Topeng kids, quintessential Labuapi Photo

Photographer’s Note

Topeng means mask in bahasa. One of the most famous Lombok carving pattern : you can see nowadays heaps of them in downtown "exotic" house and deco shops. At the time we dropped in Labuapi village, a famous woodcarver village in the center of Lombok island, it wasn't that famous .

Mask carving was indeed the activity, there were masks anywhere 360° around : it would cost 2USD, I bought myself half a dozen... my friend the other half...

We were photographying around Labuapi people as we bumped into that gang of kids, hellomistering us from far away...

They wanted their shot and started posing : as I have sometimes written in my comments, I like to input/read some context or content into images. Fortunately, one of them had the ubiquitous Topeng in hand, I asked him to pose with it : that would do my quintessential Labuapi image, kids and Topeng.

The only thing I'm wondering about now is why do Labuapi kids carry a topeng with them, this kid didn't even try to sell it...maybe there's more reality in this pic than I realized at the time.

A few words about the print technique : some of you might remember I have already posted similarly lith printed images.
It is a tedious wetprint technique that never gives the same result, you may simply keep in mind it enhances contrast, blow out the grains and gives lovely tones to the print. (This is really not recommended for neatimage afficionados or fine grain digital sissies ;)))...).
I went back in my darkroom this week end and got to work on older images. I thought this one could be interesting.

Pompey, omritoppol, Curioso, Isabelle, Galeota, Santi, Midnight_sun, Proxilva, michel_r has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

phd (177) 2004-06-03 16:10

You're right, the grainy texture works pretty well. Look at the stare of that kid at the bottom !
A really nice job you've done here.

Piotr (0) 2004-06-03 16:17

Great shot, I like this noise texture, good choice, well done

omritoppol (826) 2004-06-03 16:35

Luko,
This is a GREAT shot. I really like the composition; It's got so much energy with all the children staring at you, gathering around the center of attention the "mask". Great shot

Curioso (9139) 2004-06-03 18:16

I feel a great mood in this picture. The kids look fascinated by your camera. All that eyes around this haunting mask really make the picture. I especially like the one we need time to discover at the right bottom of the mask :)

There is clearly a Spirit which passes through that picture.

Galeota (10334) 2004-06-04 0:21

Great expressions you caught in these faces, and the mask certainly adds an almost mysterious atmosphere to the composition. There is an homogeneous shadow running from the first third of the photo (bottom) that bothers me (it is particularly visible on the neck and shoulders of the boy on the right). The tones and the grain are perfect to me, otherwise. Thank you.

maciekda (19599) 2004-06-04 4:26

this is a fine shot Luko, i really like it. this grainy B&W enchances the mood of the scene a lot. nice compo, somehow you have managed to have all faces visible in the frame, all eyes are seen. i see one flaw here - a darker thick horizontal stripe in the middle of the frame, looks like an effect of burning tool in PS, i don't know where does it come from... I like this picture, good stuff.

Santi (163) 2004-06-04 8:21

So much beautiful, Luko. Before reading the note, I thought it was sepia. The grain seemed to me like you pushed HP5 two stops - I have got some grainy images this way. But the contrast is really fantastic, and by making this photo inside what I believe to be a house (and the walls remembers some Northeastern brazilian houses), you had an amazing side light. Very, very well done.

Proxilva (2157) 2004-06-04 16:08

yiehaa i could start with telling you what's wrong with this photo, but then i would have nothing to say. i quess that says it all...

Darren (6819) 2004-06-05 7:28

Hi Luko. It is great to see some of your old school processing posted. I love the effect of the lith technique here. The grain, tone and contrasty look are all excellent. I agree with you in that this would not be near as interesting without the mask. Personally, I wish the one kid who is not was looking towards the camera, although that might make the shot a little more sterile. The eyes of the kid in the back right are just great, so wide and he almost looks posessed.

Even though I am a fine grain digital sissy, I like this one a lot Luko. ;)

shihwei (238) 2004-08-23 2:58

Lots of innocent eyes and an closing pair.. pretty impactful.

cheers.

Benedetto (437) 2004-09-20 8:04

The photo is excellent but the faces of her children are slightly overexposed.
I love the grain in this work.
Regards, Benedetto.

kinginexile (2440) 2004-10-27 3:44

You are certainly right that in Indonesia, artefacts that seem for a large part destined to be sold to tourists, are stiil relevant and carry a lore for the people who live in their midst. I could think that the kids, here, are taking it around, like a personal pet almost, for lack of a better analogy, nothing too ritual, but still something to handle with care.

Your artificial (arty-ficial?) handling of the pix adds intensity and I think, a special luminosity to their faces, which adds depth and context to an already very culturally potent scene. In one word: bravo!

michel_r (1114) 2004-11-03 17:42

This is a wonderful picture. The print technique certainly helps to make it a picture of the past but this is reinforced by the mask which is bringing memories of tribal age. The staring eyes of the children, wide open, make a contrast to the mask and his closed eyes (a death mask? I fantasize?) but their being so close have them join together. Who's dead, who's living, who's the ghost who jest left a faint trace on thr film? Again, while i'm sure the technique you used helps create this unreal atmosphere, the whole organisation you have put in place make this a most impressive picture.

bboss (3570) 2005-02-14 16:43

I love the grain, and the way the mask is right in the middle of the picture. the contrast between the texture of the wall on the right and the bamboo screen on left, and the way it joins exactly in the middle of the mask, this cannot be captured by accident. I am glad the boy on left is not looking at the camera as, although this spoils the symmetry it makes the group so much more human. Beautiful all round

AnimeshRay (8886) 2005-04-26 11:10

This is a spectacular photo, Luko! Love the framing and the expression their faces. The print is awesome! Fantstic technique

greg64g (11193) 2005-04-27 3:28

Salut Luko,

Merci pour le conseil pour le contour progressif.
J'adore ces photos sur l'Indonesie. Celle ci particulierement, car les enfants sont superbes notement celui tout en bas a gauche, le masque est genial et le Noir et Blanc est epoustouflant, cela fait beaucoup de superlatif, mais bon j'aime;
Terima kasih.
Amicalement
Greg

Polonaise (5638) 2006-09-26 15:37

What a treat is to go to your early photographs...You know, the ones from previous century.
Why? Because it's so easy for me to find the beauty in them, an excellence within, the charm of COMPOSED photography !!!!.
The composed photography is the one that require some additional elements beside the camera and the point finger.
One of these elements could be a brain.
Weird, eh?
Further more...That brain has to be used BEFORE the picture is clicked. If the brain is used AFTER the clicking, it is solely employed to come up with the excuse for posting the photo and creating the aura of
'spirited artistry'... You know... The routine 'What "I" saw in this photo' stuff.
Shooting the photos from the hip could be a fun for a while (like pissing into the sink in the kitchen), but if you are not in the KGB headquarters, bordello in Istanbul, or Iranian uranium enrichment plant in...(Hell, that's the problem! Where is it?), there is not much of a need to use it.
Is your health at stake? Your life? Are you trying to warn the world about something important and you just found the proof?
No?
Then screw it!!!
Because you want to impress us with 'your' creativity, not the one by Mr. Yaguchi Sakayachi from Canon.
Is that right?
That's why I love your 'composed' picture Luko, tremendously.
That's why I ignore the 'cowboy style' ones.
It's a worthless crap with the words of fake importance and frustration attached to it.
There. I said it!
---------------------
This one?
Pure marvel.
There is a photographer out there, facing these kids, Interacting and understanding them.
His name's Luko.
Yes. The 'guru' Luko...