Fotografer.net’s 9th Anniversary: It’s Unstoppable!

Kristupa (center) was accompanied by some FN members before blowing out the birthday candles. (Photo by Eddy Elvery)

The ninth anniversary of Fotografer.net, the biggest online photography community in Southeast Asia, were simultaneously celebrated in three cities in Indonesia by its members. Attended by more than a hundred people in Batam, Surabaya and Jakarta last night (12/30), the celebration ran modestly but full of fun and comradeship. The members in some other cities, such as Palembang and Ambon, will also celebrate the anniversary.

Fotografer.net or popularly called FN was founded by Valens Riyadi and Kristupa Saragih on December 30, 2002. The membership in this community is always free of charge, and every member is suggested to verify their identity.

In Jakarta, one of the founders, Kristupa Saragih, attended the celebration and invited some members to blow out the birthday candles. In his welcoming speech, he said that nine years ago he and Valens encouraged themselves to establish this online community, and in less than a month FN had 1000 members.

The 9th anniversary celebration in Surabaya. (Photo by Hubert Januar)

According to Kristupa, the number of members increases very fast; on the average there are around 200 new members in 24 hours. In seven years (2002-2009) FN got 250.000 members, and now there are more than 400.000 members and, of course, will continue to increase.

“It is like a snowball that’s rolling and will always roll and become bigger and bigger. It’s unstoppable,” Kristupa said.

In the last night event, some members gave their testimonies how beneficial the FN for them. “I built my carreer firstly through this community,” admitted Kelik Broto, one of the members, in front of the attendees. Another member, Bernardo Halim, shared their photos and experience after joining FN for some years.

The 9th anniversary celebration in Batam. (Photo by M. Sina Sulaeman)

Besides, there was a launching of e-book entitled “FN Street Hunting 2011.” This book is a kind of visual note from an event of street photo hunting on October 30, 2011, which was held simultaneously in tens of cities in Indonesia and abroad, and was attended by more than 2.000 photography enthusiasts. If you are FN member, you can download the e-book for free at http://www.fotografer.net/isi/FNStreet.

Many gifts and doorpizes made the celebration in Jakarta, taking place at Pazia Experience located at the 6^th floor of FX Plaza, become more lively. An auction of birthday T-shirt autographed by Kristupa Saragih made it more interesting since some attendees competed to make their bids. At last the T-shirt fetched Rp 750.000 for its highest bid.