Photographs by Rio Helmi at Jenggala Gallery, Jimbaran.
Tel: 703311.
Go Blue Beyond The Reef
Underwater Photography by Adam Powell at Harris Resort. Tel:
753868.
Break at Dawn
Digital Prints by Govinda Rumi at Café Des Artistes,
Ubud. Tel: 972706.
It is widely accepted that the camera is a sort of detached
eye, the functions of which are analogous to the mechanisms
of the human eye. The camera is a monitor, a recorder, or
even a ‘witness’, registering a split second look
of the visible world as it appeared at the moment the photograph
was taken. It freezes all the elements within the lens, be
it subject-matter, composition, light, color or texture. A
frozen moment which will never be repeated. The act of photographing
is a transforming process where the visible world is idealized,
glorified, and even dramatized, and certain photographs literally
transcend the visual quality of the appearance of the moment
as viewed by the naked eye. The darkroom, or the computer
desktop, allows further enhancements and possibilities, or
even a fresh sense of discovery. Currently, at three galleries
around Bali, three very different photographers present three
very different approaches to the medium of photography.
Rio Helmi is an Indonesian photographer whose work has been
shown and published world wide. Helmi has also been involved
with the publication of many photographic books. In-fact,
Helmi’s exhibition ‘City of Angels, Plains of
Dust’ “came about on an assignment for a book
about Thailand call ‘9 Days in the Kingdom’ organized
by the publisher Editions Didier Millet. Fifty-odd photographers
were sent to different parts of Thailand. Rio drew Isaan,
one of the poorest parts of Thailand, famous for exporting
cheap labor and people desperate to better their lot in life”.
In his exhibition Helmi contrasts Bangkok, the ‘city
of angels’, with the dry and arid ‘plains of dust’
of Isaan. Romantic images of Buddhist temples and bustling
scenes of market places, are juxtaposed with sprawling garbage
recycling dumps, fields of dusty crops, skinny cows, unending
sugarcane fields, and, such as in the photograph ‘Farmer
and Cattle’, poor farmers scratching what they can out
of a recalcitrant earth. After completing his Thailand assignment,
Helmi visited the city of Angkor. “Here all the glory
and bustle of the past lies in dust and ruins, a reminder
of our mortality. Being there put my trip through Thailand
into perspective”. In the photograph ‘Guard’
Rio Helmi captures the evocative play of light across a ruined
temple, but the presence of a security-guard reminds us of
the political turmoil that so recently swept the area. The
image ‘Roots & Ruins’, which shows a temple
being destroyed by the encroaching jungle, also reminds us
of the importance of conservation to retain these historic
sites. Helmi shows a sober and realistic South East Asia,
exposing the social tensions which underlie the region and
its societies. His photographs are ‘pensive scenes’
of human figures, faces and gestures located in an almost
theatrical setting. These photographs inform, represent, surprise
and, more importantly, make sense of a rapidly changing Asian
world full of visual and spiritual experiences. Rio Helmi’s
photographs are contemplative, controlled and beautifully
composed in a formalist classical mode, superbly capturing
the ‘moment’, the ‘place’ and the
‘atmosphere’.
Adam Powell is a photographer with a primary interest in the
marine world. He has been involved in the Dive Industry and
Marine Conservation and Research for more than 15 years, during
which he has been documenting and photographing the marine
environment and its inhabitants. His exhibition ‘Go
Blue Beyond The Reef’ displays a portfolio of images
from South East Asia including coral reef and marine scenes,
fish and invertebrate species, and also pictures documenting
threats to coral reefs and conservation issues. “The
marine world is an organic inspiration, a template for my
own creativity”, Powell says. The beguiling photograph
‘Fusiliers & Surgeons’ shows the myriads of
patterns fish can create while swimming through their clear
blue water, while ‘Filefish Abstract’ depicts
Powell’s sharp artistic eye, as it reveals the extraordinary
patterning of a fish. Taken out-of-context, this close-up
of a fish’s face appears like a ‘modern’
abstract image. In other works, such as ‘Lionfish’,
Powell uses computer effects to highlight the patterning of
fish, yet again turning them into abstracted images of great
delicacy. Still, Adam Powell’s choice of subject-matter
comes with a certain amount of political weight, as his photographs
are not only fleeting moments of the beauty, the color, and
the diversity of marine life, but, they are also intended
to make viewers conscious that Indonesia’s coral reefs
are in crisis. As a result of destructive fishing, inappropriate
coastal development, and global climate changes, the coral
reefs are likely to face mass destruction. Reef Check Indonesia,
a foundation dedicated to coral reef conservation, believes
that the coral reefs can recover, however, it is up to everyone
to be aware and to help. Adam Powell is donating 10% of the
sales from his illuminating exhibition to the conservation
efforts of Reef Check Indonesia.
The third photographic exhibition, ‘Break at Dawn’,
is by Govinda Rumi, who was born into an artistic Indonesian
family in 1990. Self-taught, he uses the digital desktop ‘darkroom’
to enhance and manipulate his digital and ‘found’
photographic images. The Adobe Photoshop computer program,
in experienced hands, can result in very interesting digital
photographs. In Govinda Rumi’s exhibition, the digital
prints ‘Flower & Bee’ and ‘Seeing Signs
2’ display a very high degree of sophistication. Rather
than going ‘over-board’, and using every effect
available, Govinda restricts each image to one individual
effect, and these effects are used extremely judiciously.
‘Seeing Signs 3’ displays a strong sense of design
and composition, but what is surprising about the image is
that Govinda also displays a strong understanding of semiotic
‘Signs’ and ‘Signifiers’. It is an
unusual image that seems well-advanced beyond Govinda’s
years. Having just completed high-school, Govinda’s
show is a ‘graduating’ exhibition, of sorts, and
he puts together a striking collection of digital images.
After he has completed his formal education, studying Visual
Communications at Bina Nusantara University in Jakarta, he
should become a young man of much promise. Govinda’s
career could then, no doubt, be followed with much interest.
In their own way, each exhibition is a superb display of Rio
Helmi, Adam Powell and Govinda Rumi’s talents. The shows
are to be found in various venues. If you visit each, you
will enjoy some very stimulating photography.
