• TERNATE: After a long day working in the harbor loading and unloading goods to and from other islands, young men cool off in the evening under a full moon. Twinkling in the distance (under the diver) on the nearby island of Halmahera, the glass facade of a newly constructed mansion—purportedly owned by the governor—reflects the last rays of the sun. June 2010::photo by S. Chris Brown
  • KUPANG: A policeman in Kupang, coming off his shift, takes a pit stop for gas from a roadside vendor. He’s a regular customer here, and gets treated to the extra-speedy two-handed pour. Throughout Indonesia, there has been a crackdown on once-ubiquitous (though illegal) roadside stands selling gasoline out of glass bottles, but they’re still going strong in many areas. May 2010::photo by S. Chris Brown
  • TERNATE: A purveyor of children’s balloons at the central bus terminal. The mylar balloons come from China via a contact in Jakarta; he manufactures the gas by mixing caustic soda, water, and a daily harvest of aluminum shavings from the newspaper’s printing plates. The product (evidently mostly hydrogen) is lighter than air, but, lamentably, also highly flammable. June 2010::photo by S. Chris Brown
  • PONTIANAK: Setting up tarp-lines for the night market, a vendor stands above the Kapuas river. The river rises and ebbs with the tide, providing a shipping lifeline out of the swampland the city is built on. But it also divides the community into downtown and outlying areas. Even though the last ferry departs before 9pm, while the night market is still going strong, cheap motorbikes have made it possible for young people from the far side of the river to stay downtown longer, returning by a long detour over bridges. May 2010::photo by S. Chris Brown
  • KUPANG: A puppy tries to get just a little bit more attention from neighborhood kids. Susah jadi orang…. August 2009::photo by S. Chris Brown
  • PONTIANAK: At the night bazaar, a local shoe–sole peddler endures some more work on his tattoo. Tattoos, once an indelible sign of criminality which could get people executed by extra-judicial enforcers, are enjoying a revival in Indonesia. For those who want to play it safe, a nearby vendor offers temporary tattoos concocted from a proprietary mix of natural and chemical ingredients. May 2010::photo by S. Chris Brown
  • KUPANG: In a kampung specially subsidized for poor families, kids interrupt their evening bath to peer out at their parents chatting with a stranger. Performing routines of self-governance and displaying domestic order in these neighborhoods becomes a way to assert independence from outside assistance, albeit while also conforming to some of the demands of those same outside authorities. August 2009::photo by S. Chris Brown
  • PONTIANAK: The city is build on top of a swamp, with houses on stilts or piles; sometimes when a big truck passes by, you can almost see the asphalt ripple like a wave under its tires (and you can definitely feel the hollow reverberations). In some neighborhoods the only dry land is the cemetery, which therefore doubles as a playground. May 2010::photo by S. Chris Brown
  • TERNATE: A street-side gold and jewelry seller waits for business in Ternate. She competes with siblings and cousins on both sides of her stall. Cellphones have become ubiquitous in the last few years; with multiple functions ranging from fm radio reception and facebook browser to camera and videogame console, they often serve extra duty as babysitting aids. June 2010::photo by S. Chris Brown
  • PONTIANAK: At the night market, touts flaunt their well-rehearsed talent at a “fishing” game. Using a fishing pole, players try to lower a ring onto a bottle neck without knocking off a needle placed across the top of the cap. If you succeed, you win one of the cellphones displayed. Cynics point out that they are just used phones, tarted up with new body casings. But there is no lack of hopefuls motivated to try. May 2010::photo by S. Chris Brown
  • KUPANG: In the fading light of a Kupang evening, downtown youth hold a game of street football amidst rush-hour traffic—six or seven vehicles every half hour. It’s a prominent display of neighborhood ownership both in reaction to, and made possible by, a city-sponsored night market which cuts off the street two blocks up and reduces through traffic here. August 2009::photo by S. Chris Brown
  • KUPANG: Local kids cool off on one of Kupang’s beaches. They are much more enthusiastic about this sort of bathing than the obligatory scrubbing. The beaches themselves, once a broad swath comprising natural playing fields, have rapidly eroded over the last few decades as sand is mined for use in construction. What’s left is mostly the old dead coral bones of former shores. May 2010::photo by S. Chris Brown