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Photography Culture

Josh Estey Sheds Light on Life in Jakarta’s Congested Streets

Joy Celine Asto
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02/25/2019
2 Mins read
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Last Updated on 02/27/2019 by Mark Beckenbach

All images by Josh Estey. Used with permission.

Since every city is a multi-faceted ecosystem, photographers are faced with a myriad of stories, issues, and realities to capture. In his photo essay titled No Land Left to Play, Josh Estey chose to paint a picture of how the Indonesian capital of Jakarta has become a congested, mega metropolis with hardly any open spaces for its residents.

Above: Devouring a fresh bowl of instant noodle among throngs of merry makers during Jakarta’s weekly Car Free Day, a lone man finds a moment to himself amidst the City’s Iconic Welcome Monument in the heart of the worlds second largest megalopolises.. Although Car Free Day was initially planned to give people throughout this crowded city a place to walk, bike, and enjoy a rare bit of nature and open space, it has since turned into a kind of market day where the mass of humanity clog the streets, in an exact replication of what cars do the rest of the week.

A 2017 New York Times article says that more than 97% of Jakarta is now smothered by concrete and asphalt, and made a strong case of why the city could end up underwater. But that’s not the only problem it’s faced with. There’s also a scarcity of parks and it’s not the most walkable city either. All these problems have led Estey, who alternates between Los Angeles and Jakarta, to probe deeper into the issues and document how they are affecting the lives of Jakarta’s residents.

With virtually no public spaces to play, millions of Indonesians have been left without even the most basic of government services. This has forced Jakarta’s residents to define their own fun. The world’s second largest megapolis has been all but designed against it’s own people, extracting every last ounce of humanity from its residence. Big business, the authorities and corrupt city planners have turned this once sleepy backwater into a modern dystopian reality for the 25-million people who call Greater Jakarta home.

No Land Left to Play narrows the field further to show how Jakarta’s residents hardly have any free spaces left for play and recreation. So, they either get resourceful or grin and bear it.

A trash collector among the urban jungle; a contrast that is both surreal and terribly disturbing in the most dystopian way. Buli is just one of countless invisible people eeking out the most rudimentary of livings in the world’s second largest megalopolis. He collects trash to recycle, and as we talked the look of exhaustion and sadness in his eyes was overwhelming. As with so many Indonesians, he was genuinely polite and gave his best smile at my silly jokes. But there was an exhaustion from living on the street I understood far too well.
A small group of women and girls congregate at Sunda Kelapa, which has historically been a large and vibrant port for trade, a place where the old sailing ships still dock in the shadow of new apartment high rises. Gathering at the port on the first morning after the holy month to pray is a tradition for local communities, but recent government efforts to “clean up” parts of the city, including the surrounding slums, to make way for huge high-rises have resulted in much lower attendance.

Two men fish while sitting on the remnants of a construction site that was left unfinished after an economic crash in the 1990s. These waters are heavily polluted, but it doesn’t stop men from fishing and young boys from swimming. Ironically only about half of Jakarta’s residents have clean water piped into their homes, while the rest pump ground water contributing to Jakarta becoming the fastest sinking city in the world.
It’s illegal now to have dancing monkeys (topeng monyet) in Jakarta, and the two young men warily allowed me to photograph them while their monkey performed.. One covered his face with a cloth as he pounded a tiny gamelan and the handler kept his hat well below his eyes in an attempt to conceal his identity. The monkey on the other hand was none too joyed with his role in this traveling street circus led by yanks from a chain tied to his neck. Riding a tricycle, a horse and finishing the set on a small prayer rug while it’s handler chanted “God is great,” (Allahu Akbar) the exposed primate was not the least pleased. The boys collected a pittance of small change in their hat from bystanders while working the small side streets (gang) of Kota in the waning hours of day. The boys finished a set in only a few minutes and vanished down back alleys before I could follow them on my bicycle.

Armed only with a Ricoh GRII and a powerful off-camera strobe, Estey prowled the concrete jungle that is Jakarta to capture a variety of scenes that prove his case. By simplifying his gear this way, he is able to move seamlessly among his subjects, augment reality through the off-camera strobe, and craft an emotional resonance within found moments. While we’ve seen this technique at work in a number of Bruce Gilden-inspired street photos, Estey has proved that it also works even in the classic street and travel photography,

Good old MONAS (the national monument) is always a treasure trove for photos on long holiday weekends. Sadly for the residents of Jakarta it’s the only major public park in the world’s second largest megalopolis. Here a young boy attempts to get his kite aloft in a park where visitors are forbidden from playing on the grass and government officials/VIP’s drive their cars about dodging pedestrians despite it being a car-free zone.

The morning of 2018 Idul Fitri saw fewer numbers of faith at Sunda Kelapa, which has historically been a large and vibrant port for trade, a place where the old sailing ships still dock in the shadow of new apartment high-rises.
Gathering at the port on the first morning after the holy month to pray is a tradition for local communities, but recent government efforts to “clean up” parts of the city, including the surrounding slums, to make way for huge high-rises have resulted in much lower attendance.
A little boy lies down while playing in a cemetery. Because of the lack of verdant public space in Greater Jakarta, many children who want to play in the grass and open air have no other options besides cemeteries.
This is Ancol. You have to pay to enter. It’s the closest thing to a beach Jakarta has, but it’s been too long polluted to swim in. Recently they have attempted cleaning it up, but I’d be reluctant to let my kids frolic in the water. A young child bathes her doll in the polluted waters as the sun sets over the city.
The nation’s first president’s youngest daughter recently wrote a poem praising the traditional hair bun (konde) Indonesian women would wear. The conservative Islamic Defenders Front took offense to the poem as un-Islamic and hit the streets to have their voices heard. Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation and was founded on religious pluralism. I happened to be passing by as the demonstrators were going home in front of South East Asia’s largest Mosque Istiqlal and decided to stop. Demonstrators were raising flags and relaxing on curbs while street vendors sold their wares. And of course I was asked to be in countless selfies with the demonstrators who were super friendly to me. The streets of the city are often overrun with protesters as there is no real public space for people to gather and voice concerns.

Visit Josh Estey’s website to see his other projects and follow him on Instagram to stay updated on his work.

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