photography

As we all might already know, sometimes we forget about the red marks in Indonesian calendar or about the historical days when we have this great distance from our homeland. Nevertheless we can be reminded through our internet connection. For example, I had just realized about the Kartini day from my friend’s status in Facebook. At that moment I decided to wear Kebaya as Javanese traditional clothes and asked one of my housemate, Oxana to take some pictures of me around Florence-Italy.

“Being lost” was my first point of call to lifted “foreign girl in the middle of foreign country” as a theme, emerged a gloomy ambiance as picture concept. Moreover she also wanted to express the depression feeling. As she said: a chance to stop hiding some feeling under the armour of games, and sadness is just a chance to make a stop, to put off all the masks, to stay one-on-one with yourself as you are. It is also gave a sense to describe women emancipation nowadays. Ever since Kartini, even the previous heroine such as Cut Nyak Dien or Cut Meuthia was struggled for what they believe across custom mold, until woman have their freedom. Even though, sometimes woman get lost in this modern world.

Honestly, this photo session was a simple idea to occurring simple conclusions; that mostly no one knows about Kebaya or other Indonesian traditional clothes and also rarely to found Indonesian tourist around Florence (or maybe no one) in that day or even in another days. No wonder a lot of people came to me try to speak Japanese or even Thai language. As the fact points out, we can not 100% blaming our neighbors if there are a lot of people think our cultures as their cultures.

Admittedly, Kartini day is not only the arena to wearing Kebaya. However it was the idea to celebrate Kartini day by wearing Kebaya as my traditional cloth, and it would be nice if the other people from other part of Indonesia’s region wearing their own traditional clothes as well, as the form to shows the richness of diversity in our culture. Truth to be told, as a country with more than ten thousand islands, Indonesia is just like a small continent because it has many different languages, letters, histories, cultures, etc. that still can be seen as in today.

Well, let us back to Kartini. Who is Kartini actually? Kartini is known as a pioneer in the area of women’s rights for native Indonesian. Kartini was born into an aristocratic Javanese family in a time when Java was still part of the Dutch colony, the Dutch East Indies. Kartini’s father, Raden Mas Sosroningrat, became Regency Chief of Jepara, and her mother was Raden Mas’ first wife, but not the most important one. At this time, polygamy was a common practice among the nobility. But as the wedding approached, Kartini’s attitude towards Javanese traditional customs began to change. She became more tolerant. She began to feel that her marriage would bring good fortune for her ambition to develop a school for native women. In her letters, Kartini mentioned that not only did her esteemed husband support her desire to develop the woodcarving industry in Jepara and the school for native women, but she also mentioned that she was going to write a book. Sadly, this ambition was unrealized as a result of her premature death in 1904 at the age of 25.

Kartini’s concerns were not just in the area of the emancipation of women, but also the problems of her society. Kartini saw that the struggle for women to obtain their freedom, autonomy and legal equality was just part of a wider movement. Not only she was a feminist who elevated the status of women in Indonesia, she was also a nationalist figure, with new ideas who struggled on behalf of her people, including in the national struggle for independence. Even though to appease her ailing father she against her own wishes. She married to Raden Adipati Joyodiningrat, the Regency Chief of Rembang, who already had three wives. And then the theory ran like this: women emancipation aimed to break the traditional mold, but the fact we have to be carefully, safe, and yet attractive as modern women. We have to be smart to know where we are standing, and not exceedingly to follow every trend.

There was a sense in my opinion woman is like diamond. Diamond is the hardest and the rarest natural material known. Diamond has remarkable optical characteristics. Because of its extremely rigid lattice, it can be contaminated by very few types of impurities, such as boron and nitrogen. Combined with wide transparency, this results in the clear, colorless appearance of most natural diamonds. Small amounts of defects or impurities (about one per million of lattice atoms) color diamond blue (boron), yellow (nitrogen), brown (lattice defects), green, purple, pink, orange or red. If we cut and grind it in right way, diamond will shine and looks precious. And if it perfectly cut, the shine and the design will give enormous impression. But the shine will be vanished without trace if we only save it in safe box and then no one will appreciate it anymore. Because shine of diamond not only in surface, but also in every cut inside.

A fact that reflects in women, like diamond, we are seemed fragile but we are the strongest creature. We have a lot of colors that always coloring our world. We will look wonderful, yet gorgeous if we explore our inner beauty. Then, if inner beauty is about rarity, so don’t make rarity in women rarer than ever. So, keep looking and explore your own characteristic and always be yourself. And as in my photo concept; slumped and lost only a nature leap to better step.

Happy Kartini day to every Indonesian woman!

Photographer: Oxana Egorova
Photo editor: Clefy
Model: Clefy
Fashion design: traditional Javanese