Fighting Desperation: Indonesia’s Survivor Communities
Rampant poverty is not new to Indonesia’s population of 230+ million people. For decades, poor families have endured economic strife, and have bravely fought to maintain modest livings within their small villages and on their farms. Despite their noble efforts, most of these families simply cannot earn enough money to support themselves. Desperation for economic relief has forced the creation of …
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Anak-Anak: Children of Indonesia
Despite having to endure rampant poverty and harsh living conditions, children always find simple ways to bring happiness into their lives and people around them. Most impoverished communities are actually working communities. The parents labor and sweat many hours a day but their modest pay is so low they can barely afford the basics in life …
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A Man-Made Disaster: The Mass Eviction and Demolition of Rawasari
Hundreds of police and health officials stormed Rawasari, central Jakarta, while the thousands of inhabitants scurried from place to place, carrying all they could before the steam shovel destroyed their homes and businesses. Maybe you wonder “why???” It’s simple: the businesses and the houses were there illegally for over 10 years …
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The Cafe Faridah: The Underground World of Sex Workers
Indonesia’s Millennium Development Goals supporting research goes into great detail about the current status of HIV-AIDS and gender equality/women empowerment, but I noticed very little was mentioned about how the two topics share some common denominators and even fuel each other. This project digs deep into how the two topics interplay …
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Slices of Life: Jabotabek’s Street Life
“If you look, you will find it.” This is very true for the streets of Jabotabek (Jakarta, Bogor, Tangerang, & Bekasi) in Indonesia. You will find anything you wish, if you take ten seconds and look around. From the homeless, to street-side mechanics, to “Kaki Lima” (lit. 5-legs, because they run around so fast to sell) street vendors, to Preman (street thugs). Anything can be found …
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Little Empires: Impressions from Chinatown
When entering a foreign country’s embassy, you actually are leaving the United States, and entering that foreign country. This holds true for Chinatown: once entered, you are in a sovereignty with its own rules and ways of doing things. Nothing is as it seems. When exploring, have fun, but keep in mind there is hidden dangers as well …
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Bench Warmers
A term often used to describe 2nd or 3rd class athletes, Bench Warmers here is used to describe how most of society’s privileged see the homeless and impoverished: as 2nd and 3rd class citzens. This project began as a home-brew psychotherapy to get over my fear to approach strangers for portraits, but I soon learned each person had a unique story to share …
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