FirstLook: Mobile Library, Java

FirstLook May/June 2019 PDF
- Photographed by Putu Sayoga
Categories
- Creatives

In 2015 Ridwan Sururi of Serang Village, central Java, Indonesia, started the Kudapustaka (Horse library), and since then, three days a week, he has visited villages and schools like Miftahul Huda Islamic Elementary School. On this day he was joined by his two-year-old son, Tria Ramadhan. Together they handed out donated books to the students. As a photographer I did this story because I was also born in a village with difficult access to books. I believe in the power of books, and I know what Mr. Sururi is doing is important.
—Putu Sayoga
www.putusayoga.net
www.arkaproject.com
@putu_sayoga @arkaproject

Green Mosques Generate Positive Energy

Written and photographed by Matthew Teller

From Jordan and Morocco to Indonesia, the uk and more, communities and governments are supporting eco mosques. The goals: education and thrift. “We want to lead by example,” says the manager of Masjid Az-Zikra in Indonesia.

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Disease Detectives of Lebanon

Written by Larry Luxner
Photographs courtesy of Human Link

Dropping into bat caves to examine and swab their inhabitants is a day’s work for the epidemiologists at the Beirut-based biomedical research lab Human Link, whose sleuthing in 2012 helped fight mers. Now they are on the case to help the world find a vaccine to prevent covid-19.

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Mappila Rhythms, Monsoon Connections

Written and photographed by Rolf Killius

It was mainly the pepper in Kerala, at the southwest tip of India, that lured early traders to ride seasonal monsoon winds across the Arabian Sea. With the mariners came music that mixed with Keralan sounds to become the complex, percussion-driven traditions of today’s Mappila culture.

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Tashkent’s Underground Masterpieces

Written by Piney Kesting
Photographed by Stephen Lioy

In Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, the subway system offers more than practical travel. Called Toshkent Metropoliteni, or the Metro for short, it also transports passengers on a symbolic journey through Uzbek history. Each of its 29 stations was designed by an individual artist, and together they honor a pantheon of cultural heroes—writers, composers, scientists and more—as well as historic resources such as cotton and almonds. As breathtaking as they are informative, each metro station is a chapter in a story told in tileworks, murals and mosaics amid elegantly thematic lighting and architecture.

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Mohammed Khoja's History and Harmony

Written by Kate Hazell
Photographs courtesy of Hindamme

Designer Mohamed Khoja named his latest collection Al Ula after the city in Saudi Arabia that last year hosted the Desert X festival and 2,000 years ago hosted the Nabateans, whose iconic monuments now serve as his inspirational motifs.

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Creatives
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The World’s First Oils

Written and photographed by Ken Chitwood

Pressed, extracted or distilled from any of hundreds of plants, pure “essential” oils are not just a rising multibillion-dollar global industry: They are among the world’s oldest organic wellness products, now available almost everywhere.

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Now
History
Science & Nature

Brickwork in the Land of Palms

Written and photographed by Jeff Koehler

Along the northern edge of the Sahara, in the part of Tunisia called Bled el-Djerid—Land of the Palms—the regular pruning of vast date-palm orchards literally fuels a centuries-old brickmaking industry, and local bricklayers have taken the kiln-fired masonry to heights of artistry. Throughout the city of Tozeur and the nearby town of Nefta, bricks set in patterns decorate facades, windows, doors and arches with motifs from desert life, textiles and other traditions. The results not only dance with the changing angles of the sun, but also create just enough shade to help cool the buildings behind them.

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Prince of Enchantment: The 'Ud

Written by Kay Hardy Campbell

Often regarded as the forerunner and name- sake of the European lute, the ‘ud (oud), is among the world’s oldest continuously played string instruments. In Arab and other musical traditions, its deeply resonant, emotionally evocative tones earned it, over the centuries, the sobriquet amir al-tararb.

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Creatives
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Culture

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