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Street Photography : A moment From Street

Street Photogaphy: Apa Sih Street Photography Itu?

By:Hotli Simanjuntak

Apa sih Street Photography itu? Ini pertanyaan yang jamak dilontarkan oleh masyarakat. Bahkan ole fotografer sekalipun. Tidak semua fotografer yang berkecimpung di bidang fotografi tahu dan paham soal street photography

Banyak orang berfikir dan menyimpulkan bahwa street photography adalah melulu tentang foto yang berhubungan dengan jalanan. Tidak bisa dinafikan, street photography memang sangat berkaitan erat dengan jalanan.

Definisi street photography versi Wikipedia adalah:

Street Photography adalah jenis fotografi dokumenter yang menghadirkan subjek dalam situasi jujur di tempat-tempat umum seperti jalan, taman, pantai, mall, konvensi politik dan lainnya. Street Photography menggunakan teknik fotografi langsung dan jujur dalam menunjukkan visi murni dari sesuatu, seperti menghadapkan cermin kepada masyarakat.

Street Photograpy sering cenderung menjadi ironis, dan sering berkonsentrasi pada manusia secara tunggal atau social, yang menceritakan hal tertentu seperti kepedihan.

Di sisi lain, banyak street fotografi mengambil pendekatan yang berlawanan dan memberikan rendering yang sangat harfiah dan sangat pribadi, memberikan penonton sebuah pengalaman yang lebih mendalam dari jalan hidup.

Pada abad ke-20, fotografer jalanan telah memberikan catatan teladan dan terperinci tentang budaya jalanan di Eropa dan Amerika Utara, dan di tempat lain pada tingkat agak rendah.

Banyak karya-karya klasik fotografi jalanan diciptakan pada periode antara sekitar 1890 dan 1975 dan bertepatan dengan pengenalan kamera portabel, 35mm yang digunakan oleh Henri Cartier-Bresson dan lain-lainya.

Di Indonesia, street photography merupakan sesuatu hal yang baru. Ini berkaitan dengan perkembangan teknologi kamera digital yang demikian pesat. Banyak fotografer yang mencoba genre street photography ini atas dorongan ikut-ikutan. Di luar negeri, street photography sudah ada sejak lama. Perkembanganya seiring dengan perkembangan perkotaan dan kaum urban yang demikian cepat. Hampir semua aktifitas kehidupan masyarakat bersentuhan dengan yang namanya jalanan.

Street photography jauh berkembang di kota-kota besar yang kehidupan masyarakatnya sangat beragam dan kosmopolit. Tapi bukan berarti kehidupan di daerah pedesaan tidak bisa didokumentasikan lewat pendekatan street photography. Pasti bisa.

Secara sederhana, street photography itu adalah tentang foto apa saja yang berkaitan dengan kehidupan di jalanan. Namun melalui jalanan ini, seseorang bisa memperlihatkan realitas kehidupan, budaya, trend, politik, agama, perkembangan perkotaan dan lain-lain melalui media foto dengan perspektif jalanan. Artinya fotografer menghadirkan semua ini ke audiens melalui sudut pandang jalanan.

Jadi street photography itu tidak hanya scene dijalan, bisa saja portrait. Tempat adalah tempat umum, dan tidak ada settingan. Jadi kondisi saat itu adalah real, tanpa ada setting.

Gampang-gampang susah juga ya?

Kalau di katakan gampang iya juga. Tapi kalau dikatakan susah, iya juga.

Street photography bukanlah sembarangan memotret apa saja yang tersaji di jalanan. Sebagai fotografer, kita harus tahu kenapa dan apa alasanya kita memotret sesuatu di jalanan. Ya iyalah, gak mungkin kita memotret tanpa tahu apa tujuannya kan?

Satu hal lagi, meskipun kelihatanya gampang, street photography membutuhkan sebuah skill fotografi yang tidak main main. Teknik fotografi penting untuk diketahui agar foto yang dihasilkan bisa memenuhi kaidah keindahan secara komposisi maupun secara konten.

People

Muda Balia: Still around to tell the tale

Hotli Simanjuntak, , The Jakarta Post, , Banda Aceh | Sat, 12/06/2008 11:34 AM | People

MUDA BALIA: JP/Hotli Simanjuntak

With his sturdy build and skin darkened by hours toiling under the sun, Muda Balia looks more like a farmer than a storyteller.

Muda, 29, who comes from Senebok Alur Buloh village in South Aceh, did work as a farmer for a while after returning to his village to take care of his sick mother.

"My skin became dark because it was too frequently exposed to sunshine when I was farming back home," he said.

When Muda met with The Jakarta Post, he had just arrived in Banda Aceh after traveling from his village by van.

"I've been invited to perform my traditional Acehnese storytelling show in Kalimantan," he said.

With only a few hundred thousand rupiah on him, Muda left his village, his beloved mother and his wife, who was 5 months pregnant, to take his show on the road.

But despite the invitation to perform in Kalimantan, Muda says there is little demand for his storytelling skills.

"Today, traditional storytelling is no longer popular, as modern society is filled with technology and entertainment," Muda told the Post.

"In the past, communities used the art of storytelling as the most effective medium of communication to convey something, ranging from a religious message to just entertainment."

Even during colonial times, he added, the Dutch could not quell the rebellion by the Acehnese, who were inspired by the story of Perang Sabi as told by the Acehnese storytellers.

During the time of the military operation in Aceh between 1989 and 1998, which was carried out by the Indonesian government to quash the Free Aceh Movement, elders in the region would secretly recount to local youths the story of Perang Sabi to arouse their courage so that they would be ready to die fighting.

The art of storytelling is an integral part of everyday life -- religious, social and cultural -- for the Acehnese.

The Acehnese have their own rich oral tradition, and have several names for the art of storytelling, including peugahaba, meuhaba, pohaba, pakaba, poh cakra, poh t*m and cang panah.

The art of storytelling in Aceh has had its ups and downs over the years. Muda said the art lost its popularity in Aceh after the political turbulence of 1965, when members of the Indonesian Communist Party were massacred.

"At that time, the rulers saw the potential danger brought about by the art of storytelling in Aceh, so the government kidnapped all storytellers and killed them," he said.

As a result, storytelling, particularly the traditional style, virtually disappeared as few storytellers remained to pass on the skill.

"Now there are perhaps no more than 10 storytellers in Aceh, most of them elderly," Muda said.

As one of Aceh's few remaining traditional storytellers, Muda is very concerned about the preservation and development of this art.

"If the government does not immediately take action, the young generation in Aceh will never know that Aceh used to have excellent literary artists," he said.

"If the oral tradition is lost, it is the Aceh people themselves that will miss out."

At present, there is not a single written literary work that has recorded the tales that traditional storytellers narrate. Generally, these tales are learned by heart.

"If the storyteller dies, these stories will also die and be buried with them."

Muda said his greatest wish was to preserve Acehnese traditional stories by producing a book of all the stories he knows by heart.

However, he said, financial difficulties meant he had to concentrate on being a farmer first to support his family.

"It will take a lot of time and money to be able to write down all the stories that I know by heart," he said.

"I have opted to feed my family first. If our economic situation improves, hopefully before I die, I can realize this dream."

Muda said he was inspired by the Acehnese traditional storyteller Matlapee, who was thought to have had a mental disorder and was said to be mad.

Matlapee was rumored to have slept for seven days and nights and upon waking told his mother a spirit had come to him and told him long-forgotten stories.

Matlapee later passed on these stories to four of his disciples: Zulkifli, Siaron, Dawod Baneng and Tgk Adnan.

Acehnese traditional storytelling developed rapidly in the western and southern coastal areas. Tgk Adnan spread the art of storytelling along the eastern coastal area on his travels selling medicine.

"Tgk. Adnan used this art of storytelling as a medium of communication with his buyers," Muda said.

These four disciples of Matlapee have since died -- and many of the stories they told have died with them.

Muda was one of Zulkifli's students.

Traditional props, such as a sword, bangsi (flute), pillow and a mat, are used to tell a story.

"It all depends on the story being told," Muda said.

"I cling to the principle of the traditional art of story telling, whereas other remaining storytellers have opted for more contemporary and contextual forms of storytelling in keeping with the times."

Feature

Shame, denial surround HIV/AIDS in Aceh

Hotli Simanjuntak , The Jakarta Post , Banda Aceh | Mon, 12/01/2008 7:27 AM | Headlines

IN THIS TOGETHER: Thousands of women take part in an anti-HIV/AIDS march in Banda Aceh on Sunday. According to the latest data, there were at least 25 HIV-positive people in Aceh this year, nine of whom died. (JP/Hotli Simanjuntak)

Maimun panicked when a doctor told him he was infected with HIV, detected when he went to give blood for one of his relatives.

At the time, the fisherman from Tapaktuan district in South Aceh, thought of HIV/AIDS as an embarrassing disease, often viewed as an indelible shame in Aceh, where Islamic sharia law is applied.

He felt he could not bear it if his immediate family, and even more distant relatives, had to feel ashamed or suffered any kind of discrimination.

“I felt so ashamed then and started to keep away from my community once I learned this virus was inside me and damaging my body,” Maimun told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a World AIDS Day event in Banda Aceh on Sunday.

Maimun became a social recluse, trying to hide his illness to avoid the social stigma.

He even sought to hide his affliction from his family.

As a result, Maimun received no medical treatment for his illness for 10 years after the doctor announced he was HIV positive.

Maimun believes he picked up the virus in 1989, when he used to sail some distance to go fishing. He often dropped into Thailand and did drugs without realizing the full risk.

As years passed, his family came to learn of his illness and decided to send him to a doctor for treatment instead of leaving him alone. He thanked his family for their acceptance and for encouraging him to rebuild his life.

“And I thank God that currently hospitals in Banda Aceh have special facilities to treat patients with HIV/AIDS,” Maimun said, adding that people in his area now knew there was no need to ostracize people living with HIV/AIDS because they could get medical treatment and stay healthy.

This confidence became a turning point in his life. He went on to join Medan Aceh Partnerships (MAP), an organization concerned with building public awareness about HIV/AIDS, so people will not discriminate against those living with HIV/AIDS but rather support them in their efforts to be healthy.

Baby Rivona, MAP program manager, has experienced this herself. She said she and her friends had to reassure people in Aceh that people living with HIV/AIDS needed help from their family and society to regain their health and their life.

“Many people in Aceh say there is no need to establish NGOs like ours because nobody in Aceh has this disease.

“Many people living with HIV/AIDS from Aceh have to be transferred to other regions to find a hospital that provides facilities to treat them,” Baby said.

“Some of them refused to be treated in Aceh because they were so ashamed of having the virus.”

Five regencies in Aceh currently provide facilities to treat people living with HIV/AIDS.

According to data from the Aceh AIDS Commission, as of October 2008, there were 25 people in 13 regencies and cities in Aceh with HIV/AIDS this year. Nine of them have died.

The number of people with HIV/AIDS has risen 350 percent in 2008 compared with 2006 figures.