Individual Art of the Day Grace Osborne-Neukirch

“sleeping beauty” - Achmad Munasit

About the Author  Achmad Munasit, more commonly known as “Asit” on the web  traveling photography which is said to be more like fashion photography  lives in Indonesia  barely any information on the internet about him, seems to be a very private person  most of his work features people from the surrounding areas

Central Claim Anatole France, a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature once stated that: “Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened.” I believe that this quote highlights the central claim of my chosen photograph, in that you can only be truly free once you have learned to place trust in an animal and that the “unawakened” part of your soul has a lot to do with your dreams. Also, I think that the photographer wanted to express the opinion that we need to place more respect in the bond that can form between an animal and their human counterpart.

Setting  a river in in Jakarta, Indonesia (around 2010)  some Indonesian families in more rural areas consider their water buffalo to be a status symbol of their family, a job for younger members of the family is often to spent their day watching over the family animal  the fact the boy chose take a short nap on a buffalo in the middle of a river tells us that he trusts this animal to carry him across safely  on the river that the subjects are in: in the fist picture the water height is unclear, but in the extra shot we can see that the river is not very deep, this tells us that he probably didn’t mounted his steed out of necessity, but rather because he wanted to “chill out” with his friend

Character  the two main characters in this image are the boy and the water buffalo  the boy is napping on the head and shoulders of the buffalo as he swims across the river, he looks relaxed and has his eyes closed, and a loose grip on one of the animal’s horns, similar to the hold one would have on the collar of a trusted dog  this symbolizes that relationship between a bovine animal and house pet is very similar, and that therefore, the love between a boy and a buffalo, and the love between a boy and a dog is equal  the buffalo, on the other hand, seems to be looking determinedly ahead towards the shore  the animal also has slightly flared nostrils, which tell us that he/she is working hard to working hard to carry the boy through the current, across the river  illustrates that all animals make an effort to take care of owners, this particular species of buffalo has been reported to form protective circles around their owners when confronted by local carnivores relaxed hand flared nostrils

Angle  this particular image was most likely taken from the bank of the river were the action is happening, so we see the side profile of the buffalo and the face of the boy as well as a second water buffalo that is mostly hidden  there is a lack of a fancy angle or “twist” to the image, unlike many of Asit’s other photos  this tells us that Asit sees this as a simple situation, and that the trust between these two is not something we should consider unusual or strange; just another emotional bond to be valued accordingly  to prove that the water buffalo is truly carrying the boy across the river, the photographer angled the shot to include movement ripples near the haunches

Light  this image is clearly split into two sections: light and dark  the darker section lies behind the water buffalo, an area that is slowly sliding out of focus as the animal carries the boy across the river  the lighter section lies directly ahead of the boy’s steed, the image is very in focus and detailed in this section  the darkness of the sector to the right symbolizes that there could be trouble that the buffalo is fleeing from  if we shift the emphasis to the boy’s actions, the darkness could express that the boy is moving from the “dark” reality while awake, towards the “light” innocence of dreams while asleep and that the trust he places in his buffalo friend is a figurative vessel to make that innocence possible light dark

Thanks for Watching!!