A Blanket of Dust by Agustinus Wibowo
more pictures: http://agustinus.photo/
As a photojournalist, I have been influential by Agustinus Wibowo. He is an Indonesian travel writer and photographer. He started her journey in 2005 from Beijing to reach South Africa. He travelled across Himalaya, South Afghanistan, Iran, and ex-Soviet Central Asian republics. Then, then was stranded for three years in Afghanistan.
Wibowo published several travel books, including Selimut Debu (A Blanket of Dust, 2010), chronicles his journey in Afghanistan; Garis Batas (Borderlines: A Journey through Central Asia, 2011), which examines issues of borderlines across ex-Soviet republics, including psychological borders and the search for national identity; and Titik Nol (Ground Zero, 2013), as he contemplate their own conflicts and anxieties.
Wibowo’s work, both writing and photography greatly influenced myself especially in understanding that travel story is not only about visiting beautiful places and talking with interesting people, but understanding about other people’s cultures, beliefs, religions, and acknowledging of how different people live, without being judgmental.For instance, Wibowo published a story about women who wear burqas in Pakistan. In many places, women with burqas often experience judgments and stigma. Whereas, just like ordinary people, there is always a reason behind every action.
His work encourages me and has always been the basis of my thinking when I do photography or write stories, it’s our job is to understand someone or something in deeply manner, and write stories beneath the surface.
— Denty Piawai Nastitie —
A journalist of Kompas daily; student of Diploma in Visual Journalism, The Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University
