Raras Sutanto
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Raras Sutanto, documentary and portrait photographer, Jakarta

Every frame read before one is chosen

Scroll and the contact sheet above is read frame by frame: the loupe stops on one, the red pencil rings it. Choosing is half of this work, and the half nobody shows you.

Ask about datesSee the work
Every raw file handed overArchival printsJakarta and around

Raras Sutanto

Documentary and portrait photographer

Tebet, South JakartaTaking assignments for March to June 2026
Ask about dates

Eleven years, counted

11 years years photographing
260 families and organisations
24 frames to a roll, four chosen
3 working days until files arrive

Contact sheet, eight chosen this year

A portrait in a living room
A living room at four in the afternoon. 85 mm, f/1.8
A back yard after rain
The back yard after rain. 35 mm, f/4
A dining table under one lamp
A dining table under one lamp. 50 mm, f/2
A portrait beside a window
Beside a north window, morning. 85 mm, f/2
A beach before sunrise
A beach forty minutes before sunrise. 24 mm, f/8
Tools on a work table
A work table and the things used daily. 50 mm, f/4
A portrait in a corridor
A corridor with one light source. 35 mm, f/2
A hill in the afternoon
A hill in the last twenty minutes. 24 mm, f/5.6

Three assignments, written problem first

The Sutrisno family, three generations

Eight people in a small house, a grandmother who tires after twenty minutes, and a small child who will not sit still. Time, not light, was the constraint.

A session for eight people, split into three blocks of twenty minutes in one afternoon. Forty frames delivered, six printed large.

Family portrait2025

Annual report, Ngawi farmers cooperative

Eight hundred members across six villages, and a budget that covered two days in the field.

Two days, six villages, 1,100 frames. Ninety used in the report, all of them handed over.

Documentary2024

Ibu Warsini's kitchen archive

A warung closing after forty one years. The owner wanted her kitchen recorded before it was demolished, not prettied up.

One full day, 180 frames, and one archival album now in her daughter's house.

Personal archive2023

How the working day was cut on each assignment

What I do myself

Shooting

Family portraitsDocumentaryEventsArchives of objects and rooms

Equipment

Two camera bodies24355085 mm lensesOne flashReflector and diffuser

Post production

Choosing with the clientColour gradingArchival printingRaw file handover

Languages

IndonesianJavaneseEnglish

Eleven years

  1. 2018 to now

    Freelance photographer

    Independent, Jakarta

    Family portraits, documentary work for organisations, and personal archives. About twenty four assignments a year.

  2. 2016 to 2018

    Contract photographer

    Rumah dan Kota magazine

    Photographing houses, workshops, and markets across sixteen issues. The habit of writing frame captions started here.

  3. 2014 to 2016

    Photographer's assistant

    Studio Empat Lima

    Setting lights, keeping the contact sheets, and learning that choosing takes longer than shooting.

Ask about dates

Tell me what the occasion is, when, and where. I reply with availability and a fee, with no meeting needed first.

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Raras Sutanto

Documentary and portrait photographer in Jakarta. Twenty four frames to a roll, four chosen, and every frame handed over.

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Tebet, South Jakarta

Replies 09.00 to 18.00, Monday to Saturday

Raras Sutanto. Photographing since 2014.