Petamburan. JAKARTA – 29 July 2014 |
It was hard to think how to end the series of photographs on Indonesia.
We went around Java, from Yogyakarta to Madura, with funny and tragic stories.
I have visited many kampungs in
other provinces, and there would be more stories to tell.
But the last image I wanted to talk
about is Jakarta, my adopted city.
Jakarta is certainly the city of
which I have more photographs and stories, and it's impossible to choose one area that can represent it: everyone in Indonesia knows that my
favorite places, which I care about, are Plumpang, Tanah Abang, Luar Batang,
Pondok Pinang.
Maybe there will be other
opportunities later.
I want to conclude with a photograph
that has become, in a certain sense, iconic, and which – not surprisingly – is
in the two central pages of my book “Kampungku Indonesia”.
A few years ago, it was also shown to
me a photo that appeared on an information site in Jakarta that imitated my
photograph in an annoying way, I remember that I got very angry.
This photograph of mine was taken in
Petamburan, way back in 2014.
Petamburan is not a kampung, but it
is considered an urban slum. I've already written and talked about it a
lot, and you know how I think. For me, the kampung (“village”) before being a
physical place, consisting of buildings, is a mental state, an attitude, which
is transferable in large cities as in remote villages in the provinces of all
Indonesia.
And, in these suburban areas, the
vast majority of people who live there come from far away, they are migrants in
the same nation. Jakarta welcomes millions of Indonesians who leave their
homes, their kampungs, to come and seek their fortune in the capital: 30
million inhabitants, of whom 11,000 are homeless (in 2016). And Jakarta is
literally sinking, in thirty years, the forecasts say, it will be completely
covered by water, worse than Venice, too many people trample on the ground.
They have made laws to regulate the
explosion of these large slums, many have already been razed to the ground.
They are often located on the banks
of rivers and floods torment them and destroy homes. For this reason,
historical kampungs such as Kampung Duri or Kampung Pulo no longer exist.
The problem is that the millions of
people who live there can certainly not go to live in the luxurious apartments
in the center or in the condominiums with rental costs above the tenor of their
lives. So they move, migrate to the same city: there are entire neighborhoods
under road bridges, some even below street level, worse than rats, like in
Teluk Gong or Kolong Tol Jelembar.
Going inside the slum under the level of the ground. Kolong Tol Jelembar. JAKARTA – 11 July 2016 |
Others create new slums, like cancer cells that don't want to be removed.
Illuminate was for me an essay
written in 2007 by Gumilar Somantri, “Migration Within Cities”, whose analysis
of the Jakarta phenomenon completely reflects my point of view. He writes:
“We would
like to propose the view of Jakarta as being one gigantic urban kampung.
[…] Consequently, a process of systematic kampung demolition has been
going on in Jakarta for many years, particularly in the central part of the city.
The modernization of Jakarta led to an accelerating process of land acquisition by private and
state-owned companies. As a result, many kampung dwellers, who make up the
majority of the urban labor force, have had to move to other, yet more
undeveloped, downtown areas or out to the fringes of the city (involuntary
migration).”
What he calls intra-city
migration.
And the mocking thing is that to build the splendid skyscrapers and shopping centers, workers are needed who do not stop working for 24 hours. And where do they live with their families? Obviously close to the areas to be built, and therefore a new urban slum is created.
Dark shadows of glittering buildings.
I believe that this contradiction
will never be resolved. Those who visit Jakarta the first time cannot fail to
notice it: it can be a shock.
From my point of view, it is the most
fascinating aspect of this city which makes me love it deeply. Because once
again it teaches us that we cannot live only on light and gold, but existence
is always also shadow and mud. They are indissoluble.
I am completing my heart and soul
close to these people: if they were not there, Jakarta would not exist; there
would be no shopping malls and skyscrapers to show to tourists.
Certainly they deserve better
treatment.
They are not dust to be hidden under
the carpet when the good guests arrive.
I have always convince that
the right solution is to make life better in these slums, to equip them with
sewers, larger rooms, internal hospitals, and not to raze them to the ground and
force their inhabitants to wander like outcasts in search of other holes to
live in .
But I'm not a politician.
I am a photographer.
My role is to see, think with my
head and show.
Petamburan. JAKARTA – 29 July 2014 |
It was my first time in Petamburan.
I remember walking along the main road, the one that runs alongside the Cideng
River, when I saw these two children at the top of a wooden ladder, among piles
of rubbish, looking over the wall.
I took that photograph without them
noticing, then went to see what caught their interest.
I climbed the ladder and saw other
children playing, regardless of the garbage. Some of them, by our side,
practiced with trained pigeons, one of the favorite pastimes in Indonesia: they
freed them in flight in the sky and then with a whistle they called them back.
The pigeon did not go back to one of
these children, I remember, and he was very angry, he said, because he had paid
for it. The Indonesia logo “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika”, United in Diversity, was
affixed to a wooden birdhouse.
It seems very ironic and mocking,
right in that place, between the heaps of rubbish and the houses overflowing
with people from the kampung. In fact, when I returned there four years later
it was gone. This is one of the last photographs in which it is still present.
Petamburan. JAKARTA – 29 July 2014 |
I said how over the years this photo
has become iconic and commented during my workshops and the talks I made in
universities, in the following years.
It seems to me a perfect metaphor
for understanding Jakarta, in its contradictions and irony.
It is poignant and angers how these
children look at skyscrapers across the river, in the garbage. The meaning is
very simple: in life everything depends on which part of the river you are
born. It's not a fault, but a destiny.
That is Jakarta, let's not fool
ourselves.
I tried to organize, thanks to my
friends and the neighborhood manager, a drawing competition with prizes for
those children, with gifts for them, to make them spend a happy morning. It
must have been more than fifty, almost a hundred arrived.
But what I keep of that day, more
than the laughter and drawings of the children, is the melancholy gaze of the
mothers, as if they knew that it was only a moment, a flash of joy lost in the
continuum of difficult days, all the same.
People's sadness is often amplified by wanting to do good.
Drawing contest for children. Petamburan. JAKARTA – 24 August 2014 |
In 2018 a television channel, NET TV, contacted me to interview me
and recreate that photograph, for their program “NET 16”.
The place had changed slightly and
it took me a while to find the same place. The huts on the other side of the
river had already been pulled down.
The garbage was still the same as
before.
NET TV make program about my photo. Petamburan. JAKARTA – 6 January 2018 |
It is said that Petamburan will also
be relocated, razed to the ground and perhaps a shopping center or apartments
will rise in its place.
But even if you change the outer
container, the content always remains the same.
And anyway all those people, those
children, will have to look for another place to live.
And it will always be, without a
doubt, on the wrong bank of the river.
Dedicated to Jakarta, to its
children, and to all the pigeons that do not return to their cages.
Crew of NET TV with people and children of the slum. Petamburan. JAKARTA – 6 January 2018 |
“I had another bad dream today
a small bird was waiting for its
mother
in its rustling nest
it was eaten by a cow”
(Wiji Thukul)
Petamburan. JAKARTA – 24 August 2014 |
Gumilar R. Somantri: “Migration
Within Cities – A Study of Socio-economic Processes, Intra-city Migration, and
Grass-roots Politics in Jakarta” (Lembaga Penerbit Fakultas Ekonomi UI, 2007)
Wiji Thukul: “The Grassroot Songs –
Poems” (Kompas Gramedia, 2015)
I read this article with a mixed feeling and thinking a lot.
ReplyDeleteThanks to you. Honestly i know about Indonesia, the places, people, slum, and others from your book dan your writing.
The most inspired me is what you have done for them, the power of photography and also all is about heart.
Thank you because you teach me a lot about humanity, about world through lens, books and this blog.
Really thanks again 🙏
DeleteThe article shows two different images of life in the city of Jakarta.
ReplyDeleteI think this unbalanced development happens in almost every major city in the world. Where there are skyscrapers, there will also the slum. We have seen very clearly in Jakarta because the population is too dense. Secondly, Jakarta is very close to our eyes, to our hearts. Remember, Jakarta is my adopted city too..
Here we have seen the power of photography is to record and document the pattern of human life even after everything is swallowed up by time.
Lastly, thank you very much for posting all the photo series about Indonesia, my second country..
Thank you, also Indonesia is done, with a bit sadness. I remember all of them...
DeleteIt's really heartbroken read this. '.... Is the melancholy gaze of the mother, as if they knew that it was only a moment...'
ReplyDeleteMother's love. I'm sure she feel devastated for not being able to give a good life for their kids. But I'm sure they will never forget the happy moment given by u n ur team☺️
This article make me grateful for what I have n where I was born. Thanks to you💐
Thanks so much... Ya the river is a metaphor of life 🙏
DeleteYou have done your part. Keep on inspiring. 😍
ReplyDeleteI will 💪😊
DeleteJakarta is my birthplace The city where I grew up and learned the meaning of life Learn to recognize differences from various cultures A place with a lot of pollution and less organized Your article and photo draw a real life in Jakarta Sad but a city that is always missed Cheer for the next episode
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot 🙏
DeleteBravo...proud of you,amico..!!!
ReplyDeleteYou did an amazing job...you and your photos
has helped a lot of people.
Your writing and photos have caused me congestion... in my mind and chest...holding back my sadness...as if I have seen everything that happened,myself.
May Allah bless you always...reward you a good health and happiness through out your life.
Really deep thanks, I just give back in some way what people give to me...
DeleteReading your article make me miss petamburan . the sweets and warm smile of children,the smell of 'urban village' in the middle of big city . The laugh of makcik2 . 😭😭😭 Miss them a lot. Let's fly there . Jom balik Jakarta.
ReplyDeleteMany places to miss, a lot of fotos to see... 🙏📷
DeleteReaiiti kehidupan yang tidak memihak kepada golongan marhaen. Demi hidup,they have to.
ReplyDeleteSyukur we dont have everything, but we have something.
Yes that's true...
Delete