British Council presents ‘Community Entrepreneurs’, A Portrait Exhibition by Jerry Aurum, 2009

I sincerely express my gratitude to British Council (BC) for this exhibition: a portrait assignment for a sole exhibition with total freedom of interpretations and executions. Sweet!

When I competed in 2006 and 2007 in IYCEY (Indonesia Young Creative Entrepreneur of The Year, held by BC), I had so much fun (although I was only a finalist and a runner-up, never won :). Gathering and spending time with such talented people will always give you something to bring home. I never thought that I would have to shoot these people for my own exhibition though. I have to say, it was even much more fun, and challenging.

First of all, these young fellows were always busy. Secondly, I only had less than a week. Thirdly, I was sleepy all the time as I had just finished a long, tiring commercial project for a property giant in Jakarta. But as I mentioned it earlier, the deal was too sweet to resist. So I was rockin’ and rolling with my instant concepts (which I did in less than 5 minutes for each portrait) and photo shoots (which I did in less than 30 minutes for each).

Community entrepreneurship is considered as an important movement in creative industry. What we do should also make the people, the environment and the mentality surrounding us better. We should give back while making money. The idea is very simple. In my own words: Take yourself to the next level, and bring along your community. These people showed us how.

Now let me tell you how I was doing it. I didn’t take it too seriously. I relaxed my brain muscle. I let my shoulder down. I always prepared to have fun. I communicated well with the people and was always curious and wanted to know more about who they are, what they do, and most importantly, the reasons why they do it. Portrait assignments is very much very human. And, most importantly, I used my five senses to the most. I smelled and well memorized the odor of the slum area (where I shot Mita), I paid a lot of details to wall colors (when I shot Ridwan, Gustaff and Fiki), I sat and closed my eyes listening to big ideas of Irfan. I watched the way their lips moving, I touched and felt their products. Everything, I mean, every single thing, can be an opening guide to a fresh, suprising idea.

I can never tell which part I liked the best: the shooting, or the talking. Discussing things with bright, inspiring people could only bring me to inspiring photographs, which I needed, especially if you can only stay awake with lots of coffee. Lucky me that my solid team has always been there for me. I thanked them and honored their hardwork.

The photographs: