The Indonesian Heritage Society (IHS) held its annual competition earlier this year to select the 13 photographs that will grace the pages of our upcoming calendar. The theme for our 2018 calendar is “Indonesia at Play”, and the entries from our members certainly lived up to expectations with images of adults and children alike, in a broad range of spontaneous moments as well as formal cultural settings.
The 13 photographs were chosen by our judges, Melbourne Smith, Bhisma Adinaya and Catherine Chaperon. Melbourne Smith, also known as Melbourne the Photographer, is an award-winning commercial photographer and a well-known fixture on the Jakarta photography scene, offering regular photography courses, walks and tours in Jakarta as well as Indonesia.
Bhisma Adinaya is a professional photographer and has been a photojournalist since 2011 and art director since 2016 at Intisari Magazine – Kompas Gramedia. He is no stranger to participating in photo competitions himself – his CV boasts an impressive list of awards, the latest being the top winner in the Toboali City on Fire 2016 photo competition. He also has four photography publications to his name.
Catherine Chaperon holds the position of VC of Community on the IHS Board of Management and enjoys taking photographs of Indonesia to share with her friends abroad.
The winners of the top 13 photographs are Aarti Garde, Annastasia Puspanintyas, Debra Wallace, Farida Abdul Rasaque, Irene Chang, Janneke Koster, Lisbet Kvistgaard, Marion Louis, Samantha Pyke and Yekti Kusmartono – a combination of regular faces as well as first-time entrants.
Their images cover a broad range of subject matter and geographies, from the streets of Jakarta to the pasola fields of Sumba and the schoolyards of Maluku, showing the adventurous side of our intrepid photographers.
The top 13 photographs, as well as all entries, were displayed in the accompanying Photo Exhibition held at the lobby of Sentral Senayan 1 earlier this year. The opening event allowed the participating photographers, members and friends of IHS to view all the photographs displayed, as well as to meet and catch-up with friends.
All attendees at the opening event also cast their votes for the People’s Choice with Debra Wallace’s photograph, Jump Rope, a clear favourite. We also held a subsequent poll on social media, with Annastasia Puspaningtyas’s photograph, Let’s Play It Out Loud, capturing the most Likes on our Facebook page.
You can enjoy those photographs as well as supporting the Indonesian Heritage Society by buying our 2018 calendar at IHS library at the cost of Rp. 100 000.
May these images of a playful Indonesia bring a smile to your face and encourage you to explore more of this beautiful and intriguing country.
Text by Elaine Chan, Calendar 2018 Photo Exhibition Coordinator
