Born in 1954 to an Indonesian diplomat father and a Turkish mother, Indonesian photographer and writer Rio Helmi has been capturing images  of Asia and writing since 1978. His work can be seen in magazines, documentaries and more than 20 large format photographic books. Solo exhibitions of Rio’s still photography have been held in Bali, Jakarta, Madrid, Miyazaki, Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Sydney, and his works are held in private collections around the world including in London, Rome, Boston, Washington and Tokyo.

In the past Rio focused on the interaction between indigenous peoples and their environment, and as a result has traveled extensively across the Indonesian archipelago and further afield across Asia including Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Japan, Ladakh and Mongolia, photographing both remote tribal people and modern urban life.

From 1979 to 1983, Rio worked as a photographer/writer and associate editor in the Indonesian media (Bali Post, Mutiara, Sinar Harapan, Tempo). Since 1983, Rio has freelanced for many regional and international magazines (Asiaweek, Geo, Harper’s Bazaar, New York Times, New York magazine, Tempo [Indonesia], Time, Vanity Fair, Vogue). He has published several large format photo books – among others ‘River of Gems, a Borneo Journal’ (text by Lorne Blair), and ‘Bali Style’.

Rio has been based in Bali for more than four decades, and speaks five languages fluently.
He writes in Indonesian and English, and has blogged about a wide range of topics  for the Huffington Post and the website ubudnowandthen.com dedicated to his place of residence, Ubud. He has also moderated panel sessions and conducted public interviews at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival which is now an annual event of international repute.

His book Memories of the sacred, retrospective portfolio of Bali of over 35 of documentation years with text by Diana Darling, was launched early October 2010 by Afterhours publishing in Jakarta

Rio Helmi Photography

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