Recent work - Destinasian magazine Dec/Jan edition

Last October I was in Turkey shooting the cover feature for Destinasian magazine. The photos have recently been published in the Dec/jan edition.

Bhutan day # 1 - Thimpu

Out location hunting in Thimpu. Start shooting on my 4x5" tomorrow.

Turkey - outtake

Swimmers at Kaputas beach.

Jakarta at night

For a couple of months now I've been mentoring 3 indonesian high school kids who are shooting photographs for a book on Jakarta. Its been quite a challenge at times, but also inspiring and a reminder to me of when I first picked up a camera. They each have their own interests + approaches, all very different. Last meeting we were talking about going out and shooting some night shots - I was quite surprised this morning when I received in my dropbox a series of photographs of prostitutes. The following 3 images are my favourites - all shot by Nicholas Hilman

Fave Photo books # 1 - Seydou Keita

I love this book - published in 1997 by Contemporary African Art Collection. Seydou Keita's portraits are a remarkable record of Mali society between 1948 and 1977. Mostly shot on a 13x18 large format camera.

Istanbul

After shooting a travel feature on Turkeys med + aegean coast for Destinasian magazine, I enjoyed a couple of days in Istanbul shooting stock.

Recent work - Afisha Mir magazine

The October edition of Russian travel magazine Afisha Mir has a 12- page feature on Macau illustrated with my images. Afisha Mir is a great looking mag - well designed with a strong emphasis on photography.

Now represented by Current Studio

I have recently joined Current Studio. Very happy to be included in their roster of great photographers! Included are 3 folios of my work - travel & tourism, home & garden and architecture.

Recent work - SKYE for Ismaya Group

Last month I was commissioned by Ismaya Group to shoot SKYE - Jakarta's hippest new restaurant + bar. This 56th floor establishment was designed by Willis Kusuma Architects.

Recent work - food shots for KuDeTa

Last May I returned to KuDeTa in Bali for another session of food shots. The chefs at KuDeTa - Phil Davenport, Ben Cross, Kieran Morland and Will Goldfarb - are super talented and a real pleasure to work with. Their beautiful presentations of food made for some great images. Each dish was shot in a simple graphic style - using a diffuser and reflectors.

Jakarta photo tours

 

Last friday I lead my 1st photo tour in jakarta. The tour was centred around Kota and Glodok in the North of the city. We started out at Fatahillah square shooting street performers and then moved on to chinatown. There was a full moon festival at the Kim Tek Le temple which made for some wonderful photo oppurtunities. It was difficult to drag ourselves away from this beautiful event, but we wanted to take in the late afternoon light at Sunda Kelapa and then shoot some night scenes back at Fatahillah. 

I'm available for one on one mentoring or to lead small groups of up to 5 photographers any day of the week - depending on my photography schedule. Beginners or advanced photographers welcome. We can customise a tour to suit level and subject matter. 

For more info please e mail me at martin@martinwestlake.com or call +62 87883561961

Citra's wedding - start of portrait series

The wife's neice Citra got married yesterday. A great opportunity for some portraits. I had planned on a studio set up and to shoot all in B+W. But on arrival at location there was no space so I opted to shoot against the pink wall of the house. It's interesting to see the new trend for hijab attire in the women wedding guests - something that I will be concentrating more on documenting in the coming months.

Eastward chosen for PDN Photo Annual 2012

I was really excited to see that my book Eastward was chosen in the photobooks category of the PDN Photo Annual 2012. This is particularly satisfying for me as this was fully produced here in Jakarta by R&W publishing. With design by Hermawan Tanzil and his brilliant team at Le BoYe and printing by Indonesia printer. Check out the online winners gallery

Start of new 4x5" project

After 3 months non-stop photography + travels I'm now back home, editing/processing + retouching. Its been a fun time : shooting motion at the dharmawangsa hotel in Jakarta, editorial for Monocle in yogyakarta + Afar in Bali. Some commercial work for the new Keraton at the Plaza in Jakarta, and KuDeTa in Bali. A manic 12 day architecture + interiors shoot for Wallpaper/Phaidon Jakarta city guide. A wedding and pre-wedding in Margaret river in western australia and a climb of Mount Kerinci (3805m) in west sumatra. I have dusted down my 4 x 5" and getting ready to start a personal project here in Jakarta. so nice to be working with this camera + colour neg film again!!! By July I should be able to start posting some images from this project.

Recent work - Telegraph magazine

Last september I headed off to Lampung in Sumatra to shoot a story for the Telegraph magazine. The piece focused on a cooperative of prawn farmers who unselfishly give a percentage of their income to support the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary. The farmers are also part of the Lampung Green Project which aims to replant 200,000 mangrove trees along the Lampung coast by 2015. This project is the brainchild of the remarkable Rosida Idriss an Indonesian woman based in the UK. The feature, written by Rose Prince, appeared in last weekends edition of the Telegraph magazine.

Recent work - Destinasian Feb/March edition

Last December I was in Bali shooting for Destinasian. This set out as a cover shoot with a 'blue sky'  brief. Sadly the whole day was cloudy + scattered showers and the model could'nt return for a re-shoot the next day. Hair and make up by anja buerck. Model - Agnieszka Stachowiak.

Muslim veil portrait series

Inspired by a chapter on the muslim veil in anthropoligist Andrew Beatty's excellent book " A Shadow Falls in the Heart of java " I have started a portrait series on young Indonesian women wearing the veil. I'm in the early stages of this personal project. I have shot tests using film on my 4x5" and Hasselblad. I also shot some with my Canon 5DMKII. Having reveiewed all I'm most taken by the images shot on the hasselblad. The aim is to shoot more over the coming months from different parts of Indonesia, with a view to exhibiting - and perhaps a book.

Eastward in Prestige Magazine

Some more great coverage of Eastward in the january edition of Prestige Indonesia.