After school, many of the children local to the Sunda Kelapa harbour, in North Jakarta, Indonesia, go down to the water to swim and play. Jelly Febrian enjoys shooting the daily activities there whenever the weather is good. Always prepared for the right moment, he carries his phone with him to capture crews loading their boats, people fishing, and boys and girls jumping from the boats, as pictured.
“In the maritime villages near here there aren’t many fields, so the children mostly play around the pier. Every boat that docks here has a different owner and purpose, they load and unload basic necessities, and every week they sail to other Indonesian islands, such as Papua, Sumatra and Sulawesi.
“The owner of the boat in the picture is Daeng from Makassar. His boat travels between Sunda Kelapa and Sulawesi. The children had asked his permission before playing on it, as they always do.”
After asking the children if he could photograph them, Febrian used burst mode on his Xiaomi; later, he selected the best shot and applied minor edits to the brightness, contrast and warmth.
Once the children emerged from the river, he gave them a copy of the photograph to keep. “I shared the file with them, which made them happy.”
• Jelly Febrian is shortlisted in the Sony World Photography Awards 2024. An exhibition of images runs at Somerset House, London, until 6 May
