Abstract of the accomplished photographic work
Towards New Landscapes documents the transformative relationship between photography, social media, and tourism in contemporary Indonesia. The project reveals a power shift from state-controlled tourism imagery to a democratized, user-generated visual landscape. Smartphones and social media have enabled the rapid creation and replication of Instagram-able tourist spots, hoping to attract visitors and generate economic activity. This speculative development leads to the construction of both physical spaces and performative identities, as tourists curate their online presence through staged photographs. The project explores the nature of these manufactured realities, questioning the sustainability of this model and highlighting the unmapped consequences of this rapidly evolving tourism landscapes.
Description of the project you intend to pursue through the Prize
My proposed work seeks to investigate the impact of large-scale infrastructure projects and the expanding tourism industry along Java’s southern coastline. These ambitious projects have reshaped the region’s physical terrain while also disrupting cultural narratives deeply rooted in diverse Javanese communities, myths, and ancestral ties. The work would combine observational photography of the shifting coastal landscapes with collaborative engagements with cultural researchers and local communities. Treating the coastline as a landscape in flux, this project would document and reimagine its evolving topography. The framework of speculative landscape is utilized as an approach to depict the complex interplay between past, progress, and its unforeseen consequences. This prize would support me in visiting these altered sites, funding the necessary collaborative works, and exploring the possibilities of reflecting the speculative aspects of the work through the book.