The living mountain: Interview with JAKOB VAN VLIET
As underlined by the Amsterdam based photographer, Jakob van Vliet (b. 1982, The Netherlands): first comes the idea, then follows the feeling and last the photograph – followed by a narrative of some kind. In an interview with GUP, he talks about his experience of photographing an immense trash mountain in Indonesia and the harsh local working conditions.
How did you find yourself photographing this remarkable manmade landscape? What fascinated you mostly?
I was commissioned by a company that specialises in plastic recycling, to document Bantar Gebang as part of their effort to make changes in the way trash is being handled in Indonesia.
What fascinated me was the size of the landfill, which is something I could never explain or capture with my camera.
“It's so big that it exceeds our imagination.”
Where exactly is the garbage mountain located and whose rubbish lands there?
The mountain is located at Bantar Gebang - south west of Jakarta, Indonesia. The landfill is exclusively fed by the city of Jakarta. There is no foreign trash being imported there.
What are some of the reasons for people to work there?
There are two different groups of people working at the landfill. One group are the ‘scavengers’ that live there for generations and due to great poverty, don’t have the possibility to leave. The others are seasonal workers from the nearby rice fields, doing the job in order to generate some extra income.
How did the pickers react to your camera?
The majority was friendly and wanted me to take a photo of them. Sometimes I heard ‘Mister Mister’, coming from far away. They wanted me to come closer, catching my attention with the little English they spoke. There were only a couple of moments, where I didn’t feel safe. Back then, I could immediately feel that the situation wasn’t right, so I was just leaving.
Most of the people working there, spend hours surrounded by toxic waste. What was your bodily reaction to that environment? How long did you spend there?
When you stand close to the place where the black water runs out of the mountain and where the trash settles, it burns your eyes and sometimes even the lungs. The conditions of working there, were harsh. For the first couple of weeks - under great heat, unprepared and surrounded by an overwhelming smell - it was one step forward and two steps back. For me it was a true testimony of perseverance. I stayed there a little over four weeks, sleeping at a house located just next to the landfill.
What are you trying to achieve by showing these images to a predominantly Western audience?
I want to show how lucky and blessed we actually are! I remember, two days after coming back, I saw a couple arguing over a type of bread, that was missing from the supermarket. That encounter made me mad and sad at the same time. I started crying and walked straight out of the Albert Heijn.
“We might not notice our fortune, because of little things that bother us on an everyday basis.”
