Erik Prasetya's interest in photography has grown since he started taking pictures using a medium-format camera at the age of eight. He considers taking photographs as the extension of his penchant for drawing. He learns photography by himself and in 1988, he decides to become a professional photographer after working in an oil company. Erik is interested in journalistic photography and makes many photographic essays.

Unlike many other journalistic photographers, Erik believes photography is not merely about the aspects of techniques, narration, and 'reportage' - which are generally seen as the important components of a journalistic photography work. His observations of photography include the representational aspect that puts emphasis on the position of the subject (who takes the picture) and the object (of the picture), and its implication on the 'politics' of meanings that takes place when a photograph is displayed to the public.

Erik Prasetya's work that is being displayed in this open biennale is a fragment from his photographic essay that appears in his book, "Jakarta Banal Estetik," which he completed during 2000 – 2003. Generally, the work has been the result of Erik's investigations in the life of the urbanites - or the middle class, to be more specific - that he meets in Jakarta. The investigation is conducted by 'intervening' the daily lives of two women: Connie and Maeda, whom he has known for a while. The two women are good friends, although they come from different economic and social backgrounds. The lifestyle in the plural and complex metropolis has made them seem to be living on the same social stratum. Erik punctiliously presents the various objects and icons (food, home interior, dressing styles, and daily activities) as the representation of the lifestyle and attitude that bring the two women together. In this case, Erik uses the 'banal aesthetics' as a concept to disturb the exotic and voyeuristic tendencies of photography. The city becomes an important theme as it offers banal approaches and forces photographers to reconsider their definitions about subjects and objects.

To observe and analyze the life of the middle-class urbanites in Indonesia using photography, according to Erik, becomes his journey into the historical and ideological aspects of the camera and the photography itself. Erik believes that during the history of photography in Indonesia, the activities to take pictures with the camera have been the culture - or the 'tradition' - of the middle class. However, photography rarely presents this middle-class society as its object. The representations in photography, therefore, have rarely talked about what is actually taking place in the lives of this middle-class society.

In this open biennale, 'Jakarta Banal Estetik' is displayed as two-dimensional installation work, to touch upon the reproducibility and the exaggeration that photography has been doing - mainly via the mass media - backed by myriad of interests and to 'help' disseminating various imagery and representations of the lifestyles and the social strata.

Agung Hujatnikajennong

Born on February 15, 1958 in Padang.
Studied at Bandung Institute of Technology (BA; 1984).

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1998 "Asia City", Photographer's Gallery London, UK; "Plastic (& Other) Waste" with Agus Suwage, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand; "Homage to the Earth", Cemara Gallery, Jakarta.
1999 "World of Voices", Jakarta; "The Praised Demolition", Jakarta.
2000 "From Descend Until Semanggi", Jakarta.

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