Project 2: Image AnalysisBy Samiaji Bintang

THE following images are a depiction of some mental ill patients in Jakarta. My colleague, Rony Zakaria, a local freelance photojournalist, took the images a couple of months ago sponsored by Mochtar Lubis Fellowship program. This photo essay won a national photojournalism competition held by TEMPO, a national magazine. The photographs is supplied by courtesy of the photojournalist.

The photographs, all of them were in gloomy color, focused on the mental ill patients’ treatment in a local mental health center which looked like an asylum. Most of them are suffering severe mental disorder, such as schizophrenia, severe delusion and hallucination, and the like.

Image 1

Analysis: This shot focuses on detail of an arm skin of a mental ill patient. Besides his age and careless treatment, the scaly skin descibres that the patient suffers a sort of terrible skin infection for long time. Apart of the arm, a young man on the left image is looking curiously at the photojournalist camera. For me, the young patient's glance points out a direction for my eyes to maintain the image focus; the scaly skin.

The image focus is a good aperture of this photo essay as it reveals a story of misery. Without showing the face, the crossing arm that leans to the wall stirs up emotion. It’s a good point of entry.

The quality of color, dominated by gloomy colors, reflects misery; it could be poor service and substandard living condition of the patients in the mental health center which looked more like an asylum than a nursing home.

Image 2

Analysis:This image has a good point of entry, the half-naked man’s eyes. The background emphasizes the sense of asylum where the mental ill patients live. When my eyes turn to the left and right frame, the objects describe the state of mind of mental ill patients. It shows they were living in their own world of mind regardless of circumstances or even their roommates.

Although the photographer could took the naked man image on the left side, it seems that he has another angle to shot which gives wide and depth perspective of the isolation cell and the patient’s living condition. Meanwhile, the proper quality of light makes the object looked not very vulgar, yet it still gives broad picture of mental ill patients’ life.

This picture describes an image of the severe mental ill patients who were living in their silence and isolation.

Image 3

Analysis:The image depicts a cell packed with patients gesturing on something beyond iron bar. In this image, my eyes stuck on a face which emerges from the waving hands. The image shows that it seems as if the patients are contesting something really worth, things that makes them survive. And for them, I guess, the only worth things are food and cigarettes.

As the photographer took the image from a vantage point, it has depth perspective. From this perspective, I imagine as if the patients were waving their hands while they were saying, “Give me food!” “Give me cigarette!”

On the other hand, the image shows a good viewpoint which gives a sense of place and moment. It also emphasizes the way patients live in the packed cell of a nursing home that looks like a horrific asylum.

Image 4

Analysis:A photograph on the center is obviously contrasted with the others. The photographer uses a certain technical shot to intensify the contrast level and image focus. As a result, this approach creates a particular meaning to the image. A bold cross mark on the upper-right of the photo gives a point of entry to the graphical image. The table of photograph depicts a list of the asylum occupant.

Due to its loss of memory, most of the patients are unable to remember their own name, family or relatives. The name under their face is usually their nickname. It is not always their real name. Meanwhile, the bold mark signifies that the man in the photo has no longer lived in the asylum or has passed away.

This image relates to the following image. Most of the patients are stigmatized by society and are neglected by their own community. Almost nobody wants to know or even care when they passed away.

Image 5

Analysis:This image shows a funeral procession of a mental ill patient. According to the photographer, most of the patients are buried with an anonymous wooden tombstone. The corpses are only identified by number and named with “Mr or Mrs X”. The funeral is located several kilos from the mental health center.

The image technically fits the rule of third with the tombstone on the left side. On the other hand, the perspective gives a sense of place; the funeral area with a score of similar tombstone.

The wooden tombstone, which serves as point of entry, can be considered as community’s neglect of those who suffered mental disorder. As my point of view moves from left to right, the object provokes my empathy. It reflects a silence of life since the lonely grave digger at the background emphasizes the message of the image; the patients are living in silence and neglected till the death.

This photograph looks like a conclusion of the photo essay. It shows a final destination of the patient’s journey; an anonymous grave.