SIDELINES / rio helmi

Normally Sunday is my day off, when i try to rest and contemplate. Old friend Michelle Han showed up as planned for a coffee, but then she showed me an article in the Financial Times, actually an interview with Ashley Bickerton, whose art I love but he seems to have the artist’s curse of not [...]

Back on the job with Jerome, we decide to get some pics of his favorite people for the book. One of them is an old acquaintance of mine, the one and only Bona from Kaya Gaya in Seminyak who still has her little boutique on Drupadi. Her studio is filled with all kinds of knick [...]

Gubernatorial campaigns in Indonesia are always a bit tacky, and lots of shenanigans are part and parcel of the vent. But this time the royal cremation in Ubud is taking a questionable turn, at the very least in terms of taste. I am not going to even speculate as to the spiritual repercussions [...]

Meriem of the Mimpi Bali exhibion posted a comment to my original post about the exhibition, and though it is still there, in all fairness to her and Maurizio, I have decided to post her comments as a post along with my answers:

Dear Meriem,
I would like to answer your comment a bit more in detail, [...]

Things are building up good and proper for next months royal plus mass cremation in Ubud. Two of the older generation princes are being sent off, along with 60 other deceased, and once again by royal decree (so much for the Republic) Jl Suweta is blocked off. Though you can’t drive past my gallery for [...]

So back in Bali to find lots of things to do, my road is again blocked for the big mass cremation next month and so on. I get an invite in my mailbox which intrigues [...]

On the last weekend before shuttling back to Bali, we decide to take a look at an apartment that Monica’s real estate agent is very pumped up about. The building itself isn’t great but the views were! One side you looked out on the river, the other was this:This was of course a day when [...]

There are two places in Bangkok (amongst others really) which i haunt regularly with a camera when I have a bit of free time – one is chinatown and the other is lumphini park. There is always something quirky going on, and if the light is good something usual pops up. Today the light [...]

at the documentary photo festival a week ago I was asked to give a speech about photography. In the light of that, and how inspiring people found Yann’s images last night I thought I would post the speech here. Its a tad long for a post but maybe it might make sense:

THE [...]

I have to be honest, despite the tag line “land of smiles” the immigration people in Thailand don’t hold a candle to the helpful and friendly officials at Fukuoka airport. It doesn’t matter how pleasant you are in saying hello or Saswasdee Kap, they don’t even look at you at Suvarnabhum airport immigration, much less [...]