of the most vibrant creative cities in Indonesia.

By the way, here are some of the children's photographic works exhibited at the cafe.

The World Cup Fever

Children playing football at the parking lot of Stasiun Bandung.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup currently being held in South Africa seems to have got everybody infected with the football fever. A lot of people would watch the live broadcast matches on television even late into the night.

Football aside, playing on a busy parking lot like this is of course dangerous. Unfortunately, Bandung doesn't have enough open spaces and parks even for children to play, and the goverment doesn't seem to really care about it. All they care is about building malls, hotels, and shops. Sighs.

La Musique Petite

I'm a bit behind with my posts and blogging. It's been a very hectic week at work that I barely had the time to even check my emails, let alone attended to my blog.

I will try to catch up with the posts I have missed in the next few hours. But first, I'd like to thank those of you who have visited my blog and kindly left comments on my posts. I'll return your visit as soon as I can.

Today's photo is not exactly new. I took it about a year ago. The girl in the photo is a member of a marching band group competing in a school marching band festival and competition. If I remember it correctly, this competition is a regular event held annually to encourage schools and school children in Bandung to play music and, in particular, marching band.

I had to run around like a photo journalist to follow the dynamic march of the bands and get close to the players to get this photo. I'm glad I did though. I managed to get some nice angles and captured some expressive moments there that are worth the efforts I made. I hope you enjoy this photo as much as I did taking it.

Street Photography # 6: Topeng Monyet - A Close Encounter with A Distant Brother

"Topeng monyet" (literally: monkey mask) is an Indonesian traditional folk street performance whose sole actor/actress is a monkey. The monkey - who has been tamed and especially trained by a "pawang" (animal master) - performs different kinds of tricks immitating human actions, such as dressing up, riding a bicycle, going shopping, etc.

A "topeng monyet" group typically consists of one or two monkeys, an animal master and trainer, and a couple of musicians.

Bandung Street Scenes: Exploring Street Photography # 3

Here is another photo that I took in my photo hunting trip with my photographer friends last week. I captured this street photography scene at Lapangan Gasibu (Gasibu Square). As you may remember from one of my previous posts, Gasibu Square, which is located right across the street from Gedung Sate (West Java Gubernatorial Office Mansion), turns into a makeshift market every Sunday morning. This "market" sells just about everything and is packed with people during this time of the week. As such, it is an ideal place to do street photography.

For those of you who did not follow this blog regularly or have just discovered it, I formally introduced what street photography essentially is about in my previous two posts here and here.

Now I would like to add that in street photography, observation and alertness are two other important things that a photographer needs to exercise. For this scene, for example, the first thing I observed was these colorful inflatable dolls. While they in themselves would have made a nice photograph, the visual impact would have been different without the presence of this child showing interests in them. So I waited. Sure enough, a few minutes later, this boy wearing this attractive cap walked passed them with his mom. I pressed the shutter, and voila!

You may also want to see the other photos in this series in my other photo blog here.

City of People: Children

Picture by Eki Qushay Akhwan

Kahlil Gibran (1883 - 1931), a Lebanese American artist, poet, writer, philosopher, theologian, and one of my favorite poets ever, once wrote this about children:

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your childrenas living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let our bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

To me, no other accounts of children have ever been more sublime than this. Those children in the picture are not just the citizens of Bandung; they are the citizens of the world, the future, and our hearts and souls.