The Photography of Hengki Koentjoro

Introduction

(…)

“Hengki spent the first seven years of his life in the coastal city of Padang in West Sumatra where his father was stationed in the army and where both parents also had a drugstore. Electricity was scarce and unreliable commodity during these years so his memories of childhood are full of the dim shadow-play of oil lamps and candles – a fact that he believes contributes directly for his affection to images with rich, low-key chiaroscuro.

(…)

In short, Hengki was an exquisite eye. He seems able to work with startling eloquence and abstraction in any context imaginable and still make stellar images. I have never in all my years in the world of Black and White photography seen such grace of tone and line and rich composition. I’ve plagued the man with questions to build this little biography but OI think that I knew from the outset that I would only find pieces of the answers I would love to have. Better than nothing. I still have to admit that I do not know how this small, modest man manages to do what he does so extraordinarily well. One can of course suggest that he is a natural. He is of course. But I am also date to suggest that that he is a genius. He is of course. Under water, by the sea, amongst the mangroves, in the jungle, in the mountains and even in one of the largest cities in the world, Hengki is a relentless poet with a camera. I admire both the man and his work profoundly.”

Jack Sturges

Seattle 2016