Jeda di antara pekerjaan di Yogyakarta dan Jakarta, dari warung di tepi jalan hingga gulungan tali di Sunda Kelapa.
The man carrying a sack along the road is easy to notice. His movement gives the photograph its shape. But I find myself looking just as closely at the people who have stopped.
At a tyre repair shop, a worker sits between customers. The tools and the shop tell you what happens here, even though nothing is being repaired in this moment. The photograph holds that small gap in the working day.
Elsewhere, a man reads a newspaper at a roadside stall. In Yogyakarta, another leans back in a vehicle and smiles. They are different scenes, photographed in different places. What connects them is the brief space each person has found for himself.
At Sunda Kelapa in Jakarta, a dock worker sleeps beside coils of rope. The ropes fill the frame and the port’s work is close at hand, but for now he is resting. It is the photograph I would leave until last.
I often photograph people while they are doing something: carrying, selling, repairing, loading. These pictures remind me to keep watching after the action stops. A person sitting quietly can tell you something about a place too.
See more photographs in the Black and White Indonesia gallery, or read the longer story from Sunda Kelapa shipyard.
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