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JEMBER FASHION CARNIVAL X : EYES ON TRIUMPH

This years Jember Fashion Carnival was held at jember, east java (where else would it be, d’oh) on july 24th, 2011.

Claimed to be one of the biggest and longest carnival in the world by its founder, Dynand Fariz, the carnival was certainly the best in Indonesia. With more than 3 km of catwalk and hundreds of performers wearing extravagant and colorful costumes, it was certainly interesting.

Entering its tenth year, the carnival decided to chose the best theme themes from its previous carnivals, the themes chosen were punk, india, athena, tsunami, borneo, bali, roots, animal plant, butterfly and royal kingdom that was inspired by the royal wedding.

I managed to arrive a few days before the event, and witnessed for myself the incredible efforts that the performers has put in perfecting their performance. Their daily rigourous rehearsal and costant improvements on their costumes shows that their spirit was high, even though the cost of making the costumes came from their own pocket.

We were allowed to shot the preparation of the performers before the carnival. It was early in the morning when i arrived at the venue, i went straight to the place whre the performers were doing make up and preparing their costumes. It was a great chance to capture several behind the scene shots, but there were a lot of photographers (most of them were annoying, really really annoying, and i’m pretty certain that most of them where just showing of their gear) thinking the same way as i did.

If you’re a photographer, you would love and hate to shoot JFC, because the privilages you are given. Photographers were assigned to spesific areas where they can shoot comfortably, but the implemention of these specific areas was sadly ignored. It was chaotic, it was hard to get a nice and clean image, when other photogs insisted in getting into your frame.

The crowd’s eagerness suddenly turned to worst when they manage to breach the fence that was meant to give the protection for the performers. The inability of the security consisting of the police, the army and several local residents was predictably, because they were severely outnumbered. After talking to several people, it came to my attention that it happens every year. Suddenly, I pity the performers that were unable to perform fully due to the condition caused of the crowd.

all in all, the carnival certainly attracts attention to the small city of jember, hotels were fully booked by national and international tourists, the media coverage was abundant. these will bring wonders to the towns economy. But the overall management of the event needs to be improve drastically, especially in terms of crowd control. If people cannot enjoy JFC, i’m certain that people will not be interested in coming for a second visit.

Five Mountain Festival: "art is simple"

this post marks a new phase in this photoblog of mine, just recently i stumbled upon a writing that stated the importance of written information on photographs. visually i often try to put as many information as possible when taking a picture, but sometimes there are things that are not visually visible and sometimes its even more important than the picture itself.

to tell you the truth, i'm a crappy writer. but we all gotta start somewhere, right? so here it goes...

this last few months, i've been extremely bored with the things i usually photograph. i needed something new to photograph, i needed to travel. the decision to finally go to the five mountain festival was a swift one. after receiving money from my previous job, i packed my bags and leave right away. (lesson to be learned: without the proper research, it will be difficult to shoot decently). but with a little extra cost, i had finally arrived at the venue.

the venue was far from what i had expected, there are no giant advertisement banners, no fastfood stals and there was no proper stage or lighting, it was humble. it was perfect.

the 10th five mountain festival was held at DUSUN KERON, DESA KROGOWANAN, KECAMATAN SAWANGAN, KABUPATEN MAGELANG. the name of the festival was derived from the fact that there are five mountains surrounding magelang, mt. merapi, mt. andong, mt. menoreh, mt. merbabu and mt. sumbing.

the stage and sound systems used was simple. the stage was a square field with a bamboo fence surrounding it and the sound system used was far from decent, but for the people enjoying the festival, it was enough.

what i found intrigueing was none of the performers was getting paid for their performance. they only expect that in return, when a similar festival was held in their village, the people performing at the festival would also perform for free.

The crowd showed great enthusiasm, they came from surrounding villages using trucks and pick-ups.

the one thing that all of us cityfolks have to learn is that "art is simple". due to its simplicity, the festival, in my opinion, was the best art and cultural festival i've attended.