Frans Gunterus, QPSA
February 2025 - A Movie Poster: Beliem Festival
Original
Original 2
About the Image(s)
Indonesian Ministry of Tourism as well as local photo group tours are busy started promoting ‘Baliem Festival ??“ 2025’. The festival will be held on 07th ??“ 09th August 2025. I make this movie poster for my local photo group exhibitions last month. I have used some of my images as in Original 1 for my previous DDG 34 - September 2024. What I have not showed is my Original 2. Men wearing koteka, a penis gourd made of dried pumpkin. Women dancing wearing grass skirt with no bra. These are their traditional outfits only during festival. When the festival finished. Man and woman would come back home with their normal clothes like most of us.
8 comments posted
Another Indonesian themed image, very well created. The two men either side are huge compared to the ladies, and I wonder if they might be slightly too tall? I love the overall colouring that you have given the poster. Posted: 02/03/2025 09:43:45
Hi Mike. Thanks for your comments. The two men are actually in the same height with the dancing women. I purposely make a bit taller to make them more obvious. Posted: 02/16/2025 03:40:27
Wow! This is a gorgeous composition! The sharpness of the images makes each individual jump out at the viewer, and your selection of which subject goes where in the final composition is perfect - I also love the ominous clouds in the background to accentuate the warrior theme. The saturation of the top warrior's headdress contrasts so well against his dark skin - and I like the way you make the image jump by extending the bow/arrow, the spear, and the top feather of the headdress outside the pale gold bounding frame.
Posted: 02/04/2025 17:48:49
Posted: 02/04/2025 17:48:49
Hi Peter. Thanks Peter. Your comments means a lot to me! Your comments remind me what I learned from Jon Fishback. My coach from PSA for Image Analysis class. He said ... Kind words regarding a photograph may seem condescending if they have no substance ... Unfortunately, most of my local photographers are not trained to make these kind of comments. They would just say awesome, wow, beautiful, thumbs up etc ... Posted: 02/16/2025 03:53:23
The lighting and drama that you managed to bring out of the simple snapshots is amazing. Your composition is great. I agree that the two men are pretty large compared to the rest of the group, but they also serve the purpose of interacting with the frame around the upper group of warriors to tie everything together. The sky you used is perfect for the scene and mood. You certainly have a knack for presenting cultural events in beautiful ways. Posted: 02/11/2025 00:37:00
Hi Jan. I love to see your comments ... I agree that the two men are pretty large ... the purpose ... to tie everything together. You can see my sole purpose as I mentioned in my response to Peter Katz. Thanks for leadership to our group 34. Posted: 02/16/2025 03:58:17
WOW, and the hits keep on coming! So well put together. Tried the "penis gourd" thing, and my wife was not impressed - her hilarious laughter killed the mood. Sorry, I don't mean to belittle a sacred local culture. Posted: 02/14/2025 17:40:56
Hi Gunter. Don't worry. Not many Indonesians have seen this indigenous Papua traditional costume (koteka). Even my wife was wondering how this gourd firmly attached to the man penis. The secret was it has rubber band tight to his scrotum. During the festival viewers were laughing out loud. One of the male dancer broke his koteka rubber band. He was so shy and keep covering his groin during the dance. :) Posted: 02/16/2025 04:22:18