Freiderich

I am a student currently residing on the eastern harbour of Balmain, Sydney. I was born in West Borneo and grew up in different countries around Asia until the age of 7 when my family finally settled in Sydney, Australia. My family's culture and background is diverse and I feel rather international but I definately call Australia home.

I consider myself as an outgoing, kinda crazy but deep person who loves this life and has got a bit of humour as well. I love getting out there and seeing the world. Sometimes I'm so caught up in nature's beauty that everything around me seems to stand still for a little while. That's probably also the reason why i'm so into photography.

Intensity of passion, the freshness of the outdoors and exploring new sights always sends my energy levels into the stratosphere. I start the day with a smile, enjoying new challenges every day, finding occasions for a good laugh and constantly looking for the positive side of any predicament.

I am creative person, a true lover of the arts both performing, visual and literary. I am also passionate about the human mind and self improvement. I travel whenever I can, and I enjoy emersing myself in different cultures and languages as well as getting lost in unfamiliar cities.

I'm basically an open-minded person, rather international and world traveled. My character is warm, spontaneous, but I can be reflective, down-to-earth and endowed with a childlike sense of wonder and posibility. I'm the kind of easy going person, who likes to spend time with friends and meet new people but also enjoy quiet times alone.

Pictures of life in prewar Java - Nederlands-Indië
Thanks to my grandparents who were 2nd generation colonials in Java before the Japanese occupation, I was brought up with an appreciation and passion for the life and culture of Nederlands-Indië in particular the decades leading up to the removal of the colonial state.

Some of these photographs are taken of colonial holiday hotspots in Java that no longer exist or are no longer recognizeable such as: Buitenzorg, Tjimelati, Sindanglaja, Selabentanah. Also some of these photographs are taken of houses in the Batavian suburb of Mempangweg and in Kenarielaan, a suburb of Semarang which no longer exists today and the City Batavia is now the modern day city Jakarta.

Being born in West Borneo myself and through the years have had the stories of Nederlands-Indië being told to me - made me able to see the dramatic differences in both life/culture of what is now Modern day Indonesia and in a way it makes me nostalgic for what it used to be many decades before I was born.

My passion for gastronomy
My passion for gastronomy hasn’t come through academic channels, it was inherited. My family has always been, through constant travelling, aficionados of world cuisine. Besides dining out frequently, my family has always cooked in order to fulfil their passion for eating well. Another great pleasure of my family is to be able to share, receive friends and cook for them. This brings about reunions, conversation and conviviality – to come by a friend’s house and knock at the door, even if the table hasn’t been set.

Since my early years living in South East Asia, I have lived along with the aromatic smells of spices coming from the stews and curries that my baboe would cook. Before dawn breaks, the sweet smells of hot breads would be coming out of the wood fire oven. It was this daily routine that provided me, since childhood, the intimacy with those surrounds and the sensibility for dealing with gastronomy.

Since I have grown up with world cuisine, I wanted to see if I could use language to conjure up the endless diversity of tastes when I experience eating world cuisine. Food is in a way a non-verbal language, so I went into it as a kind of literary exercise and I became ensnared.

Not so long ago, I remember author Aldous Huxley describing champagne tasting like an apple peeled with a steel knife. That really made me think, because it does evoke that kind of sharp acid taste of champagne.