Surabaya Beat ― A Fairy Tale of Ships, Trade and Travels in Indonesia

From 2012 to 2014, Swiss photographer and seaman Beat Presser traveled the vast Indonesia archipelago by boat, amassing an extensive collection of photographs that capture the complexity and beauty of life on the country’s tens of thousands of islands and the surrounding ocean waters.

Surabaya Beat draws on Presser’s photographs to reconstruct his travels. Through high winds and heavy storms, he sails as part of the crew aboard traditional Indonesian pinisi, carrying fresh fruit bound for the port cities and the world-famous floating markets while learning from the local seamen about the country through its transport and trade. Along the way, he encounters fellow travelers, from tourists to oil exporters, and even officers of the Coast Guard who lend him a motorcycle and later invite him to join them for a dive. Presser’s masterful black-and-white photography lends a timeless tone to these and many other encounters in this popular travel destination that remains nevertheless a source of mystery to most outside Southeast Asia. Alongside more than one hundred photographs and his own writings, Presser has assembled short stories and poems by some of Indonesia’s most promising writers.

Photographic opportunities abound in Indonesia, and Surabaya Beat represents Presser’s personal photographic vision that will entrance fans of photography and anyone looking to learn more about this incredible, vibrant country.

Beat Presser is a Berlin-based photographer and cinematographer who worked as the stills photographer on several films by the filmmaker Werner Herzog.