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Running through Indonesia, The Citarum River plays an important role in the lives of those who live along its banks. Almost five million reside in the river’s basin and its waters support locals through agriculture, fishing, cooking, and bathing. It’s also one of the most polluted rivers in the world.
Recently, Greenpeace decided to bring attention to toxic state of the Citarum. To do so, they enlisted the help of social documentary photographer, Andri Tambunan. Greenpeace’s director of photography had become familiar with Andri’s work after judging and awarding Andri the Reminders Project Asian Photographers Grant. Andri strives to document social issues that tell layered stories. He prides himself on investing a great deal of time and effort into his photo essays. This allows him to capture “rare moments of intimacy, vulnerability and sincerity”. It was this passion and talent that made Andri the perfect photographer to take on the Citarum.
Andri received the assignment just 48 hours before he needed to ship out. With so little time to prepare, he threw himself into research and planning. Greenpeace asked for photographs that would connect the audience to those impacted by the river’s pollution. He would be spending his time documenting families who live along the river, as well as the illegal dumping of toxic waste and the culprits behind it.
They wanted me to convey the importance of the Citarum River to the families and communities that depend on it for their daily needs and livelihoods.
Once at the river, Andri spent a week with several local families. He documented their daily activities and took their portraits.
Fortunately, Greenpeace had already established a great rapport with the families in those communities. Many were hospitable and showed us around. We didn’t encounter any hostility while on assignment. But one of the challenges was photographing the dump sites undetected. The factories could send their enforcers to rough us up, or even worse, threaten to hurt the families that helped us.
Luckily, Andri got away with his photographs undetected. The only mishap being when when he fell off a ladder and bruised his ribs while trying to get a higher vantage point.
Along the way, he met many interesting people. One memorable example is a village elder whose part time job is fishing dead bodies out of the river. The man keeps a macabre logbook and tracks all the recovered bodies. Andri also learned that 80% of the water in Jakarta, the largest city in Southeast Asia, comes from the Citarum River.
Now, when I’m in Indonesia, I only drink bottled water. Boiling the local water will not get rid of the metal trapped inside.
But most importantly, he captured the culprits behind the polluting. This included one of the biggest and most popular clothing companies in the world — GAP Inc.
Andri’s pictures have been used in a Greenpeace campaign that promotes restoring the river. It specifically calls out GAP Inc and has brought attention to the locals’ plight. Companies like Victoria’s Secret, Benneton Group, Zara, Mango, Esprit, and Levi’s have committed to “detoxing” their brands. Greenpeace hopes their campaign will convince current polluting offenders to do the same.
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