(English Translation)
Time continues to renew itself. That is how the law of nature works the young replaces the older ones, the living succeeded the dying.
So no wonder the regenerative principle also applied to the world of photography. Currently the young talents of photographers continue to grow and are preparing to succeed their senior's place. The concrete example could be found in Ali Akbar's persona. He represents the successive regeneration principle. They are the representations of the creative and first-rate young photographers who are ready to step ahead.
At firs photography was not really the activity, which connects Ali Akbar with advertising industry. "Before I was an art director and have worked in the advertising circle for 6 years," he stated. During his tenure as art director, Ali has received various awards ranging from Citra Pariwara, Adoi Advertising Awards and London International Advertising Awards. The long years of art directing have brought Ali to a deep longing for different atmosphere. Thus in the year 2005 Ali decide to quit his job and moved to Singapore to work as a photographer and creative freelancer. After one year adventuring abroad, Ali came up with the decision to return to Indonesia and founded his own studio, "Between the year of 2007 and 2008 I set up Ali Akbar studio and focused myself in making commercial photography" said Ali.
His focus on commercial photography is motivated by his background experience, "Since the start, I have fallen for advertising, the knowledge and experience in commercial industry that I have makes it even more a realistic choice for me," Ali explained. Nonetheless, Ali also admitted that the career shift from art director to photographer involves some new challenges. "Whereas in the past I was more in charge in the concept development, now I have to push this concept even further towards an executable level in terms of photography," he said. The challenges also grow as a commercial photographer must take in different elements to measure one's level of success. " We have to satisfy different interest, not only the client's but also our target audience's. If the ads does nor received expected responds, then our work is deemed as a failure" Ali explained.
Another thing that motivates Ali to focus on commercial projects is the network that he has maintained throughout his career. Thus he does not require a lengthy adaptation. "Because I already have enough links and long-time relations, I don't have any difficulties in looking for clients, I just have to run the maintenance," said the photographer whose work was awarded by Citra Pariwara. Much less with his experience abroad such as in Malaysia and Singapore, automatically some of his clients are not exclusively Indonesian.
Despite of his background in the ads agency, in fact Ali recently Honourable Mention from American Photo magazine for editorial category instead of printed ads photography. The work visualized graphic designers duo, Irwan Ahmett and Tita Salina with objects that inspired them. "So the approach is closer to portrait," Ali said shortly. In respond to the award give away, Ali saw it as a benchmark. "This way we can measure our own position. The interesting thing is to learn how others judge our personal style" said the photographer whose work was displayed at the National Gallery and in a billboard located at Pondok Indah area, during Jakarta Biennale XIII.
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