by Daniel Chai, Sandra Giarta, Kezia Suryaputra & Timothy Worton

Nature's Gold

Artist Statement:

The first glimpse of sunlight at dawn is nature’s reminder of new beginnings. In this photography series, Tim soaks up the warm light, wearing traditional hand-drawn and handdyed Indonesian batik. Through Tim’s styling, we wanted to showcase our roots, our genesis, and the idea that entering new heights does not always mean leaving our origin behind - is a story that we should proudly carry and humbly offer to our surrounding world. This photography series was born during the COVID lockdown of 2021. As creatives, we found it hard to find an outlet during this isolated winter. Usually, we work together to create music videos for Australian artists but, because of the pandemic, our productions and plans went cold. We missed working with each other, so as soon as things reopened, we put together a small passion project sparked by our experiments with colour gels and studio lights.

THe Team:

Creative Director: Kezia Suryaputra Photographer: Daniel Cai Gaffer: Sandra Giarta Model: Timothy Worton

Contributor Bio: Kezia Suryaputra

Kezia is a UTS Media and Arts Production graduate currently working as a producer. She has many big dreams, including being an art director and making a moss garden. You can find her on Instagram @kezsurya

Contributor BIO: Timothy Worton

Tim is a UTS Business and Medical Science graduate. In an alternate timeline where Leonard Cohen and Nicki Minaj have a son — Tim hopes to be said child. When he’s not working as a Solution Engineer, you’ll find him brooding and/or shaking his booty as a songwriter and rapper. You can find him on Instagram @tthetimm

Contributor BIO:

Daniel Cai

Daniel is a VFX artist, cinematographer, and editor. A UTS MAP graduate, he is currently working as a Flame artist on long-form and commercial projects. His free time is dedicated to restoring vintage and anamorphic glass before testing them out on his friends’ passion projects. You can find him on Instagram @danielcai_

Contributor BIO:

Sandra Giarta

Sandra is a recent Media Arts & Production graduate. She spent most of her teen years making fan edits and, because that's the only skill she's developed since then, she's now trying to make a career out of it. You can see how that's going for her on Instagram @sandragiarta