“A photograph has picked up a fact of life, and that fact will live forever.”, Raghu Rai (born 1942, Indian photographer and photojournalist).

After being “disconnected” for quite sometime, I just recently found myself steered back into the realm of (fine) art exhibitions; co-managing BLIPfest (Bali Photography Festival) 2010, with friends Rio Helmi, Soma Helmi, Robin Malau, Arief “Ayip” Budiman, and Rudolf Dethu. It’s truly an interesting group; with our diverse backgrounds, managing any event with these personalities would be a challenging cruise.

I recall the initial spark that  jump started BLIPfest  was an unexpected call from Rio. As the phone rang, I paused, and momentarily watched Rio’s contact number blipping on and off screen – reassuring “Yes, its me – pick up, pick up – I won’t  bite.” I was a tad excited, not knowing what to expect. I answered “What’s up!”, and the baritone tessitura on the other side replied “It’s about time I give back to Indonesian photography, lets do an event – a celebration with an attitude – bringing together domestic and foreign photographers, plus editors, art critics, cultural observers, industry stakeholders, as well as the public and art lovers alike,  to help put Indonesia in its rightful place as a domain of diverse and outstanding creativity.”

A hush was in the air, Rio soon continued. “Round up the boys, visit me in Ubud soon.”

FastForward >>>  On our way to Ubud, I recalled Ansel Adams stating don’t look far as “Life is your art”, comprehend it  “An open, aware heart is your camera”, embrace it all, “A oneness with your world is your film” and cherish it forever so true “Your bright eyes and easy smile is your museum.” We all soon agreed that the event in making; not only embodies a sincere desire to celebrate the creativity of photography, but it should also represent a warm-hearted, open-minded attitude to allow oneself to be embraced by the art form and as Rio wholeheartedly sums “to be captured by the moment”.

BLIPfest embodies an aesthetic orientation where a vision yields an expression of impetuous passion – creativity based on a sensible touch of originality, a fair degree of personal mastery and an inclination for avant-gardism. I do believe our summit event curators; Darwis Triadi, Firman Ichsan, Oscar Motuloh, Rio Helmi and Tara Sosrowardoyo would easily justify the Vision, Passion, and Expression theme.

At this early date we have already had enthusiastic response and sincere interest in participation from several international photographers including San Francisco of Fine Arts lecturer Linda Connors, VII agency photographers John Stanmeyer and James Nachtwey, as well as Magnum’s Raghu Rai. Surely, the summit event next year (end of September 2010) is worth the wait.

Furthermore, this year we have lined up some pre-events on the way, including workshops and exhibitions. Actually, we have started the campaign early on, participating in Pecha Kucha Night #2  and Forum Grafika Design (FGD) Expo, Jakarta – a teaser for the event and website launch – where Rio, Soma, and Ayip blipped the rousing public visiting our booth. “Blip” refers to the framing of moment; a symbol of warm and intimate perspective – an easy to practice gesture of visual expression. It encloses a luminous image – the moment worth capturing – of an object on a visual display.

Everywhere we go, we ask people to blip and get blipped. During the FGD Expo alone, I think we’ve managed to blip hundreds of people (by the way, guys and gals, all of you were blippin’ awesome!). Don’t fret, for those yet to blip themselves; pose your support, capture your blippin’ poise and send it, so we can upload it at our site and Fan Page on FaceBook.

As September comes to a close, the team is blippin’ with joy, anticipating our first pre-event exhibition “Imagemakers of the Future”, presented in conjunction with Alila Ubud. The opening date is Saturday, 10th of October 2009, so make sure to blip and be there! I mean, (I’m not suppose to say – but what the blip!) I can tell that the images being curated by Rio and friends are one blip of a selection. Most of the images are from emerging young Indonesian photographers who are in the first years of their careers. It’s truly a mixed bag, encompassing different areas of interest, yet a group with outstanding levels of  personal mastery and embodiment to the art form. We do concur with our curators that they represent the future of the already rich field of Indonesian photography. Stay tuned, I’ll keep you posted on this.

Honestly, I do believe BLIPfest would levitate and accentuate our awareness, acceptance, and connection to photography as a window to see the universality of our ever-changing universe. For me the fusion of photographic technology and the wonders of photography as medium of expressions is more than what meets the eye, it is 0 (no), 1 (yes) and 0.5 (perhaps) all together. It is a fact of life that will live forever,  revealing implied or explicit (multidimensional) significances of our nature as beings.

LOOK AROUND AND  BLIP YOURSELF …