Every toy tells a story. This is what this innovative photographer is out to prove. He’s Radiansyah Sukmana, who goes by the name @agamdadam on Instagram, and he takes toys and makes them come alive!
What Sukmana does is quite unique. He takes miniature superheroes or other figures, places them in situations based on a theme and photographs them. This scene creation is what sets him apart from others and makes him much more appealing to people. He has termed this unique scene creation as “Toygraphy”.
The 33-year-old Sukmana, an Indonesian based in Jakarta Raya, Indonesia, took the initiative to establish a community for toy photographers in 2012 that he termed as ToygraphyID. When initially established, it attracted only 12 toy photographers from his country.
Today, this platform has over 17,000 members spread across various cities of the country. Says he, “There are many from all over Indonesia who’ve joined the community. They’re from Batam, Jogja, Malang, Medan, Surabaya and many other cities of Indonesia.” According to him, members are of two types, those with a photography base and those who are simply toy collectors.
Members of Toygraphy meet every two months and participate in various activities and events, such as Comic-Con, Toys Fair, etc. They also participate in Kaskus community associations. Here, the members photograph their favorite toys and compete among themselves.
According to Sukmana, turning his motto – ‘making toys come alive’ – into reality is not as easy as it sounds. It requires a lot of practice to achieve that perfect shot. It involves photography techniques, such as determining poses of each character in the scene, taking angle images and editing them to make them ‘come alive’. It’s far different from normal photography.
Sukmana enjoys a following of over 49,000 fans on Instagram alone and his presence is all over the internet.
Radiansyah Sukmana
Instagram | Youtube