FirstLook: Soaring off Ambon Island
- Arts
- Photography
Reading time:1min
Photo by Hengki Koentjoro
I love the sport of diving, especially in my country Indonesia, the largest archipelago nation in the world—with more than 17,000 islands extending more than 5,100 kilometers from east to west.
This photo was taken off Ambon Island, East Indonesia, in 2010. It is one of my favorites, illustrating the free-spirited nature of the children in the rural archipelago. While some children in the big cities may stay inside and play computer games, the children in Ambon with easy access to the water see the ocean surrounding their village as their playground.
To create the picture, I dove under the water and gestured to some children nearby to get close to me. I did not direct them at all. They acted naturally. I can tell they really enjoyed the moment because they have probably never seen a diver taking photographs while they played under the water.
To me, black-and-white photography evokes strong emotions. It allows you to explore the borderlines of light and shadow, the yin and yang. Celebrating complexity in the minimalist. Diving into the spiritual in the physical. This silhouette conveys to me the very spirit of minimalism and simplicity.
You may also be interested in...
First Look: The Color of Nubia in Aswan
Arts
As a Saudi photographer with a passion for cultural, human and heritage themes around the world, I strive to make my images windows to the past as well as reflections of the present. When I came across this guesthouse on a visit to Aswan, Egypt, I was taken back to 3000 BCE to ancient Nubia.
FirstLook - A blistering triumph for the back-street boys
Arts
Amid the roar of racers zooming toward the finish line in London during the 1980 Grand Prix, longtime auto-racing photographer and renowned artist Michael Turner trained his lens on a Saudia-Williams FW 07.
Joumana El Zein Khoury’s Wider Lens
Arts
Photography “speaks directly to your emotions,” says Joumana El Zein Khoury, executive director of World Press Photo, which holds the world’s leading contest for news and documentary photography. Since she joined in 2021, she has organized six new global partnerships to “be our guides” and diversify the images and themes that earn annual awards for top visual storytelling. And she isn’t a photographer.