Surabaya Beat

Indonesia, a country spread over some 17,500 islands large and small; home of the world’s largest fleet of ships and boats; with 252m people the fourth-largest country in the world in terms of inhabitants. A vast, manifold, surprising world on its own, of which very little is known outside the South-east Asian region.

Beat Presser, Swiss-born photographer, travelled the Indonesian archipelago in 2012 and 2014. He went from place to place, from island to island, from adventure to adventure on all sorts of maritime vessels. He took photographs and notes and talked to the local people. He taught them the English language and discussed the topic of football with them. He encountered fellow travellers from China, and Australian oil explorers, and went diving with coast guard officers.

From a wealth of experiences and memoirs of his journeys around this vast, astonishing country, Beat Presser has made this unique book that brings together his striking photographs and personal writings with short stories and poems by local authors.