Angki Purbandono is one of Indonesia’s most prominent artists working with and around the medium of photography. Since the early 2000s, Angki’s works have typically returned to two broad areas of interest: the medium of photography, and its capacity for social commentary. Beyond Versace is a striking example of a contemporary artist’s engagement with the history, genres, and conventions of photography. The subject matter of the photographs in the book – homeless and mentally ill persons in Yogyakarta, captured by the artist over the course of one year of intensive research – recalls and critiques scientific and journalistic photography, while simultaneously drawing attention to the plight of the people depicted, and implicitly critiquing the inadequate care offered to them by the state and community. The style and composition of the images, in which the same person or scene is often depicted both from middle-distance and in close-up, with multiple images showing different perspectives presented alongside each other in a double-page spread, recalls conventions of street photography and advertising. Furthermore, the title, and the use of extremely high-gloss paper and saturated colour digital printing, recalls fashion photography. Lastly, the format of the work, as a large, open editioned book printed and bound to exacting standards of finish, recalls the albums which dominated early photographic practice, as well as more recent high-end fashion magazines. The artist has said: “I feel the Beyond Versace artwork is the initial proof of how I feel in love with digital photography, that in the end I or someone else technically can record / capture a moment, an event in anywhere more easily, quickly and can be more low on the cost.” Angki was trained in analogue photography, and began working with digital photography in 2003. Beyond Versace exemplifies the possibilities of the digital technology, while formally citing older photography conventions and genres which pre-date the digital. The artwork is thus helpful in historicizing the emergence and popular adoption of digital photography by artists in Southeast Asia. The artwork has been exhibited extensively in prominent museums across Southeast Asia, East Asia, and the United States, making it one of Angki Purbandono’s most internationally recognised projects.
