Photographer Jim Allen Abel, Co-Founder of Ruang MES 56, Dies at 50

Jim Allen Abel, known as Jimbo, died on January 24 at age 50. The Yogyakarta-based photographer co-founded the art collective Ruang MES 56 in 2002 with Angki Purbandono, Wimo Ambala Bayang, and Rangga Purbaya, focusing on experimental photo-based art. Born in Luwu, Indonesia in 1975, he studied interior design at the Modern School of Design Yogyakarta before pursuing photography at the Indonesia Institute of the Arts Yogyakarta from 1997 to 2005. His practice, described as "criticism through the eye," used photography and video to explore landscapes as unstable terrains shaped by history, human intervention, and natural forces. In 2019, his solo exhibition "Vertikal Horizon" at ArtSociates in Bandung presented landscapes as social events where artificial structures like building facades and factories contest with nature. His work appeared in exhibitions including the fifth Makassar Biennale in 2023, the Chennai Photo Biennale in 2016, and multiple editions of ARTJOG from 2015 to 2018. He was a finalist for the Second Bandung Contemporary Art Awards in 2012.