“Topeng Mask Maker”
Location: Java, Indonesia
Date: July 2024
Photographer: Richard Smith
Affiliation: Alumni
Home Country: United States
Category: People
Award: Third Place
2024 International Photography Exhibition
“The photo was taken in the Mojolaban Artisans Village on Java, and the artisan was creating masks typically used in the Javanese dance of Topeng, which I was fortunate enough to see the previous day. Topeng has the main characteristic that the dancers use masks to retell ancient stories from the ancestors and is closely related to ancestral spirits, which are considered to be interpretations of gods.”