JPG: Stories: Photo Essay: Masked emotions - the magic of wayang topeng

Masked emotions - the magic of wayang topeng

By Richard Seah

4 Nov 2009

The magic of wayang topeng - a form of dance drama from Central Java, Indonesia, in which the dancers wear masks - begins from the very first moment, before anyone even steps on stage. In the background in the dark, there first appears a figure. Even though she wears a mask, it is clear that she is delicate, refined... And very beautiful.

This is Princess Dewi, the lead character in the story.

I hesitated at first to take her picture, for she was in the dark and bathed in blue light. But I too, like the characters who would later appear in the play, could not resist her beauty. I managed just one shot before she stepped on stage, into the usual, yellow-orange limelight. That one shot has a surreal quality unmatched by any of the subsequent 1,500 shots or so that I would eventually take over the next two nights of five performances.

Princess Dewi reflects on her love for Panji, the man chosen to be her husband. But Panji has given his heart to another woman, even though that woman had been killed because she belonged to a different caste.

As the story unfolds, a group of foreign kings appear. They, too, are struck by her awesome beauty. So struck are they that, even when they meet the Princess' ugly companions, they see only the beautiful Dewi.

Initially the foreign kings compete with each other to try win her heart. Eventually, they come to their senses and cooperate, to propose to her or take her by force if necessary.

The Princess is heart-broken. She feels humiliated, for even though she is a Princess, the man she loves has rejected her love. Meanwhile, this group of foreigners are wooing her and forcing her to become theirs. Her (ugly) companions try to liven her spirits until, eventually, she decides to change herself into a man - a brave and capable king who would conquer many kingdoms.

This is where the play gets choked with emotions, especially when the Princess removes her mask and dons a new, male mask (complete with a moustache!). No hesitations this time. I happily clicked away and captured just about every every single stage of her unmasking and re-masking.

Panji, the man whom the Princess loves, now appears. He is busy conquering other kingdoms when he meets this other 'king' who helps him. Together, they fight and kill their enemies. But even as he fights, Panji feels a strange attraction towards this 'king'. He falls in love.

The 'king' transforms back into the beautiful Princess Dewi. Realising what has happened, Panji bows in confusion and regret while Princess Dewi looks on, using her male personality to express the resentment that she feels in her heart.

The end.

This is not a story that ends with "And they lived happily ever after..." Instead, it ends with a question: "Will their hearts become one?"

Once again, the finale is chokeful of emotions. Click. Click and more clicks...

This is probably the most awesome performance that I have the privilege of watching and photographing ever since I started attending the free concerts at The Esplanade in August 2008. It is also one of my most successful photo outings, with few rejects, a high keep-rate and a fair number of images with the potential to make my 'personal best' list.

The outing, on October 31 and November 1, was also special in a few other ways.

One was that I rented a Nikon 80-400 VR for the shoot. I fell in love with this "poison lens" - for its vibration control, its long reach and, most of all, the quality of its images.

Also making the occasion special, October 31 was organised as a photo outing for our F.U.N. (Finepix Users Network) group comprising Fuji camera users. It was a rare occasion to have five Fuji S5 Pro users shooting together.

We posted our images in the photography forum SgShootwhile a number of Nikon, Canon and Sony photographers posted theirs in another forum, ClubSnap.

When I saw the other images, I thought to myself, "Thank God I bought Fuji."

Oh yes. Thanks to my buddy Larry, I also returned to using Fuji's HyperUtility software to convert my raw files. Despite the slowness and clumsiness of the software, I realised it produces far superior images - move lively, less noisy, more accurate skin tones, etc - compared with Adobe Lightroom, which I had been using for over a year.

Finally, I have more than one year, and tens of thousands of images, of stage photography experience behind me. I learned - and, if I may say so, improved - much during the past year and am very pleased with this set of images.

I hope you like them too.