THE BANDA JOURNAL
Text by Fatris MF; photos by Muhammad Fadli; design by Jordan Marzuki and Laras Koesoemo Published by Jordan Jordan Edition, Jakarta, 2021
I get an inexplicable rush from imagining the people whose footsteps I might be serendipitously retracing on historic grounds, or whose hands might have once touched the storied artifact before my eyes. Compressing five centuries of human strife and perseverance into 225 pages, The Banda Journal elicits that same feeling. Through attentively captured images and evocative English and Indonesian prose that blends first-person encounters with historical research, photographer Muhammad Fadli and writer Fatris MF transport readers to the Indonesian archipelago of Banda—a place “that changed the world”—vividly portraying its current inhabitants and its ghosts.
“Indonesia cannot be understood solely through … bustling markets, and cities that bloom and sprawl across the landscape. Indonesia is also full of desolate places … that sometimes paint the image of
