This book is about true stories of young entrepreneurs in Indonesia: how they started, what inspired them and where they are now. Written by a famous educator, motivator, Prof. Dr. Rhenald Kasali, you can get the copy at any bookstores now.

When a friend of mine called and congratulated me, I was pretty clueless. I didn’t know that Rhenald included my story (page 126). No complain though. I feel honored.

Some of Rhenald’s mantra as his conclusions on my entrepreneurship:
- Give the very best of your quality. Never think that people buy your image or brand.
- Limit our products. Quality products are not mass products.
- Be consistent on pricing. Your price shows your quality.
- Be exclusive.
- Give credence. It’s the symbol of trust.
- Always stay ahead. Your credibility is your challenge.

Piyu

From hundreds of media coverage of  ‘In My Room’ exhibition/book, I only wrote one article by myself, published by Rolling Stones in Dec 2009. Here it is:

Mengapa kamar? Mengapa portraiture? Bagaimana bisa masuk ke kamar lebih dari 100 orang tokoh di Indonesia?

Semuanya berawal dari keinginan saya untuk keluar dari comfort zone saya dua tahun lalu. Sejak awal saya jatuh cinta pada dunia kreatif, saya percaya bahwa insan kreatif manapun hanya bisa menjadi besar dan matang bila ia tidak berhenti menantang diri dan kemampuannya dengan selalu mencari tantangan dan pelajaran baru di luar bidang yang telah ia kuasai. Ibaratnya, jangan takut untuk menjadi anak TK lagi.

Setelah buku saya yang pertama, Femalography, yang notabene sangat konseptual, menampilkan tehnik terbaik yang saya punyai, penuh dengan detail dan kematangan ide, saya merasa sudah saatnya keluar dari lingkup yang telah dijalani selama 5 tahun pembuatan bukunya. Muncullah di benak saya untuk membuat pameran yang tidak berkonsep (it’s all about capturing, not creating), tidak memakai teknis fotografi yang canggih, tidak melibatkan survei lokasi dan juga tidak ada diskusi terlebih dahulu dengan subjek fotonya. Saya pikir, pasti seru! Saya pikirkan lagi selama 3 menit lebih lama, dan lahirlah ide untuk membuat portraiture dari 100 tokoh Indonesia, di kamarnya yang paling pribadi. Pasti ini akan menarik untuk saya, untuk para tokoh itu sendiri dan juga untuk yang melihat hasilnya kelak.

Tantangan terbesar ada dari segi penjadwalan, karena semuanya sama-sama sibuk. Tetapi rata-rata semua tokoh yang dihubungi mau difoto, dan terlihat excited, karena mereka juga belum pernah mengalami pemotretan seperti ini sebelumnya. Saya pikir, dalam retrospeksi saya, ide yang baik akan membuahkan respon yang baik. Saya pikir orang-orang ini rela difoto di kamarnya masing-masing karena mereka menaruh respek kepada ide itu sendiri, dan cukup penasaran juga untuk melihat hasilnya, yang akhirnya baru mereka bisa lihat pertama kalinya pada saat pameran dan peluncuran bukunya di Senayan City pada tanggal 23 Oktober yang lalu.

Ini benar-benar petualangan. Banyak kejadian seru dan lucu terikut di dalamnya. Pada saat saya masuk ke kamar Ringgo, saya melihat kamar yang benar-benar kosong melompong. Apalagi yang bisa difoto kalo bukan Ringgo sendiri, saya pikir. Dan tentu saja, harus gokil. Begitu juga dengan foto Denada. Wanita cantik ini, yang menurut saya dari dulu selain memiliki suara dahsyat tetapi juga gokil dan rock n rollin’, dengan santainya datang dengan konsep untuk berpose didalam sehelai sprei. Mengapa tidak?

Pada akhirnya, hal terpenting dalam petualangan ini tidak lain tidak bukan adalah penangkapan karakter. Karakter yang tergali akan menarik untuk dilihat, dinikmati, bahkan dicermati. Sebagai fotografer, itu artinya pencapaian, prestasi dan tentu saja, kepuasan batin.

Andra Matin

Daniel Mananta

Joko Anwar

Julie Estelle

Martha Tilaar

Nirina Zubir

Rachel Maryam

Wimar Witoelar

Ringgo Agus Rahman

Shelomita

Wulan Guritno

I decided to wait for 3 days before sharing my story about the opening of In My Room to you, just to calm myself down a bit. But what the heck, WE ROCKED THE NIGHT!! WOOHOOO!!

Over 100 public figures have been photographed. Over 100 media came to the press conference, which was held 2 hours before the opening, at the same venue. Over 500 guests enjoyed the opening. Over 5000 people visiting it in its first weekend.

Am I happy? Yes. Am I satisfied? Yes. But allow me to share you what’s actually important for me.

An exhibition, with its successful opening, big media coverage or its following flashy events, is just an exhibition. It is a celebration that we have to enjoy and being grateful about. But once the curtain is closed, what will remain is nothing but the work itself and how it has touched its audience’s hearts. In other words, it’s about how we, as artists, make a little change in this crazy world through what we can do best: making arts. No matter how small it contributes, it may generate changes.

I see IN MY ROOM from two perspectives: how it affects me and how (I hope) it inspires people.

The main reason of doing this project is nothing but to get out of my comfort zone. We should keep evolving. I’ve done different exhibitions: fashion, landscape, human interests, graphic. Femalography, my first book, was about females in their unique beauties. It was all about creating. It was conceptual, technically proper and very much well prepared. It was a comfort zone for me. That’s why I decided to make photo shoots that are not being discussed, not conceptual either and technically unprepared with minimum equipment, in a genre that I’ve never exhibited before: portraiture. It’s about capturing, not creating. In short, I just trapped myself in a situation that forced me to explore the other side of my abilities in photography.

I never took a long time to shoot In My Room. I mainly spent less than 20 minutes to complete each shooting. All were spontaneous. Almost all were fun too. And just to add some spices, all the public figures had not seen their portraits until the exhibition.

I spent 2 years in completing it. It was exhausting, but damn worth it.

Now, let’s talk about how, I hope, the exhibition may inspire people. I believe that an exhibition has to be entertaining. It has to be able to grab people’s attention, without sacrificing its real purposes, as attention generates appreciation. Who knows, it might brighten somebody’s day and make him/her a better person for that day. Or at least, make them smile for 10 minutes. And for other young fellow photographers, hey, if we want to make it happen, the universe will conspire to help us!

P.S. Some friends asked me, how did I manage to have these great people open their bedroom doors for me? I told them, I was just lucky.

To see more photos of the opening, just click here. Enjoy!