Eternal Faces is an immersive photo series centred around Topeng, an Indonesian dance-drama originating in the 12th century where masked, ornately costumed performers enact ancient fabled tales through movement, speech, music and ritual. Each topeng (mask) represents a character—a god, a hero, a demon—each symbolising a unique archetype.
Motivated by his father’s Indonesian roots and heritage, and the questions surrounding that identity, Sumarkho collaborated with local mask makers, performers, and residents of Java to create a vivid portrait of this living tradition. Taking a hybrid approach that blends documentary photography with elements of myth, fiction and interpretation to reimagine a cultural practice, the masked body becomes a site where history, memory and present reality intersect.
Using a hybrid approach, Sumarkho blends documentary with elements of myth, fiction, and interpretation to imagine a cultural practice. Eternal Faces is his invitation to reflect on how tradition can be negotiated, inhabited, and transformed across temporal thresholds.
