options

we

We too are part of the traffic.

reading zeal

Reading zeal?

street crash

Well, it sometimes happens.

teaching children to jaywalk

[Speaking in irony]: When jaywalking is part of the culture, it is the parents' responsibility to teach them how to do it properly.

cultivating ignorance

The T-shirt reads: "Ignorance is cultivated, poverty is increased, unemployment is multiplied."

Worn by a street vendor "invading" the sidewalks, I think it's a voice against the invasion of the capitalist big players who leave no room but the streets to the small players like them.

betel nut chewing

phone it away

hello...!

action ready

tahu isi

Tahu isi = Tofu stuffed with vegetables and spices, fried.

sleeping peanuts

platformless

Location: Padalarang, west of Bandung.

imagined beauty

At a construction site, beauty probably can only be imagined. A visual may help though.

ice cream time!

Ice cream is good when it's hot and sunny. With friends, it's even better!

who's odd?

A Ganiati brother and a photographer have different views about the stage. Don't ask who's odd though. They are just different.

sorry folks, it's reserved!

Sorry folks, this part of the sidewalk is reserved! By me, of course (and those billboard poles, if you happen to notice). I'm a tire patcher. I work to help those motorists who have flat tire. But right now, I'm busy with my cell phone. So, please don't distrub me. And yeah, you may walk on the street so that you can get hit by the car. That's none of my business, though. ^_^

ganiater

For a Ganiater, madness is art because it is freeing and lets one explore the limits of imaginations to the fullest. I think.

traffic light music

When the traffic stops at the traffic light, the music is on. For a small fee.

"tahu bulat" (round tofu)

Tofu doesn't always have to be cubes, they can also be round, which is a new variety of tofu on the street. Fried.

baby on a motorbike

It's not "Beware A Baby on Board" like the warning sticker you often see at the back of a car; it's a baby on a motorbike. And there's no warning about it.

a recycling man

With a huge bag and a hook, he walks the streets and collects recycleable materials, mostly plastic cups and bottles, to be sold to a collector who then sell them to a plastic recycling company.

Recycling is a labor-intesive, private interprise in this city.

infants' conversation

Combining the words infants and conversation is somewhat oxymoronic. Should you not know, the word infant is derived from the Latin word infans, which means "unable to speak or speechless". Thus, how can somebody who is unable to speak have a conversation with an interlocutor who is similarly speechless? Yet, babies do talk with one another. Their language may not be as verbal as that of the adults, but it is nonetheless communicative, perhaps even more communicative than that of the adults. See the picture?

andir

This is Andir, a small railway station in the western part of the city of Bandung, from the open doors of a commuter train.

little feet

mother motorist

soft drink boy

A boy selling soft drinks on the pavement of Asia Afrika Street.

going international

This road-side shop on Ranggagading Street calls itself "Warung Internasional" (International Kiosk).

What does it mean to be or go international though?

o' child

On Children
Kahlil Gibran

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 children
as 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 your 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.

thanks cell phone!

Waiting for the KRD commuter train can be a tedious thing to do.

Location: Gado Bangkong, a suburban railway station in the west of Bandung.

dynamo repair

All sorts of small, road-side, and mobile repair stations are available in this city. This one is a dynamo repair station at Jalan Banceuy.

motherly care

Location: Stasiun Bandung (Bandung Railway Station).

autoparts

An autopart mall is currently being built at Banceuy. Who's going to be in and out and sidelined?

a street painter

He doesn't paint the street, but he makes the street (life) more colorful.

iron [man]

Since antiquity, the symbol for iron has been the symbol of Mars, which now is also used as the symbol for man.

motherly comfort

hurry up, mother!

"Hurry up, mother! I don't want us to miss the train."

The excitement of the train ride belongs to children. We, adults, often take it only as a matter of necessity.

Location: Bandung Railway Station.
Camera: Canon PowerShot A490.

no title - june 20, 2010

I'm terrified at supplying words for this photograph. Words can do a lot of things. They can change realities, define and limit them, perform things - great and small, wicked or benevolent. So, I'll humbly let you form your own words for this image.

perception of danger

Anything can happen on the street. Risk may only be a matter of perception.

destitute

Things most of us don't want to see. But they exist and beg that we pay attention.

"tahu-tahu"

A language help: In Indonesian, tahu is tofu (noun) or know (verb). When repeated ("tahu-tahu"), it means suddenly.

"tukang baso tahu"

"Tukang baso tahu" (baso tahu vendor) walking the streets with his cart.


As I told you in the previous post, I lost two of my digital cameras some time ago. I have not been able to buy a new one. So this photo is not exactly new. I took it sometime in March this year. I found it when I was trying to rake through my files and see if there was anything still worth posting. I hope this one is and consistent enough with the theme of this project and blog.

phasing out

Continuing this project at the pace I had imagined has not been as easy as I had thought. There were time and opportunity constraints as I had to devote more time and attention to my [primary] job and did not have much time to roam the streets and pick up stories from them. Then there was also an accident in which I accidentally deleted all the photo files that I had set aside for this project. And last week's was the most terrible of all: I had two of my cameras stolen at an Angkot (Bandung's minibus and primary means of public transportation).

Anyway, I'm not going to phase out this project because of these things. It may have to take longer than expected to complete it, but this project is continuing. "Phasing out" - the title of this post and photo - is not about this project. It's about the kind of business that the man in the photo is doing: rubber-stamp making, engraving, etc. Business is getting quiter for him and people like him. The bold and quick march of the digital technologies are phasing them out fast - as fast as the nap this man's taking in his cart on a very quiet afternoon.

the UN (united nations) spectator

peeking out

let it fly

curious

They are born with it.

treasure hunter

the "doger monyet"

The animal master, the monkey, and the musicians of the "doger monyet".

distant cousin's chase

Another "doger monyet" photograph.