Oscar Motulloh does not share the frustration of certain photographers who worry about what their role is in society, what their photographs should express, or whether their work should be acknowledged as a piece of ART. Motulloh just follows the flow of his instincts and the visions of his third eye that allows him to 'see' beyond realities seen by his natural eye. Bringing together the professional photographer, the artist and the philosopher in him, the imagery evoked by his third eye, blends well with his depth of thought and the wide scale of his knowledge.

Motulloh has had a penchant for cemeteries ever since he was a boy, and the question of life and death has been a personal obsession throughout his career as a photo journalist, but it was his shots at Père Lachaise and Montparnasse graveyards in Paris that called the attention of Circle Point (CP) Artspace in Washington D.C., who subsequently launched his works as works of art.

The Art of Dying, as his solo exhibition was titled, contemplates Life as it is lived on its path towards its ultimate destination. As Motulloh's eye fell on the names of the graves, mostly international celebrities such as Jean Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Chopin, Edith Piaf, and more, questions on their merit in the face of history and truth flashed with the push on the trigger of his simple, no-fancy, manually operated camera.

Taking his contemplation even further, Motulloh pictures the 'Gates of Hell', an unfinished work by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Wondering which of the heroes whose graves are honored by the world would ultimately be accorded a place in heaven, and which would ultimately enter the gates of hell, Motulloh re-imagines Rodin's imaginative sculpture, evoking the scrutiny of our own lives.

To spontaneously pull the trigger of his camera and bring out the gist of an instantaneously emerging vision is a notable ability and one that has marked Motulloh's works with a quality that stirs the senses and provokes intense questioning.

Starting off as a journalist who made his own pictures to support his field reports, Motulloh became a photojournalist whose imagination was often triggered by the thought of what other realities might be behind images unfolding before the natural eyes.

Oscar Motulloh heads the Antara Jurnalistic Photo Gallery and is a lecturer at the Department of Film and Photography at the Jakarta Institute of Art.

Carla Bianpoen

Born on August 17, 1959 in Surabaya.
Self-taught artist.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1999 "Carnaval", Lontar Gallery, Jakarta and Padi Gallery, Bandung.
2002-2003 "The Art of Dying", CP Art Space, Washington DC, USA and Bentara Budaya Cultural Centre, Jakarta; "Chansons Peripehriques", Gallery of CCF, Jakarta and Bentara Budaya Cultural Centre, Yogyakarta.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2002 "The End" with Eky Tandyo, 9 Gallery, Yogyakarta.

back to top