Rio Helmi

I was born in Switzerland in 1954 to an Indonesian diplomat father and a Turkish mother. I have been photographing in Asia and writing since 1978. My work has been featured in various international magazines (including GEO, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Time), documentaries and books.

From 1978 to 1983, I worked as a photographer/writer and associate editor in the Indonesian media (Bali Post, Mutiara, Sinar Harapan,). After 1983, I freelanced for many regional and international magazines (Asiaweek, Geo, Harper’s Bazaar, New York Times, Tempo, Time, Vanity Fair, Vogue etc).

Writing in Indonesian and English, I blog sporadically about a wide range of topics and have moderated numerous panel sessions and conducted public interviews at the Ubud Writer’s and Reader’s Festival which is now an annual event of international repute.

I have published over 20 large format photo books including "Bali Style" (Times Editions, text Barbara Walker), “Memories of the Sacred” (Afterhours, text by Diana Darling), "River of Gems, a Borneo Journal" (INI, text by Lorne Blair), and In 2019 “Popo Danes: Bali Inspired Architecture for the Tropics” (Rizzoli, text by Diana Darling) originally to be launched at the Architecture Biennale in Venice ...

Primary school in Jakarta, High School in Switzerland

Solo exhibitions in Jakarta, Bali, Sydney, Tokyo, Miyazaki, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Madrid. .