As part of Road to JIPFest, a series of pre-events leading up to Jakarta International Photo Festival 2019, the committee collaborates with Jakarta Provincial Government to hold a discussion with photography industry stakeholders. The goal is to collect ideas from practitioners and academics to develop Jakarta’s creative economy through photography.
Held on 26 March 2019 at Jakarta Creative Hub, the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was attended by 50 photographers, collectives, curators and photography entrepreneurs including owners of printing companies and independent photo bookstores. To paint a picture on the different stakeholders involved in Jakarta’s photo industry players, the discussion started with presentations from Mast Irham (EPA Indonesia, 1000 Kata), MG Pringgotono (Serrum, Gudskul) and Aditya Pratama (Unobtainium Photobooks). Their presentations both enlightened the audience and opened up room to raise issues. “How can an independent photo bookstore survive amid domination of online giants like Amazon?” “Why does collaboration matter in the context of creative industry?”
Questions and ideas were written down, and discussed during the three group discussions: education & program; forum, space, organization, collaboration; and business & advocacy. Facilitated by Edy Purnomo (photographer, educator), Ng Swan Ti (photographer, Director of PannaFoto Institute) and Cristian Rahadiansyah (journalist), the discussion participants shared real industry insights from Jakarta’s and Indonesia’s photography scene. There were also interesting ideas to develop the industry on the basis of collaboration.
The FGD concluded with two important notes: photo industry players need government support in terms of space and simpler bureaucracy. A keyword that kept on ringing was ‘collaboration’ – interdisciplinary, cross-professions and collectives, for the sake of the players themselves as well as to contribute to the local income.
