The Sounds of Commerce

A slum behind the pasar (market) in Sentani, Papua, Indonesia. DiMAGE Z10 6mm at f/3.2 1/100 ISO 64The smell hits you first. You are wandering undering the unrelenting sun and as you approach the pasar, market, it is redolent with the odors of decaying meat, rotting garbage, and unwashed bodies. There is a strength to it that pushes back and leaves the uninitiated wondering if they can continue. The crush of bodies, the sounds of commerce, street style pushes in around you and you begin to wish you didn't need to shop here. Then you see a nod, and you stumble through a greeting in your halting Indonesian. They smile warmly help you correct your words and shake your hand. You wonder if there are any tomatoes this week and soon they are they pulling you through sprawling market to the one corner where they sit, decent sized tomatoes.

The market where we shopped for vegetables in Indonesia was a large collection of tin huts, lean-to rooves and tarp covered stalls. It was always full of life and sound and action. One day I wandered out the back and through the little alleys and homes that bordered it. I walked around a corner and glanced through the laundry hanging in front of me seeing a man in a motorcycle helmet coming home. I. Whipped up my camera and snapped just as he disappeared in a home.

-Russell Berg

Boys On The Water

Konica DiMAGE Z10 42mm f/4.8 1/500 ISO 64 We were boating around Lake Sentani in Papua next to a village on stilts when two boys paddled out to meet us.Living on the water is a magical thing, no really living on the water your house on stilts, your floor with a hole in it through which you can jump into the lake is a magical thing. The boys had spent all day fishing and floating.  Their skins alternately radiating warmth from the equatorial sun or covered in liquid crystals as they pulled themselves up into their canoe.  They had been chasing large fish all day, hoping to find catch their own body weight in fish.  The appearance of a large motorized boat of white people broke in and they paddled off to see these strangers

My family and I moved to Indonesia for a year and lived in Sentani, in the province of Papua where I taught and my wife worked in a clinic.  It was a remarkable year and one of the great moments was going out to visit this village on Lake Sentani whose houses where all built on stilts standing up out of the water.  As we got close these two boys hopped in their canoe and paddled out to meet us.  As they approached I saw the littler boy in front crouching to see.  I got down lower in our boat and moved to the so that I could change the perspective and so that we could just see the top half of his face and still see the boy behind.  I wanted to get him just peaking over the top of his canoe.  I love the contrast between his look of mild apprehension and the older boy's excitement at seeing such strange people near their home.

-Russell Berg