Kehidupan sehari-hari di Riau, dari penjual di tepi jalan dan rumah kayu hingga jalan yang tenang dan permukiman di tepi sungai.
Riau is not a place I came to know through famous sights. I came to know it through repetition. The same roads travelled again and again, small towns passed on the way somewhere else, roadside stalls, rivers, wooden houses and brief encounters with people going about their day.
After years here, those ordinary scenes have become the Riau I photograph most.
The road as part of the story
Travelling through Riau often means long stretches of road beneath enormous trees. Motorbikes appear ahead and disappear into the distance. Houses and small businesses sit close to the roadside. Some journeys feel almost like moving through a tunnel of green.
It is easy to think of these roads only as the space between destinations. With a camera, I started noticing the journey itself.
People at the roadside
Food is everywhere. A cart piled high with peanuts. Corn and bananas stacked on a simple table. Satay smoking over charcoal. Trays of snacks prepared for passing customers.
The photographs are about the people as much as the food. Someone waiting behind a cart, somebody tending a grill, a conversation beside a stall. These small businesses create their own little spaces along the road.
Houses that carry time
Older timber houses repeatedly catch my attention. Weathered boards, corrugated roofs, faded doors and vegetation slowly growing around them give each building its own character. Some stand beside roads. Others sit close to rivers or among palms.
They are part of the visual texture of Riau, particularly when placed beside the newer buildings, motorbikes and everyday objects of contemporary life.
Ordinary moments
A family sitting together outside a wooden house. A man alone beside the water. Workers talking. A woman preparing food beside a tyre shop. None of these moments announces itself as important.
That is precisely why I like photographing them.
For me, documentary travel photography is often about noticing what would otherwise pass unnoticed. Riau has given me years of those moments.
Explore more photographs from Indonesia, including alleys and kampung life and stories connected to Indonesia’s rivers and water.
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