Friday, October 29, 2010

Sunday, October 24, 2010

we



We too are part of the traffic.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

street crash



Well, it sometimes happens.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

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.

Monday, September 20, 2010

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.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Monday, September 6, 2010

tahu isi



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

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Saturday, August 28, 2010

platformless



Location: Padalarang, west of Bandung.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

imagined beauty



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

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

ice cream time!



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

Monday, August 23, 2010

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.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

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. ^_^

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

ganiater



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

Monday, August 16, 2010

traffic light music



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

Saturday, August 14, 2010

"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.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

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.

Monday, August 9, 2010

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.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

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?

Friday, August 6, 2010

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.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Thursday, July 29, 2010

soft drink boy



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

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

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?

Sunday, July 25, 2010

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.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

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.

Friday, July 16, 2010

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.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

motherly care



Location: Stasiun Bandung (Bandung Railway Station).

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

autoparts



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

Saturday, July 10, 2010

a street painter



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

Friday, July 9, 2010

iron [man]



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

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Friday, July 2, 2010

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.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

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.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

perception of danger



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

Saturday, June 12, 2010

destitute



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

Thursday, June 10, 2010

"tahu-tahu"



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

Saturday, May 29, 2010

"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.

Friday, May 7, 2010

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.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Monday, April 5, 2010

Sunday, April 4, 2010

curious



They are born with it.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Friday, April 2, 2010

the "doger monyet"



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

Thursday, April 1, 2010

distant cousin's chase



Another "doger monyet" photograph.

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