Keep In Memory: "My Bangladesh" Photo Series (9)

Barber in the street. Dhaka, 25  February 2020

When in Dhaka, one afternoon, I saw this barber cutting hair in the street, I thought: "Well, I can’t go back to Italy without taking this picture!" And so it was.

There are dozens and dozens of photos that are lost, it is normal. You don't always have the opportunity to photograph, especially if you move by car or bus. You can't always force yourself to stop and have time to take a picture. Each photographer has hundreds of images inside that belong only to him.

But this, I would have regretted for a long time if I missed it. Because it falls perfectly into the category of activities and trades that I love immensely, that I have tried to save with photography in Indonesia and Malaysia. Before everything disappears.

How many small traditional bookstores we cried this year, here in Italy, for witnessing their closure, as well as the record stores: all crushed by the large distribution chains with which it is difficult to compete in terms of size or prices, but had a level of unmatched competence and quality. 

And so goes the world, the same thing is happening everywhere. 

With small family shops inside the houses, in Asia, selling everything (the first time I saw them in the Philippines, more than fifteen years ago, the so-called sari-sari store), flanked by minimarket chains franchises. All the same, from the Philippines to Borneo.

This deeply saddens me.

So, from my very first trip to Indonesia, I immediately understood what one of my goals as a photographer would be: to keep in memory. If I cannot prevent certain activities from disappearing under the crush of modernity and globalization, at least I can save them with photography. For the benefit of future generations who have never had the pleasure of meeting, like me, ten years ago, in the streets of Jakarta, the man sitting at his Singer sewing machine, in the street, making small mends to those who brought him the clothes.

“Tailor”, Jakarta, July 2014

“Seamstress”. Jakarta, postcard around 1900

From that moment, I understood that it was important to remember these small crafts that would one day certainly disappear, as is happening now, for example, in Malaysia, whose path towards modernity is proceeding much faster than in gigantic Indonesia. And anyway, as I said before, it has been happening in Italy for a long time.

I also started collecting books, which include photographs or historical postcards of these countries. I love to see the old Jakarta, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, China or Japan. And then look for what still survives, comparing them.

It is inevitable that we walk towards what is before us, as it is an unstoppable process. But this does not mean forgetting what we were. And above all, keeping it in mind for our children.

In Indonesia and Malaysia, there is a very important term which is profound and difficult to translate: adat. Adat is the set of practices, customs, laws, conventions and practices accepted by a community. Adat is the identity backbone of a community and nation where it exists; for example, the adat of Malaysian or Indonesian. Adat shapes the mentality and life practices of the people, and it is critical to know to fully understand a culture or a nation. 

I believe that certain practices, at a very basic level, fall within this complex concept. 

The women of the villages (kampung) who meet early morning in the banks of the rivers to bathe and wash clothes, fall into that form of female socialization which is part of the Indo-Malaysian costume which tends to anthropologically separate women's activities from the male ones, as well as the architectural structure of the wooden houses of the villages, which have “male” and “female” parts, in the sense of domination of space.

“Women washing clothes”. Desa Batu Jaya, Karawang. Indonesia, 2010

Jakarta, postcard circa 1930

Now in some of these countries, this habit is no longer seen, because every family has a washing machine and because it is no longer tolerated on a religious level, and the women in certain villages have lost a private moment of socialization. While in Indonesia, it's still possible to witness this practice, it's no coincidence that in Malaysia or Bangladesh, they can only be seen in remote villages or in those of the most time-rooted peoples such as the Orang Asli in Malaysia, or tribal ones not Muslims in Bangladesh, like Burmese ethnicities in Chittagong.

They are small steps, but each of these steps participates in the slow disappearance of the original soul of a people, a tribe, or an entire nation.

“Morning breakfast.”Gunung Manglayang, Bandung, Indonesia, 2010

“Vegetable Seller.” Jakarta, postcard 1900 circa

Perhaps in five, six years, hair cutting on the sidewalk of the street will no longer be allowed; perhaps the laws, or customs, or a hundred other reasons will change it. And you will lose this purely "male time", urban, friendly and so nice to see, it becomes necessary for me to photograph.

Man, or a people, who begins to forget or feel ashamed of their "primitive" past (in the etymological and wonderful sense of this word), is beginning the long descent towards self-forgetfulness.

Like when I asked Malaysian ladies, the first time I went to Malaysia in 2016, where I could photograph women washing clothes on the banks of a river. "Ehhh, Stef! Itu zaman dulu!" That was a long time ago! They answer me laughing and making fun of me. "Now we all have washing machines in the house."

However, by observing carefully, their eyes are moist.

Felice Beato: "Barbers". Japan, 1868.

"Barber shop" Jakarta, postcard circa 1910.

Scott Merillees: “Greeting from JAKARTA – Postcards of a capital 1900-1950” (EQUINOX, 2012)

“EAST ZONE – Antonio Beato, Felice Beato e Adolfo Farsari. Fotografi veneti attraverso l'oriente dell'Ottocento” a cura di Magda Di Siena (Antiga Edizioni, 2011)

JAKARTA: Portraits of a Capital 1950-1980

Greetings from JAKARTA: Postcards of a Capital 1900–1950

Kampungku Indonesia

Italian version