East Java, steaming

There’s something about the fume that creeps out from the mouth of a volcano – so graceful, yet the knowledge of how it is sent dancing up the conduit and escaping the Earth’s surface, is absolutely chilling.

A local horse guide takes a rest from the hectic morning. There are several ways to explore the Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park – by jeep, horse, or if you’re fit, on foot. There are plenty of horse guides like him around. It’s become quite a competitive business.

Local men pace inside the Bromo crater wall, looking for and picking up the occasional notes thrown out by tourists. One slip-footing and they would forever disappear into the centre of the Earth.

Dawn has not broken but he’s done an 8km round trip on foot (or maybe even two) with ~70kg of sulphur on his shoulder, from the mine to the weighing station. Miners carry loads and make such trips about 5 times a day, typically in two shifts – 12 a.m. and 3 a.m., earning ~RM35 (IDR130,000) daily.

Illuminated only with their headlights, the Ijen workers mine blocks of sulphur while having to keep an eye on movements of the sulphuric fumes and molten minerals.

A worker breaking a big block of sulphur into smaller pieces for ease of transporting.

It’s a kilometre hike up from the mine to the opening of the Ijen crater. The beautiful turquoise lake is highly acidic.

A worker returning from Banyuwangi town after unloading the sulphur.

Another miner returning from Banyuwagi. Miners usually pick up a load, put it down after a short distance, and go back to get another one. Put the second one down and go back again for the first. They break up the otherwise tedious 4km journey with a series of short walks.

After a rather long hike to Ijen crater and back; at the weighing station.

Volcanoes have long shaped the landscape and history of Indonesia. And Java, though humble by land area, boasts an impressive 44 active volcanoes. That’s roughly a third of all the active volcanoes there are on the Indonesian archipelago.

People live their lives around these fire zones. Some depend on them to thrive, even – as is the case with Ijen. Workers here still mine sulphur with minimal modern tools or protective gears in exchange for modest amounts of wage.

These images are a record of what I experienced during my visit to two of the volcanoes, Bromo and Ijen.