Capturing Change: My Journey in West Sumatra
MATT BRANDON
Travel and Humanitarian Photographer
As I get older, the more I realize how quickly the world is changing. It feels like just yesterday that I moved from Malaysia back to the US. In reality, it has been almost four years.
This past month, I spent time in West Sumatra photographing the Pacu Jawi bull races and Mentawai people in West Sumatra, Indonesia. I also visited my old stomping grounds of Georgetown, Penang, where I lived for 14 years. My biggest takeaway is that nothing stays the same.
“If it were easy, everyone would do it!”
Photographer, Blair Kangley, covered in mud from the Pacu Jawi bull races in West Sumatra, Indonesia.
Six years ago, I first visited the Minangkabau and Mentawai. Back then, reaching some of the clan houses meant trekking through jungle trails in deep mud. Today, many of those same huts have solar power and electricity. Roads are being paved, pushing further and further into the forest. Where it once took days of walking to reach a village, now it can be done in a matter of hours.
Even Penang has transformed in the four years I have been gone. New high rises shoot up along the horizon. Land is being reclaimed from the sea to build communities and condominiums. Temples once blackened with decades of incense smoke are being scrubbed clean, repainted, and polished until they gleam.
It is the same story everywhere. When I first started traveling in India, the only taxis you could ride in were Hindustan Ambassadors, the classic Indian cab. Now you will struggle to find one anywhere outside of Kolkata. In Kashmir, the law that once kept land ownership in local hands changed in 2016. Roads, highways, and development followed.
Old Penang.
Pigeons being fed at the Goddess of Mercy Temple in 2005.
New Penang.
Repainted, restored to look new, the Goddess of Mercy Temple in 2025.
Is all of this bad? Not necessarily. Who does not want electricity or better infrastructure? Change is not inherently good or bad. It simply is. But here is the truth. If you dream of experiencing cultures the way you once saw them in old issues of National Geographic, you need to travel now. In some cases, it might already be too late.
Travel has never been cheaper or easier. That is both a blessing and a curse. You can fly to Mongolia and photograph eagle hunters in just a few clicks, which is extraordinary. But that very accessibility threatens to turn authentic cultural encounters into staged performances for tourists.
The Mentawai people seem very comfortable in front of a camera.
The Mentawai were one considered headhunters. But that tradition is long since passed;
now the only heads they keep are of the animals they kill.
now the only heads they keep are of the animals they kill.
Four Mentawai ‘shamans’ pause in the heart of Indonesia’s jungle, where shafts of morning light cut through the humid air, wrapping their rest in an almost sacred glow.
I have realized there is a direct correlation between the ease of travel and the authenticity of cultural experience. The harder it is to reach a place, the more likely its traditions and way of life remain intact. My recent trip to the Mentawai proves this. A six hour ferry ride, a bone rattling lorry, hours up a flooded river in a dugout canoe, and a final trek through knee deep mud before arriving at a family’s jungle home. The effort was enormous. The reward was a glimpse into a world few outsiders ever see.
This is why I believe we need to take the road less traveled. Do not just go where everyone else is going. Choose the paths that require effort, the ones not yet polished for mass tourism. That is where the richest experiences are found.
Here is the catch, and I admit it openly. By even inviting you to join me, I become part of the change. At first, I almost wrote that this makes me part of the problem. But it is not that simple. Development is not inherently negative. It is movement. It is change. The real question is whether we will be present to witness what remains before it is gone.
That is why I am inviting you to travel with me. I am building new photo journeys every year, always looking for places that are different, unique, and still unspoiled. Do you have somewhere you have always dreamed of experiencing? Drop it in the comments. I would love to hear.
Our Mentawai hostess for the four days we
visited her home.
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Adventure before dementia! It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek, but the spirit is real. Don’t wait. Travel while you can. See the world before it changes even more.
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This family is saving a place for you on our next adventure in Indonesia.
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